Think you know what Fascism is?  Think we're becoming a fascist state in the US?  Think we've already become one?  Think we've been one all along?  Think that fascism in the US is a paranoid delusion made up in the addled brains of loony doomsdayers & conspiracy theorists and/or that it is a deliberate scare tactic perpetrated by the left to undermine the right? 

Whatever you think you know about fascism, if you're a US citizen or you're concerned, for any reason, about the direction the US is heading, you need to read this article: 

"What is Fascism"
http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/Structure3.htm
 
(I should mention that this article and the accompanying list of recommended related reading/viewing was written by a self-proclaimed conservative and that it appears in the political section of a couples site, of all things, but it's a very good article, none the less.) 

9. Corporate Power is Protected -
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. TOP

10. Labor Power is Suppressed -
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

Absolutely, fascism isn't coming, fascism is here. 

I've only scanned that article, but it looks like they didn't capture the most salient point.  Is Mussolini said, "Fascism would be more properly called Corporatism." 
In other words, it is the marriage of big busines and big government.
Our "fascism" is more sophisticated than the fascism of Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, or Stalin.  The government is not kicking people's doors in and hauling them away in the middle of the night.  The government is arresting people for expressing their opinions.  The government isn't forcing people to attend jingoistic rallies. 
Some people who have a hysterical reaction to the USA Patriot act would argue the government has granted itself at least the first two powers.  That's debatable.
It is impractical and unnecessary to practice such rigid control over individuals.  The United States the most effective propaganda machine ever: bread and circuses.
There is not enough dire poverty and food insecurity in America to threaten public order.  Commercialism has lulled people into an endless cycle of superficial want and cheap gratification.  There's enough food and pleasure junk for everybody.
American exceptionalism is another factor.  Our government has survived all kinds of turmoil.  We emerged from WWII with the rest of the world in tatters and America far and away the most wealthy and powerful nation on Earth.
Thus the campaign to "win the hearts and minds" of the American people to the side of "free enterprise" and religious piety was easy.  The government and the corporate bosses wanted to insure the Depression era loss of faith in capitalism and socialistic leanings never returned.
A shot of socialism provided reliable innoculation.  Taxes on wealth and capital were very high from the 1940s through the 1970s.  Postwar boom provided enough comfort and security to a growing middle class to prevent socialism from gaining mass appeal.
Then came Reagan.  Then came 28% top marginal tax rates and the tripling of the national debt.  The comfort and security for the future was compromised.  The middle class would begin to shrink.  The Clinton Administration tried to re-innoculate the country with a minimal amount of preventive socialism--a 39% top marginal tax rate and a spotty national health plan that got kicked away by the right-wing.
Now we are on the eve of the second GW Bush Administration and the second unelected Presidency.  The government and the bosses are more nervous.  They know they've enriched themselves fabulously at the expense of the lower nine deciles.  As 30-year-olds continue to live with parents and housemates, as fewer and fewer college grads find worthwhile employment, as the veneer of prosperity begins to peel from our indebted and deteriorating hulk of an imperialist nation, "the masses" might get restless and cranky.
The time had come by 2001 for a good scare, a foreign war, and a call to nationalism and sacrifice.
If the bombing massacres of 9/11 were not planned by the bosses, they were a blessing sent straight from the money god.
Terror is the new Communist, Islam is the new Jew.  Fear and paranoia are back, and the rich are raking it in hand over fist.  They are draining the wealth of the people into private coffers via fat military contracts....

Well, I'll give it a rest, though I've only just started!
8)

Verrry interesting, as Arte Johnson use to say.  I agree with Max, we are, increasingly, a fascist state.  I just revisited Bowling for Columbine and was especially impressed with Moore's discussion of the "fear factor".  Although some specifics are different, this is just about what Hitler did.  Our media demonizes blacks, he demonized Jews.  Here we go again.

In an article in the Washington post by Dana Millbank Dick Cheney has said "I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the ability of the president of the United States to do his job"  He thinks it is wrong for the president to yield to congressional demands.  He has worked to strengthen the office(reduce accountability) of the president. Working for him as top lawyer for debating these questions is David Addington who forwarded the rationalization for the use of torture as a method of finding out information.  It is a slippery slope and we are in free fall.  :-\\

In an article in the Washington post by Dana Millbank dip Cheney has said "I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the ability of the president of the United States to do his job"  He thinks it is wrong for the president to yield to congressional demands.  He has worked to strengthen the office(reduce accountability) of the president. Working for him as top lawyer for debating these questions is David Addington who forwarded the rationalization for the use of torture as a method of finding out information.  It is a slippery slope and we are in free fall.  :-\\

Dubya has stated repeatedly that "a dictatorship would be much easier."  Say it once, pass it off as levity.  Say it ten times, something to worry about.

Cheney was referring to Congress?  But Dubya is the first President in 100 years not to veto any bills, so what does the Administration have to gripe about?

Absolutely, fascism isn't coming, fascism is here. 

I've only scanned that article, but it looks like they didn't capture the most salient point.  Is Mussolini said, "Fascism would be more properly called Corporatism." 
In other words, it is the marriage of big busines and big government.
Our "fascism" is more sophisticated than the fascism of Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, or Stalin.  The government is not kicking people's doors in and hauling them away in the middle of the night.  The government is arresting people for expressing their opinions.  The government isn't forcing people to attend jingoistic rallies. 
Some people who have a hysterical reaction to the USA Patriot act would argue the government has granted itself at least the first two powers.  That's debatable.
It is impractical and unnecessary to practice such rigid control over individuals.  The United States the most effective propaganda machine ever: bread and circuses.
There is not enough dire poverty and food insecurity in America to threaten public order.  Commercialism has lulled people into an endless cycle of superficial want and cheap gratification.  There's enough food and pleasure junk for everybody.
American exceptionalism is another factor.  Our government has survived all kinds of turmoil.  We emerged from WWII with the rest of the world in tatters and America far and away the most wealthy and powerful nation on Earth.
Thus the campaign to "win the hearts and minds" of the American people to the side of "free enterprise" and religious piety was easy.  The government and the corporate bosses wanted to insure the Depression era loss of faith in capitalism and socialistic leanings never returned.
A shot of socialism provided reliable innoculation.  Taxes on wealth and capital were very high from the 1940s through the 1970s.  Postwar boom provided enough comfort and security to a growing middle class to prevent socialism from gaining mass appeal.
Then came Reagan.  Then came 28% top marginal tax rates and the tripling of the national debt.  The comfort and security for the future was compromised.  The middle class would begin to shrink.  The Clinton Administration tried to re-innoculate the country with a minimal amount of preventive socialism--a 39% top marginal tax rate and a spotty national health plan that got kicked away by the right-wing.
Now we are on the eve of the second GW Bush Administration and the second unelected Presidency.  The government and the bosses are more nervous.  They know they've enriched themselves fabulously at the expense of the lower nine deciles.  As 30-year-olds continue to live with parents and housemates, as fewer and fewer college grads find worthwhile employment, as the veneer of prosperity begins to peel from our indebted and deteriorating hulk of an imperialist nation, "the masses" might get restless and cranky.
The time had come by 2001 for a good scare, a foreign war, and a call to nationalism and sacrifice.
If the bombing massacres of 9/11 were not planned by the bosses, they were a blessing sent straight from the money god.
Terror is the new Communist, Islam is the new Jew.  Fear and paranoia are back, and the rich are raking it in hand over fist.  They are draining the wealth of the people into private coffers via fat military contracts....

Well, I'll give it a rest, though I've only just started!
8)



Max, you are absolutely correct here, and this is something I've been trying to explain to the unwilling ears of others, fruitlessly. People refuse to see the truth because they've been brought up with the idea that America is the perfect democracy where the horrors of the past could never penetrate. They find it a ridiculous suggestion that America could be a fascist state. They hear the word socialism and recoil in an odd mixture of disgust and timidity, for that word has been villified by everyone in positions of influence since WW2. Teachers, Politicians, Zealots... but hardly by the scholars, and that is why so many doctors/professors/authors/artists are called crackpots and old fools and hippies. Notice when a celebrity speaks against Bush, how all the pundits denounce that we should pay them any mind, yet whenever one speaks for him, it's a whole other matter then. I recently saw a book in one of the shops that was about the "liberal universities" and how they brainwash our youth. It's just all too clear and has been for some time. Almost everything on TV and in popular music/culture is glossy bull$#!+ meant to distract the weak-minded and give them "instant gratification" like you said before. Same thing with the news. They put a disproportionate amount of bad stories on to keep the people frightened enough to remain obsessed with national security, and then the rest of it is all bullsh-t like about puppies, and the latest celebrity exploits and such to give more of the old cheap entertainment (AKA: diversion). It just makes me so angry.

Max, you are absolutely correct here, and this is something I've been trying to explain to the unwilling ears of others, fruitlessly. People refuse to see the truth because they've been brought up with the idea that America is the perfect democracy where the horrors of the past could never penetrate. They find it a ridiculous suggestion that America could be a fascist state. They hear the word socialism and recoil in an odd mixture of disgust and timidity, for that word has been villified by everyone in positions of influence since WW2. Teachers, Politicians, Zealots... but hardly by the scholars, and that is why so many doctors/professors/authors/artists are called crackpots and old fools and hippies. Notice when a celebrity speaks against Bush, how all the pundits denounce that we should pay them any mind, yet whenever one speaks for him, it's a whole other matter then. I recently saw a book in one of the shops that was about the "liberal universities" and how they brainwash our youth. It's just all too clear and has been for some time. Almost everything on TV and in popular music/culture is glossy bull$#!+ meant to distract the weak-minded and give them "instant gratification" like you said before. Same thing with the news. They put a disproportionate amount of bad stories on to keep the people frightened enough to remain obsessed with national security, and then the rest of it is all bullsh-t like about puppies, and the latest celebrity exploits and such to give more of the old cheap entertainment (AKA: diversion). It just makes me so angry.

Amen, brother!

"It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis.  A good book to veg with.  He could see it, of course
it is a book you probably won't see on any required reading list.

Dubya has stated repeatedly that "a dictatorship would be much easier."  Say it once, pass it off as levity.  Say it ten times, something to worry about.

Cheney was referring to Congress?  But Dubya is the first President in 100 years not to veto any bills, so what does the Administration have to gripe about?


To veto a bill is also ro risk seeing the veto over ridden.  Can you imagine the emotional damage there. Cheney would prefer to be insidious about it and work to push his agenda, to effectively quash any bill passed, through the backdoor

George Orwell also saw it coming.  1984 was proficy.  Not only can it happen here, it IS.  Good posts, but no response from our conservative friends, who I guess just can't see it.

"You make a mistake if you see what we do as merely political."
                                                                     
                                                                                        ~Adolf Hitler

You make a mistake if you see what we do as mearly political.

Adolph Hitler



See the editorial from the Rutland Herald that I posted on another thread.

Absolutely, fascism isn't coming, fascism is here. 

I've only scanned that article, but it looks like they didn't capture the most salient point.  Is Mussolini said, "Fascism would be more properly called Corporatism." 
In other words, it is the marriage of big busines and big government.
Our "fascism" is more sophisticated than the fascism of Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, or Stalin.  The government is not kicking people's doors in and hauling them away in the middle of the night.  The government is arresting people for expressing their opinions.  The government isn't forcing people to attend jingoistic rallies. 
Some people who have a hysterical reaction to the USA Patriot act would argue the government has granted itself at least the first two powers.  That's debatable.
It is impractical and unnecessary to practice such rigid control over individuals.  The United States the most effective propaganda machine ever: bread and circuses.
There is not enough dire poverty and food insecurity in America to threaten public order.  Commercialism has lulled people into an endless cycle of superficial want and cheap gratification.  There's enough food and pleasure junk for everybody.
American exceptionalism is another factor.  Our government has survived all kinds of turmoil.  We emerged from WWII with the rest of the world in tatters and America far and away the most wealthy and powerful nation on Earth.
Thus the campaign to "win the hearts and minds" of the American people to the side of "free enterprise" and religious piety was easy.  The government and the corporate bosses wanted to insure the Depression era loss of faith in capitalism and socialistic leanings never returned.
A shot of socialism provided reliable innoculation.  Taxes on wealth and capital were very high from the 1940s through the 1970s.  Postwar boom provided enough comfort and security to a growing middle class to prevent socialism from gaining mass appeal.
Then came Reagan.  Then came 28% top marginal tax rates and the tripling of the national debt.  The comfort and security for the future was compromised.  The middle class would begin to shrink.  The Clinton Administration tried to re-innoculate the country with a minimal amount of preventive socialism--a 39% top marginal tax rate and a spotty national health plan that got kicked away by the right-wing.
Now we are on the eve of the second GW Bush Administration and the second unelected Presidency.  The government and the bosses are more nervous.  They know they've enriched themselves fabulously at the expense of the lower nine deciles.  As 30-year-olds continue to live with parents and housemates, as fewer and fewer college grads find worthwhile employment, as the veneer of prosperity begins to peel from our indebted and deteriorating hulk of an imperialist nation, "the masses" might get restless and cranky.
The time had come by 2001 for a good scare, a foreign war, and a call to nationalism and sacrifice.
If the bombing massacres of 9/11 were not planned by the bosses, they were a blessing sent straight from the money god.
Terror is the new Communist, Islam is the new Jew.  Fear and paranoia are back, and the rich are raking it in hand over fist.  They are draining the wealth of the people into private coffers via fat military contracts....

Well, I'll give it a rest, though I've only just started!
8)



This is one of the best posts I've ever read here.

  If there is to be an escape, it will require that Americans take an objective look at what fascism is, and with open eyes and minds compare it with the changes we are witnessing all around us in America.  A warning about fascism, if carefully considered, has much more substantiation than any wild conspiracy theories.

  If history has minimal reliability as a guide, then we have in probability less than a generation to sort this out before national disaster. Most challenging of all, reversing our fascism can only be a bottom-up, grass-roots movement...no Great Father will fix this for us.

  Max, my heart is lightened by the deeds of a true scholar.  I am truely humbled by your motivation.  Keep grooving.

Powerslave, Davester, thanks for your compliments on my "fascism" post.  It's from the heart.  I DO believe we live under fascism right now.  A Kerry Presidency  would not alone get us out from under fascism.  It would be only the first step in a long journey--unfortunately I have a premonition of terrible events overtaking us on election day.

There's more "grassroots" support for the fascists out there than anybody else.  There is raging ignorance and fear among the American people.  You're not allowed to say that because the fascists will call YOU an "elitist" an short circuit the issue.

I have the fascist media on right now, MSNBC's "Afterhours."
The panel is talking about THK saying Laura Bush "never had a real job."  This is another meaningless distraction from any real issues.  They want to make this, as every national election, about "salt-of-the-earth" versus "elitists."  And they succeed.
The panel is
Mark Simone: right-wing radio host
Mort Zuckerman: of U.S. News & World Report, a purported moderate, but really a shill for corporations.
Lawrence Kudlow: far-right corporate cheerleader, purported market analyst for the premier business TV network, CNBC.
Ron Silver: actor and maggot, War-on-Terror alarmist, and rabid Bush supporter.
Ron Reagan: the Gipper's son, a harmless lightweight moderate.
Guests: a woman from the Bush campaign and a woman from the Kerry campaign.  Both blonde 30-somethings wearing black blouses.  Could pass for sisters.  Both babbling over inane talking points.

This is a typical panel on the fascist media punditry circuit.  We are less than two weeks from a Presidential election, but there is no talk of who REALLY runs the country.  There's just finger-pointing, rumor-mongering, and tit-for-tat.  They are only reporting the polls in which Bush is ahead in the swing states...but I have no reason to doubt that he is.

While I will certainly vote for Kerry in  this election, he is no answer to the real problem, which Max and others (myself included) have continually harped on, corporate control, not just of the media, but of every aspect of our lives.  In a book called Labor and Monopoly Capital (one of my favorits, Monthly Review Press, 1976, still in print), Harry Braverman said something like "Its is only in the age of monopoly that the capitalist mode of production takes over individual, family, and social needs, and reshapes them to serve the needs of the market."  Both parties are the captives of corporate America at the most fundamental level and serve their corporate masters, one is just a bit more subtle about it.  I would add that our lap dog labor movement, with few exceptions, is playing the same tune. 

What I think we need is a major restructuring of both our politics and our society.  Reforming health insurance, rolling back taxes, even solving the Iraq problem or eliminating Al Quida will not turn the trick, not even all of them together.  The fundamental question is who  wields power.  Right now, it is the transnational corprations ("transnational" because they own no allegance to any nation) and their allies, the World Bank, the International Monitary Fund, and the GATT. 

What I think we need is not just a progressive national grass roots movement (although that would be a good first step), but an international one that unites working people around the world in a movement for economic justice, human rights, and democracy.  We working stiffs have allowed ourselves to be divided by race and gender, and when we are divided we lose.  We must unite, or fascism will continue to domiate our world.