RE: The Fascists Are Back in Power
I don't think the USA is fascist yet, for all your faults you guys have relatively strong republican institutions. There's always been a undercurrent of bigotry in America, that becomes more or less overt (and official) depending on the times, but you are not fascist yet.
The connection I see with neoliberalism and fascism is twofold: 1) neoliberalism works constantly to undermine these republican institutions that keep their power in check (thus undermining the same institutions that would keep fascism in check) 2) as people become more and more shafted by neoliberalism they become more and more susceptible to populist demagoguery of the far right variety (they also become susceptible to non-demagogic left populism but neoliberalism will always gamble with fascism than let anything left of center-left come close to power.)
I think you're onto something there... I feel like there's some counter-intuitive moves at work or perhaps neoliberalism was a faulty check on fascism in the first place.
I'm glad you don't think we've descended into the fascist black hole yet, but at what point does that slip definitively occur? If we start shooting immigrants at the border, that's kind of a dead giveaway for the fascist turn, isn't it? I'm not saying it will happen, but Trump's floating the idea and testing how palatable the notion is to his base, and I can tell you, it's quite palatable to them. Depressingly, I don't think they have ethical limits when it comes to human rights abuse.