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Vivek Ramaswamy's violent, absolutist rhetoric [1]

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Date: 2023-12-04  

Vivek Ramaswamy recently gave an interview with Republican mega-donor and propagandist Tom Klingenstein. The opening statement (below) sounded like a full embrace of totalitarian attitudes, and I wanted to share it not because Ramaswamy himself is likely to get elected, but because of how he is normalizing this type of thinking among people who might have resisted hearing it from Trump — for instance, I know people who have described him as a ‘uniter’.

This Tom Klingenstein person is also worth being aware of — he was not on my radar before now, but he’s a major force behind the fascist-friendly Claremont Institute. The Guardian wrote a review of Tom Klingenstein’s advocacy and influence-buying, and it sounds like Ramaswamy is actually just parroting Klingenstein.

We are absolutely in a war with the fate of the country at stake. And you had better know it. You know you are in a war when there is no middle ground, no room to compromise. Either you believe in free speech, or you believe in censorship. You can’t have both. Either you believe in a meritocracy, or you believe in group quotas. You can’t have both. Either you believe in the founding ideals of this country or you believe America is systemically racist. Either you think it’s an honor to fly the flag or you are embarrassed to fly it. You can’t have it both ways. If you think America is systemically racist, you hate America. If you think America’s founding principles are the world’s greatest remedy for racism, you love America. These differences are simply too large to bridge. This is what makes it a war. If you don’t recognize that you are in a war, then you will negotiate with the other side, but that will only lead ultimately to surrender. And if we lose this war, we will have full-fledged tyranny. You see, if people are free, then there will be group differences in outcomes because often groups have different preferences and talents. The only way you can make groups equal in terms of outcome is by force. Those who hate America are in power practically everywhere. In effect, the woke regime is a hostile occupying power not so different than Germany when it occupied France during WWII. Now, we need someone to lead the resistance.

While Ramaswamy’s is not explicitly proposing to purge his opponents from all positions of influence, he is setting the stage to justify such actions by fabricating claims that “they are doing it to us already”

Woke America hasn’t yet achieved full Stalinist status. But if you want to see gulags being built, you don’t have to look any further than the treatment being given by the Biden justice system to the so-called “insurrectionists” of January 6. This is the treatment being prepared for all who oppose the woke tyranny, who are already branded “domestic terrorists.” And while they are preparing these gulags, the woke Left can accomplish their purposes in other ways. They censor, shame, spy on citizens, fire them, require loyalty oaths, deprive people of services—all totalitarian tactics that get to the same place as gulags; they neutralize dissenters.

And:

Most Americans do not realize people who are deemed enemies of the state cannot get banking services like checking accounts. This is the case if you have the wrong view on say, vaccine mandates, climate change, ESG, or are a gun manufacturer. These are the people that are also getting censored by the large Tech platforms in cahoots with the government.

Note: This interview is on Klingenstein’s site, and while I was unable to find any direct confirmation from Ramaswamy that it’s legit, other right-wing media has picked it up without any sign that it could be a misrepresentation, so I’m assuming Ramaswamy is not objecting to what’s published.

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