Morning NPR: "The president has sounded somewhat divisive & frankly petty at times." Dangerous euphemism presenting as candor, post-election reframing of authoritarianism as merely politics & manners. The old press tradition of normalizing that which didn't ask to be normalized.

I get the media impulse to shave off edges of the near-coup not-quite-yet past. It's a kind of bargaining w/ fate. If we don't call fascism fascism, maybe it will go away. This is like imagining the sun orbits the earth, that our own perception is gravity. It isn't.

Another element of post-election media softpedaling of Trumpist fascism is the idea of "respect" for those who see it differently. But you never give respect to another by offering less than your truest perception. "Respect" Trumpism by naming it what it was & still is.

"It's a time for healing," says one faction. Another says, "Hell, no, not with those fascists." My mealy-mouthed middle: Some aren't fascists; but we can't meet them if we don't speak plainly & honestly of the fascism to which they wittingly or unwittingly lent themselves.