Not sure I'd conflate r/The_Donald with the Republican Party's turn into overt fascism, as a whole. But yeah, there's something to be said for the dangers of ironic bigotry.

[–] fomo_erotic@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Its not a conflation, but a direct line. I watched it happen. What was /r/TheDonald became the foundation of truth social and all these other white nationalist reddit style mediums. It normalized the kind of populism which Trumps base embraced, particularly for young white males, who have since, taken it much further. I'm very convinced it got tilted in the way that it did by a disinformation campaign by a state actor.