Why the US is NOT fascist.

[Bonobo]

1. Extra-legal detention centers: It's complicated trying to get them released.

2. Assassination of enemies of the state : It's for national security reasons only.

3. 400 US citizens having accumulated as much wealth as over 50% of the population: That called a "Free Market"

4. More citizens in prison per capita than any other nation : They are being reformed.

5. Labeling Muslims as the great scapegoat : It's better to be sure, right?

6. Supremacy of military : See #2 above

7. Disdain for education : Well I don't get a pension!

8. Fraudulent Elections : 2000 and 2004 were abberations. What's wrong with secret black box voting machines with no record?

9. Privatization of everything from fire-fighting to libraries to military services : See #3 above.

10. Harassing of Citizen's Groups : Who said that? Those card-carrying ACLU members!?

11. A censored and controlled press misinforming the public : Fox news, embeds, Charlie Sheen... I'm informed!

12. Swastikas and Wagner music : See!? I TOLD you the US wasn't fascist, dummie!

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. :>)

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Oh... I see what you did there

sardonic humor...

n/k

[MannyGoldstein]

3. Well done!

I feel better already.

[JDPriestly]

4. K&R

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

5. if you are not seeing this as the rise of the 4th reich your not paying attention

There is a reason I live close to the Canadian border.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

6. if you are not seeing this as the rise of the 4th reich your not paying attention

There is a reason I live close to the Canadian border.

[Prophet 451]

7. #3 has nothing to do with it

The connection between corporations and fascism isn't how much corporations make, it's how much power they have in the political process. Mussolini, who invented fascism, described it as "corporate control of the state".

Otherwise, good job.

[Syrinx]

8. #3 is about individuals

There's no way that 400 individuals could be as wealthy as 155 million other citizens combined in any just system. Just no way.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

10. it's true it's true

[Prophet 451]

12. Oh, absolutely

I'm just being a pedant over the precise definitions (one of my many flaws).

[Bonobo]

13. And you're right.

I compiled the list in about 5 minutes. That's how close these issues are to the surface of my mind, I guess.

While writing it, I knew it wasn't really about fascism, but at the same time, I don't want to get so hung up on one label that we miss the big picture.

And that one IS part of the big picture. It shows a country where the collusion, bribery and corruption is so deep and incestuous that it has brought it to that.

It is a country where a man who works 80 hours a week can't afford to have his rotten tooth pulled out by a dentist but must go to the emergency room. That same man's work is devalued to the point where his life his not really recognized as having any value but an investment banker who uses other people's money to get filthy rich while producing nothing real can sit on billions of dollars and not even pay taxes.

The social contract is broken.

Call it fascism or call it a Granfaloon, it doesn't matter. It has reached the point where we don't have a place for common sense justice in our political debate.

[Recursion]

16. I take it you skipped feudalism in history class?

Inequality is higher than in the postwar boom, but hardly the highest in history.

[Syrinx]

22. are you being ironic or something?

I wouldn't consider feudalism to be particularly just.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

9. Well we do have to allow for evolution, of the process

but we defiantly can see behind the curtain.

[barbtries]

11. thank you bonobo

you should have been on a recent thread where i was basted just for using the word. i'll keep interested track of this thread.

[tiny elvis]

14. i think the remaining questions are

can a fascist state have two parties in real competition for control?
is it a fascist state before someone is declared president for life?
which fascists privatized public services, making that part of a model or checklist?
how do the other 10 points distinguish fascism from the holy roman empire?

[HughBeaumont]

15. Well, if you look at the 14 points . . .

http://ellensplace.net/fascism.html

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

. . . I highlighted what's going on now (apparent) as opposed to a theocrat Repub administration, where every one of these points would be happening. I didn't highlight 14 due to Obama's election (maybe part of the illusion of Democracy at work?) So it seems to be right on for the most part.

[Bonobo]

17. Well, it's kind of hard to ignore the blatant tampering that occurred in 2000 and 2004.

All sorts of voter fraud and election tampering, both electronic and otherwise.

Also, as for #1, very few countries chant "U.S.A., U.S.A," or similar nationalistic slogans in the baboon-like way that some Americans are fond of doing.

[HughBeaumont]

18. Yes, and I don't think we're out of the election fraud mess just yet.

I think we're going to be seeing an abundance of it in the coming years. We should keep our eyes on what the Koch's have in mind next.

While the flag-waving jingoism has subsided compared to the ubiquitous red-white-blue throw-up of the Bewsh II years, we'll see more of it come election time. One party will try to out-country the other.

[Bonobo]

19. Kicking. nt

[tekisui]

20. knr!

[Blue_In_AK]

21. Whew! I am SO relieved. n/t