For the purpose of this perspective, I will consider the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia. To be sure, they constitute a mixed bag of national identities, cultures, developmental levels, and history. But they all followed the fascist or protofascist model in obtaining, expanding, and maintaining power. Further, all these regimes have been overthrown, so a more or less complete picture of their basic characteristics and abuses is possible.
Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
Disdain for the importance of human rights.
Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
Rampant sexism.
A controlled mass media.
Obsession with national security.
Religion and ruling elite tied together.
Power of corporations protected.
Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
Obsession with crime and punishment.
Rampant cronyism and corruption.
Fraudulent elections.
Does any of this ring alarm bells? Of course not. After all, this is America, officially a democracy with the rule of law, a constitution, a free press, honest elections, and a well-informed public constantly being put on guard against evils. Historical comparisons like these are just exercises in verbal gymnastics. Maybe, maybe not.
He writes much more about each one; I just wanted to list them. If this doesn’t make you think…
That’s why I have been calling Bush a fascist for the last 3 years. That’s my list too. It’s such a historic pattern that it amazes me that more people don’t see it. I am NOT anti-Republican. I am a fiscal conservative, and I voted for a Republican in the House. But Bush is a dangerous, dangerous man. Actually, his advisors are more dangerous; Bush is a puppet, but a great puppet. And one that, like Hitler (and no, I am not trying to say Bush IS Hitler) could go beyond his masters and do damage they never really intended.
The danger is not that Bush will lead a Fascist nation, the danger is that culture is moving toward Fascism (or a similar variant) and that in 10, 20, or 30 years America will finally be ready for Fascism. Right now there is too much baggage, but if “progress” is made in terms of greater economic disparity, fear of external forces, disdain for democracy, disunity, etc. the groundwork for Fascism will be laid, and then it will merely take a charismatic figure to tip the scales.
A lot of what the GOP has been doing over the last 15 years is related to Fascism. They’ve already succeeded in conditioning America to an extent that the Bush Administration didn’t throw up red flags with people.
If you’re used to and accepting of Fascism, you don’t even CALL it that. You call it “right”, or “what I like”, or “what I voted for”…
When someone says “But that’s Fascist!” the response is “Amen!”
Brian is absolutely right. Italy welcomed Mussolini with open arms because they were ready for him. Look at the things on the list. Look at how people like Wagner, Nietzsche, even Goethe all led Germany down the path of fascism. Did they do it deliberately? I doubt it (maybe Nietzsche did, but he never intended Hitler). There were other forces at work (versailles for instance). But government’s don’t change over night and they don’t change because of one person or one small group of people. They change because of changes in culture, climate, and attitude.
Anyone who lived in America when Sept. 11 happened saw that change. Bush et al are feeding it, intentionally or not. The country is moving that way. My father-and-law yelled at my wife for voting for Bush. He said he had rather she be a stripper than vote Democrat. All he listens to is hate radio; all he reads are hate websites. He sees Kerry as a traitor to this country and thinks he should be dealt with accordingly. That’s the end of democracy…that attitude. And it’s growing.
I just started a thread on if America is becoming Fascist…
Anyhow here’s a rerun of my post
The more I see of the Bush regime, and the more I study the other fascist states of history the more apparent it becomes that we are rapidly sliding into fascism.
Here are a bunch of articles on the matter, don’t know much about the site but (googled) but they have a good collection of various links. http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/fascism.htm
Everyone should read Henry Wallaces speach on the American Fascism
Umm ok Ben. The sad part is, as we slide into fascism there will continue to be people who refuse to see it simply because “it can’t happen here.” If you understand what fascism is, and if you study history and how it took over other countries, it very much seems like the US is sliding into fascism. Why do you find the idea that the US is becoming fascist so absurd? It is very clear that we have
Interesting you assume I’m a Democrat. I’ve never been registered as one. So try again. I’m independant and have voted for libetarians, greens, republicans, and democrats depending on their viewpoints and what I thought they would bring to the office they were running for.
So instead of just calling me an idiot, how about you explain why you don’t think America is sliding into fascism?
How about this: The Patriot Act is so far away from martial law and other oppression that it’s an insult to people who have suffered to compare the two. No one is getting suppressed.
Very few, in fact, I’ll go ahead and say none of those 14 signs are in evidence in the US any more than in, say, Canada.
You might not be a Democrat, but you’re for damn sure an idiot. Bush is as close to Hitler as Kerry was.
Also, you say you’ve voted for 4 parties. Do you simply not have any important issues, are you always voting for the tallest candidate, what’s up?
From a Canadian perspective, I see more evidence in the U.S. of 1,2,4,7,8 and 12.
I think a lot would have to go wrong over the next 20 years for America to fall that way though. Of course, if anyone’s up to the task, it’s GWB and his successors.
You can say it, but you’re out of your fucking mind if you actually believe it. Canada isn’t undergoing anything like the US is at the moment. And, for the record, we turned down our Conservatives in a national election last spring. Also…
We don’t have any hate TV and radio.
We don’t have the biggest news channel in the country broadcasting neo-con propaganda.
We don’t have fundy Christians dominating the political agenda.
We don’t have millions of people mobilizing to fight gays.
We don’t have national elections decided on the disenfranchisment of minorities.
We aren’t obsessed with national security.
We aren’t militaristic–hell, we barely have a military at all (note: I don’t think that this is a good thing)
Our idea of nationalism goes no further than getting hammered on Canada Day and going nuts whenever our hockey teams kick American or Russian ass (although I wouldn’t push us too far on nationalistic feelings–we’re very, very patriotic up here, but we don’t think the best way to express that is to speak loudly and carry a big stick).
And so on, and so on. Canada is growing further and further apart from the US mainstream all the time. You’ve got a government powered solely by fear. That’s wildly out of step with the rest of the Western world, let alone just Canada, and if you aren’t at least somewhat fearful about the country sliding into fascism, you’d better open your eyes.
Brett- Yeah, my argument was that none of that is true in America. Really, I’m tired of this shit. You guys need to take a deep breath and grow up. It’s just another day. Your boy lost, and I’m displeased. But it’s not the end of the world.
Brett, how often have you seen Fox News? You guys can’t get your impression of America from breathlessly outraged liberal blogs.
Also, isn’t the reason you guys don’t have hate TV and radio is because of your oppressive media control laws?
The obession with national security is wholy because of 9/11, and you can’t really blame us on that.
Here’s a restatement:
Any of those things that are true are either not a magic harbinger of fascism or also true in other countries.
My opinions about Fox News are first-hand, I’ll leave it at that. I watched a lot of it leading up to the election and on election night, just to get a feel for it. It’s ludicrous and biased. I think the so-called lefty spin on it is actually too soft. It’s the neocon Al Jazeera.
Oppressive media control laws? What the hell are you talking about? The only rules I’m aware of govern foreign control. There are limits on this, so foreign companies can’t come in and simply buy up all our sources of news. Which is fine by me, and I wouldn’t exactly call this repressive because it insulates us from some idiot like Rupert Murdoch coming in and altering the political landscape in the entire country through a propaganda station masquerading as news.
And our news organizations do a far, far better job of covering the US than the American ones. You want to look for the main reason why 51% of the US populace just doesn’t get it, look no further than the shallow “What was Britney thinking?” media.
