The claim that Trump is “normalizing” pathological behavior is itself normalizing a lot of nonsense. There’s no question that his aggro behavior is enabling a lot of frightening stuff — basically, low-level terror. But let’s not forget how much of that behavior was normal and pervasive until pretty recently. For example, the electoral abuses in this last election are trivial compared to the ferocious violence that unionists and African-American faced for decades. Remembering those darker histories doesn’t excuse what happened in this last election. But claims that this election was “unprecedented” demand that we forget the past — and that kind of airbrushing of history is a key part of how fascism works. Fortunately, there’s a simple way around this: remember that the struggle for freedom, equality, and dignity in every sphere of life never stops, not anywhere and not ever. Things may be worse now than they were a year ago, but they aren’t exceptional. When people claim that today is exceptional, that implies yesterday wasn’t — which “normalizes” yesterday.