They are all nouns. The F word can also be used as an adjective. They are all used as invectives. Today all these words are being overused. And misused, says Joe Lauria.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Despite the fact that there are women and children here today; that we are in broad daylight and that half the town of Kingston can probably hear me, there’s something I need to discuss with you today.
I want to talk to you about The F Word, the C Word and the N word.
They are all nouns. The F word can also be used as an adjective. They are all used as invectives.
Today all these words are being overused. And misused.
Contrary what you may have heard from George Carlin you can say them on TV. The F word is being said a lot about Donald Trump. Both as an adjective and a noun. He is even called the N-word sometimes, though I think this word better applies to people in Ukraine and Israel.
As F and N are closely related let’s talk about them together. And then I’ll deal with the C word.
The F-word I’m talking about is Fascism, a 20th Century phenomenon seen principally in Italy, Spain, Germany and then in South America. Does Fascism really describe what we are seeing in the 21st Century?
It has become too easy to call your opponents fascists just because you disagree with them. You really have to qualify it. The essence of fascism can exist in any age though we may need a new term for it since may not look exactly as it did in the last century.
There are exceptions: Ukrainian Neo-Nazis not only take on the paraphernalia of 20th Century fascism, but its violent behavior against an ethnic group. The current Israeli regime’s genocide is a page out of the fascist playbook. Israel’s systematic destruction of the Palestinian people is reminiscent of the N word – Nazis.
But are politicians like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro or Narendra Modi really fascists?
When we hear fascism we think of a police state, wars of conquest, goose-stepping and genocide. In the Anatomy of Fascism, historian Robert Paxton says:
“Fascism can be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
There’s a lot there and I’ll break that down in how it relations to Trump. But first, it’s important to point out that Paxton differentiates between authoritarianism and fascism, saying that under authoritarianism people are forced into giving up their democratic rights. However, under fascism most people voluntarily give them up. Authoritarian leaders repress and subdue the public. Fascist leaders want to excite them with spectacle to feverishly support the program.
Paxton warned:
“Fascist movements varied so conspicuously from one national setting to another, moreover, that some even doubt that the term fascism has any meaning other than as a smear word. The epithet has been so loosely used that practically everyone who either holds or shakes authority has been someone’s fascist.”
It is eery, however, when we compare the Trump phenomenon with Paxton’s definition: “obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood” … Trump has for more than 40 years been complaining about the hegemon being the victim – everybody is “eating America’s lunch.”
Joe Lauria addressing the Peace and Freedom Rally on Saturday. (Gerald Celente YouTube)
Besides this imaginary victimhood, working class Trump supporters have indeed been real victims of bipartisan neoliberal economics. The Democrats have turned their backs on them, even rhetorically – publicly calling them “deplorables” – while Trump conned them into thinking he is their champion.
Fascism has “compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity,” Paxton says. MAGA can plausibly be described as a cult of unity, and while the anti-immigrant drive does not quite reach Hitler’s mania for racial purity, it is disturbing nonetheless, especially when we see ICE acting as a proto-SS.
Paxton says fascism is “a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites…” There’s no doubt many traditional elites, who opposed first-term Trump, have made their peace with him, as long as their interests are served.
The final step in Paxton’s definition is that this mass movement “abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”
Certainly a mythical American “rebirth” is at the heart of Trump’s movement but is it using redemptive violence to internally cleanse and externally expand the nation? There are signs of it.
But I don’t think we are quite there yet, yet it is worrying enough. It is important to point out that authoritarian and even fascistic elements have long been part of America. Paxton names the KKK as a fascist group. This is a nation built on the genocide of internal ethnic cleansing of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans, as well as waves of violence to expand into a world empire.
I would tend to say we are still living in an authoritarian phase under Trump, and not yet fascism, though it seems we may be headed that way. There is still a very sizable opposition to Trump so that most of the population have not voluntarily given up democratic freedoms to follow the leader. [Israel, where 90 percent of the population is behind the genocide more closely approximate’s Paxton’s definition.]
I think a new term to rationally describe what Trump is doing may be needed. But because he is so irrational, rational analysis of Trump at times seems impossible.
Finally, the C word. Everyone is screaming about censorship. Unfortunately censorship is not new in America. As many as 26 people were prosecuted under the Sedition Act of 1798, mostly editors of opposition newspapers critical of President John Adams. That was only six years after the First Amendment was ratified. The Sedition Act was allowed to expire in 1801 under the Jefferson administration.
Woodrow Wilson came within one vote in the US Senate of including official censorship in the 1917 Espionage Act. So he followed it up with the Sedition Act of 1918, which made it a federal offense to use “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government, the Constitution, the American uniform, or the flag.” 2,000 people were prosecuted and 1,000 convicted before the act was repealed in 1920.
So the U.S. has known government censorship. It was revived in a serious way under Joe Biden. The Twitter files showed the FBI and other government agencies were directly involved in having people’s posts removed. That’s government censorship. And there was Biden’s hare-brained scheme for the DHS to run a Disinformation Governance Board.
On inauguration day, Trump issued an executive order barring federal employees from using private proxies to abridge free speech. Elon Musk said he’d restore free speech to Twitter.
But we see that they were only against conservative voices being silenced. Now Trump is silencing liberal and leftist voices. Look at how his people have reacted to critics of Charlie Kirk. Trump wants RICO charges brought against Code Pink for a verbal protest in his presence.
They chanted: “Trump is the Hitler of our time!” Evidently he really doesn’t like being called a fascist. (We should recall that divorce papers against him alleged that he kept a book of Hitler’s speeches on his night stand.)
These are out an out examples of government censorship, either direct or indirect.
But just like the overuse and misuse of “fascism” and “Nazi” “censorship is overused and misused.
When it comes to newspapers I have some direct experience of what it is and what it is not. I was hired and nearly took the job as editor of a privately-owned English language newspaper in Doha, Qatar.
I was told that there was a fire once in a tennis stadium. The whole city knew about it and the newspaper prepared a story with pictures. But the Ministry of Information intervened and the story was pulled. Why? Because at the time Qatar was bidding for the World Cup. A fire in a sports facility may have raised questions.
I was told someone from the ministry showed up every day at the newspaper with a grease pencil to read every galley and strike out anything objectionable to the government.
That’s censorship.
I’ll tell you what is not censorship. And lot’s of people disagree with me on this.
One of the age-old duties of the editor of a publication is to determine what is worthy of being published and what is not.
Every writer has had his work rejected by an editor. The pro shops it elsewhere and then moves on to the next story. He doesn’t take it out personally on the editor.
If an editor is not suppressing a factually true story to protect someone’s interests – his own or someone else’s – that’s not censorship. It’s editorial judgement.
And because you might be a crappy writer or your article is rejected because it lacks supporting evidence does not mean you are being censored even if there has been this recent surge in direct or indirect censorship by the U.S. government under both parties.
Crying censorship might make you feel important, but it doesn’t make it censorship.
So when it comes to the F and the N words there is uncertainty about what to call the Trump regime. One thing is for certain though, whatever you call these times of genocide and government censorship: We are living in an F and an N.
A fucking nightmare.
Thank you very much.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
“Questions, the right ones, have a power all their own.” Patrick Lawrence, 9.19.25. “Cui bono?” “We,” the People.
“Orange you glad,” Lauria & Lawrence rock all the right questions & all the right answers. Doing all the right work. No f/doubt, “we” know this is real, “The F Word, the C Word & the N Word.” AND, No One has ever said it better!!! TY, Joe Lauria. A resolution, Come together. Make it Stop!!!
“We are living in an F and an N. A fucking nightmare.” Joe Lauria. Agreed! Five “Golden” Rings: 1) “Rationally,” describe Trump:” In more words than one 1) Hairdo-Opoly “Hair To Spray.” In other words, 2) under his *“cotton-candy hair sprayed w/piss,” DJ “the Big $hot” Trump rocks an alternate state of consciousness, ie., “I am your voice!” AND, the RNC’s Convention Trumpers blow their Trumpi$t; f/losing it, when DJTrump said, “I alone can fix it!!!” 3) He [DJTrump] is a creature solely concerned with image, or more exactly his image. Nothing else matters.” Michael Wolff @ “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” January 28, 2018. 4) DJTrump is an “egomaniacal, unstable personality.” Ralph Nader. Basically, Trump-Vance, Inc., in the “Driver’s” $eat, is “Unsafe at Any Speed;” AND, 5) “REASON COMES TO AGE.” Gerald “the Best of ” Celente, 9.27.25 @ “A Rally For Sanity.”
In sum, F/Authoritarianism. This is Fascism, “WHEN private power takes over our government, that’s fascism.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd POTUS, 1933-1945. It’s 2025, “Fascism in the, “YES”, 21st Century “lives” large!!!”
…“You really have to qualify it.” Joe Lauria. “Not for nothing; but,” LeoSun, “imo, Done & Dusted! Herein above & here, “It’s Time To Fight Back Against Trump’s Fascist Regime” Ralph Nader/Chris Hedges Report 9.29.25 @ hxxps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TLEmyUJNsDQ&pp=ygUsY2hyaXMgaGVkZ2VzIHJhbHBoIG5hZGVyJ3MgbmV3IGJvb2sgIDkuMjkuMjU%3D
“And, the only sound that’s left, after the ambulances go,” is the sound of Elon Musk’s Chain$aw at full throttle. No Sputtering. No Stalling. Just the rapid explosions inside the cylinder creating a distinct pulsating sound.” It’s Trump-Vance, Inc., @ work, slaughtering plant, animal, human life in a heart beat. As for Elon Musk, “ya know, he was famous, long ago, for playing the electric violin on Desolation Row.” “You have freedom of speech. You don’t have freedom of reach.” Elon Musk
Absophknlutely fascinating is the connection, the foresight, then & now, i.e., “Desolation Row,” Bob Dylan, “Trump’s Hairdo & Color” C.Hedges’ friend. The take-away, “That’s How Every Empire Falls.” John Prine hxxps://m.youtube.com/watchv=l8GgdL2xBYY&list=RDl8GgdL2xBYY&start_radio=1&pp=ygUoam9obiBwcmluZSB0aGF0J3MgaG93IGV2ZXJ5IGVtcGlyZSBmYWxsc6AHAQ%3D%3D
TY, very much, Joe Lauria, Patrick Lawrence, CN. “Keep It Lit.”
Very clever article, Joe. And well said.
This comment would be more appropriately directed to the Peace and Freedom video, but I see that comments there are now closed. So permit me to say something in the “preaching to the choir” vein. While the use of the f-bomb and other like words has become more and more common and acceptable, and probably no problem for the attendees at this rally, if one of our purposes is to win over more people to the cause of truth and sanity, the rather numerous
f-bombs, etc. used by some of the speakers at the rally might very well work against that goal. Think of the conservative, Midwestern mom, who, being so upset with the slaughter of the innocents, decides to watch the video. What do you think the chances are that she might turn it right off after hearing the profanity? And to be clear, this comment in no way pertains to Joe’s perfectly appropriate f-bomb at the end of his article. There’s a time and a place, right?
Just need to add that Roger Waters’ “Sumud” is extradinary!!! Should be the theme song of a “We Are The World, We Are The Children” type of concert that I think is much needed and is very possible with the ever growing numbers of entertainers and celebrities speaking out against the genocide! What do you think, Roger?
I wasn’t expecting such a colorful endings Bravo! Well said, my feelings as exactly and spoken like a true New Yorker.
I expected the C word to be capitalism, because it is as out of favor in America as it has been possibly since the Civil War. Capitalism is recognized by millions of young Americans as the dogma necessitating perpetual war, promoting extreme partisanship, and enabling fraudulent government.
This was about the misuse and overuse of these terms. Capitalism is not misused or overused.
I thought the “c word” was going to be “communist.”
Another over-used term is ‘neo-conservative’ which is often used to describe any warmonger in the US.
I remember John Bolton challenging the description in an interview on Channel 4 News in the UK. He was right because his background is in the Republican Party and that distinguishes him from the likes of, say, Richard Perle or Paul Wolfowitz who started off working for Senator Henry Jackson, a Democrat hawk.
John Bolton, the Cheneys etc. are conservative warmongers.
Neoconservatives have resided in both major US parties but it is in no way an overused term. They have been a real threat no matter what party they come from and they cannot be talked about enough.
I’m a long time admirer of Consortium News. In this instance, however, speaking as someone with an advanced degree in political science, I must take issue with your definition of fascism. At its core, fascism is the replication of a corporate decision making structure within the political system. A corporation is the primary organizational unit of Capitalism. Within a corporation, all decisions relating to its operation are made by a CEO, CFO or Corporate Board. Workers, the vast majority of the members of the corporation, have no say as how the corporation is run. So, we see that inequality is woven into the fabric of a corporation at a fundamental level. It should also be apparent that this system, when applied to a political system, puts it fundamentally at odds with democracy. This also distinguishes it from other types of authoritarianism such as a pre-capitalist monarchy. All the other aspects of fascism; appeals to a glorious past, the ‘othering’ of minorities, militarism. Jingoism and all the rest arise out of the contradictions inherent in ruling for the few in the name of the many. These come to the fore in times of systemic decline. Caleb Maupin puts this rather succinctly when he says that “fascism is capitalism under stress.”
Lots of people think they know what fascism is, and that’s how the term gets misused and overused. The definition given here is not Consortium News’ definition nor Joe Lauria’s definition. It is the definition of historian Robert O. Paxton, who has a lot more than an advanced political science degree. He is arguably the greatest living expert on fascism. By his five stages of fascism, Trump may have fascist views or intentions but America is not a fascist state, at least not yet anyway:
1. Intellectual exploration, where disillusionment with popular democracy manifests itself in discussions of lost national vigor
2. Rooting, where a fascist movement, aided by political deadlock and polarization, becomes a player on the national stage
3. Arrival to power, where conservatives seeking to control rising leftist opposition invite fascists to share power
4. Exercise of power, where the movement and its charismatic leader control the state in balance with state institutions such as the police and traditional elites such as the clergy and business magnates.
5. Radicalization or entropy, where the state either becomes increasingly radical, as did Nazi Germany, or slips into traditional authoritarian rule, as did Fascist Italy.
Fascism is properly a form of extreme Tribalism, the excessive social and economic dependency upon a tribe (national, ethnic, religious) that creates fear of its leaders and elevates the tyrant personality claiming that he must be given power to defend the tribe from invented threats. See my forthcoming work Tribalism And Tyranny for details.
The Trumpsters are partisan tribalist tyrants, verging upon fascism. The Zionists are as fascist as the Nazis, and due to the same cause: the Jewish tribe had been persecuted (Germany by severe reparations paid by the people for WWI crimes of its ruling class, worsened by the Depression), and the Zionists were an extremist minority ready to propagandize and seize power. Both had causes for their extremism, but not a rational basis, both sought to claim extreme privileges over all other groups, and to blame other groups for their problems. The irony is that Israelis do not see that fascism causes fascism in its victims.
Thanks for all the details.
Bottom line – We support genocide. What kind of a letter is that?
That’s a “b” letter: barbarians.
Agreed!!! The “Bottom line – We support genocide. What kind of a letter is that?” IMO, “I”nadvertently, “we” do. Done, “I”n Our Name.” Yep, “C”omplicity, U$A. Absophknlutely, “Barbarism!” It’s savage, cruel, f/inhumane.
Ladies & Gentlemen, “Never Say Die,” b/c, Ralph Nader & Bruce Fein delivered the Letter, “C”orrespondence to Open Up “dialogue,” to build a “humanitarian corridor” between the WH’s personnel, imo, “Killers in High Places” & The Universe.
U”RGENT Message: September 24, 2025
To President Donald Trump:
“Members of Congress and people all around the country are demanding that you tell Netanyahu not to harm the very peaceful humanitarian flotilla of about 45 little ships, already under Israeli drone harassment on the high seas, on its way to Gaza with food, medicine, infant formula, diapers and other necessities for what you earlier described as the starving children in Gaza. You are meeting with Netanyahu at the White House next week and can convey this message.
As far as the mass slaughter, starvation and blocking of U.S.-funded humanitarian aid trucks is concerned, everybody agrees that you are the one person who can stop it with “one phone call.” Yet week after week since March, when Netanyahu broke the ceasefire that you took credit for, you have only displayed an inexplicable and cowardly fear of Netanyahu leading to widespread rumors in Israel and the United States that he has a dossier on you. To repeat, “one phone call” from you and the children, mothers and fathers in Gaza can experience a ceasefire and immediate humanitarian aid on the border from thousands of waiting trucks paid for by American taxpayers.
What are you waiting for?”
Regards,
Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein. @ hxxps://nader.org/2025/09/24/urgent-message-to-president-trump-protect-the-flotilla/
Joe, your speech was excellent! I have shared it widely. Thanks so much.
Thank you for your excellent, well written article. I am tired of reading pieces bashing Democrats, though I agree with most of them. However, you do not “bash,” you carefully “skewer,” and I enjoy taking in your point of view. Plus, your ending is superb and utterly
truthful: “We are living in a fucking nightmare!” FINIS.