12 Warning Signs of Fascism

[barbaraann]

http://www.mvp-seattle.org/pages/pageFascism.htm

I think I would add one more: heavy use of emotion-laden symbolism (swastika, patriotic symbols, etc.)

[smartass]

1. Scary stuff. You left out the joining of religion and state.

"March on Christian soldier!"

[barbaraann]

2. Yes, especially in this country.

I guess you could call it theocratic fascism.

[indepat]

12. Or a corporatist theocratic totalitarian police-state fascism?

[barbaraann]

15. I don't think the English language is capable of describing

what it is, it's so evil.

[RoeBear]

3. I have a problem with #4

'Secrecy Demanded'

Isn't that logo for the 'keep an eye on you neighbor' program?

Still bad, but nothing to do with secrecy.

[barbaraann]

4. I think you've got a point there.

But perhaps they were thinking about how the TIA program is like a Secret Police...

[Catfight]

5. Homosexuals condemned

You forgot that one of the first things to do is divide citizens against each other, then create high unemployment, then create a depressed economy and you've got a great ragout for the beginning of Fascism. Hail to Bu$h

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

7. Homosexuals are the "Jews" of America.

The Jews might not agree, but the gay/lesbian community sort of fills the roll in the imagination of the American right that the Jews filled in Europe.

[belle]

9. Speaking as a Jewish queer girl, I definitely agree...and i worry.

[catzies]

14. That's in there when you click on #9, "rampant Sexism."

"Governments of fascist states tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Traditional gender roles are made even more rigid and exaggerated. Condemnation of abortion and a virulent homophobia are commonly built into broad policy."


Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

6. Fascism comes to each country in its own way.

We all think about the Nazis when we think Fascism.

But Nazism was the German variant. The Germans where already militaristic, into hierarchy and rank, etc, due to the domination of Prussia & its role in unifiying Germany.

The Nazis just co-opted these aspects of German culture. Even the SS black uniform and "deaths head" came from an old Prussian (or Brunswick) military regiment. The black/red/white color scheme was the flag of the German Empire. The interest in folk culture and tradition came from the romatic German concept of "Hiemat", and the Neoclassical nazi architecture was another cultural reference to the Prussian state.

So, in the USA, we cant look at fascism in these terms. We need to think of how this would arrive in specifically American terms, taking over, transforming, and mobilizing aspects of our popular/national cutlure that we usually think of as benign or neutral or if negative, "always there", and taken for granted.

[barbaraann]

8. Excellent.

I think Bush's rally today reflects much of how they will package the local "brand" of facism.

[EstimatedProphet]

10. I don't think i would put in the sexism panel (#9)

I think it's just bad in general, and not related specifically to fascism. I think dividing the people against themselves would be appropriate in its place, since a fascist government keeps citizens from asking questions by getting them to spy on each other.

[JNelson6563]

11. here's 14 for you

http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm

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.

Analysis of these seven regimes reveals fourteen common threads that link them in recognizable patterns of national behavior and abuse of power. These basic characteristics are more prevalent and intense in some regimes than in others, but they all share at least some level of similarity.

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.

5. Rampant sexism.

6. A controlled mass media.

7. Obsession with national security.

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.

9. Power of corporations protected.

10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.

11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.

12. Obsession with crime and punishment.

13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.

14. Fraudulent elections.

A very good article, I highly recommend it.

Julie

[barbaraann]

16. Thank you.

We don't have very long to figure out how to fight it....

[indepat]

13. Wow: a trifecta four-times-over in the making with marriage of church

and state thrown in for godly measure.

[catzies]

17. That's #1 exuberant nationalism

"Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic images, slogans and symbols."

[barbaraann]

18. I guess I'm worried about things like the crosses of nails from

The Passion of the Christ and other things like that, too. They've expanded the use of symbolism beyond patriotic things.