Man.... I was about to crack my knuckle and get to pounding the keyboard when I read your headline!

All I can say is that you are spot on about Fox News. It has absolutely been critical to unearthing the dormant fascist tendencies of segments of American society.

But I disgaree that these problems were there on the same scale before Fox News came around.

Before Fox News gave racists and authoritarians room to operate that some of those ideas were on the decline. What is dormant eventually dies. I remember growing up in the 80s and 90s, violent right-wing/white supremacist extremism had no room in mainstream public discourse. Obviously, more subtle racist speech and policies were still tolerated, but overt tiki-torch carrying, hood-wearing lunatics were sidelined.

Fox News is mainstreaming that again. And we are worse off for it.