talkpolitics | Entries tagged with fascism

On March 25, Rumeysa Öztürk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, was heading to iftar when six masked Homeland Security agents in unmarked vehicles grabbed her off the street. They took her phone, handcuffed her, and transported her 2,300 kilometers away to a detention center in Louisiana—without charges, without a lawyer, and without an explanation for days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt5asWzmaNA

Her so-called crime? Writing an article for the university newspaper criticizing Tufts' weak response to Israel’s war on Gaza. That’s it. She wasn’t armed, she wasn’t involved in criminal activity - she just used her right to free speech. But in the America we’re watching unfold, that’s enough to make you a target.

Officials justified her detention by claiming she was engaged in “activities supporting Hamas.” What activities? They didn’t say. They didn’t have to. Because in authoritarian regimes, an accusation is enough. No evidence is required, no explanation is given, and no apologies are made.

( Read more... )

alphistia

Although trump won the 2024 presidential election, and he is quickly implementing far right policies since his inauguration, the core ideology behind his misrule isn’t really “Project 2025”. It is a neo-fascist playbook by people working behind-the-scenes, inspired in particular by a schlubby nerd by the name of Curtis Yarvin, a fairly obscure software developer. He has had a lot of influence on “Broligarchs”, techbros and politicians affiliated with them, primarily Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, J D Vance, Josh Hawley, and the grandson of Milton Friedman, Patri Friedman. Sometimes they are called “The Nerd Reich”.

The core of the ideology, called the NRx (Neo-Reactionary ) or “Dark Enlightenment” movement, is that democracy is outdated and needs to be replaced. An amalgamation of corporate power and political government, controlled by a non-elected “monarch” (ie dictator) and business/tech elites, is desirable and inevitable. Instead of large nation-states, there would be city-states (“The Network State”, “Freedom Cities”). They would be anti-democratic, autocratic, with minimal civil rights and no social rights.

The society most like this already is Singapore, which has pretend elections that only one party can win, and where the government controls the media "softly", and sues the hell out of anybody who dares to oppose the government. Thiel points to Singapore as a place he'd love to replicate, but by comparison to what the broligarchs would like to create, Singapore is more like a kind of Sweden...

Although they like to think of themselves as “libertarian” it is not that in the slightest, it's all about control. That's what the oligarchs crave and that's what the ideologues like Curtis Yarvin and Thiel are trying to create.

The Republican Party, MAGA, and especially trump, are simply TOOLS for them to access the power they want to have. Elon Musk is a sui generis fascist, only distantly connected to Yarvin and Thiel, but his general ideas are aligned with theirs. He is the most dangerous of all of them currently, because he is unelected and his behavior in the current trump Administration is autocratic.

As far as trump's imperialist fantasies of annexing Canada, Gaza, Panama, Greenland, any other valuable land he might want, the broligarchs think they are old-fashioned and useful only to be disruptive. They feel city-states will be easier to control, with corporate-dominated non-elected rulers, with no elections at any level of government.

If people don't like that, they can EMIGRATE. The ideologues ultimately guarantee that is the ONLY civil right a person will have in their envisioned society...the Right to Exit. Otherwise they are expected to shut-up and do as they are told.

The MAGA masses would be irrelevant. Most of them would be replaced by AI within a few decades, and they would be a very large “lumpy” proletariat controlled by AI-generated bread and circuses. When necessary they would be used as orcs in wars to distract any discontent domestically. It would be a techno-feudalist order, with “monarchs” ruling in perpetuity.

Where would dissenters go, to exercise their only civil right? Perhaps they’d flee to city states built up according to Solarpunk or Hopepunk ideals, in isolated parts of the world, or in spots where they could buy off local technofascist entities in order to be left alone. And some traditional countries along authoritarian NATIONALIST lines would likely survive, such as Russia and China.

Technofascist city-states could very well replace the EU and the USA though, which would survive only as loose economic and military alliances of smaller “countries”. The Broligarchs have no real need for the gigantic United States or the EU, at least politically. They'd prefer to have fiefdoms with hundreds of mini-Musks subjecting the population to Caligula-style dictatorships.

Like fascist regimes of yore, this system would be unstable. The Nazis begin in 1923 and were defeated in 1945, Mussolini ruled for about 20 years as well. Such tight control breeds resentment and is never based on popularity. Not everyone opposing the New Order would emigrate and there would be opposition no matter what. A repressive apparatus would need to use totalitarian methods to ensure compliance. A society of bee-like drones might satisfy the tiny ruling elite, but is not a long-term guarantee of stability. Far from it.

The ideology has many contradictions. Techno-capitalism is not “green”, so of course such a system would continue to rape the environment and exploit resources until they are exhausted. Such a system would be extremely corrupt at every level of society since there would be no rule of law, except the whims of the dictator issuing edicts. And the city-states of course would fight amongst themselves, and mini-wars would inevitably erupt. China and Russia would never give up nuclear weapons, and neither would any replacement entities for the USA.

It's a very Grimdark future, but the people behind this (particularly like Yarvin)...Thiel, Vance, Andreessen, non-tech bros like Steve Bannon, Project 25 apparatchiks, and other far right allies...they all want that. They want power for themselves and domination over all the rest of us. All these toxic MEN (and the vast majority of them ARE males) are fascist to the core. The Nerd Reich would ultimately fail, if it doesn’t destroy the world first.

Mood: contemplative

tcpip

Despite the chaos and misery of Trump's first term in office, his recent re-election bodes an extreme, tumultuous, and dangerous next four years. This is not just the case for the United States, where it will have the greatest and most immediate effect, but also with other advanced economies in Europe and Australia; the far right is already ascendent in France and Germany, and it is likely to gain power in Australia. In all these cases, the success of the far-right will come from populism aimed at disenfranchised voters with lower levels of education and wealth, the collapse of the centre-right, and an ongoing identity crisis in social democracy.

The current and future far-right demagogues that will rule the world in the foreseeable future will enact a program of punishment toward their opposition, reward their favourites (regardless of legality), engage in a culture war against minorities, and, with great awareness of their ironic punishment of their supporters, engage in a wealth transfer from the lower and middle classes to their business allies. It is more than plausible that they will, given the opportunity, transform into a militaristic socialisation of labour in the interests of national capital. That is, a war of aggression against the developing world. Understanding this trajectory suggests not only the dire need for organised and effective political strategy but also a working reconsideration of democracy to prevent another rise of reactionary extremism.

( Read more... )

Kakistocracy: Rule of the Worst

A characteristic of extremist States that operate with authoritarian and totalitarian agendas is the need for constant violence and chaos of varying levels. The concern that the Trump administration, having captured the institutions of governance, could transform into a fascist regime is far from hyperbole. If they do so, it will come with the spectre of war, and one which hawkish commentators have been already ear-marked 2027 for a potential conflict with the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China over Taiwan. Such a war almost certainly will not eventuate, but the possibility can be used as an excuse to crush what remains of the one body that is capable of stopping the crushing rule of the far-right: an already weakened organised labour.

Of course, the rise of this international demagoguery is a sign of the times, a combination of social media rumours that circulate without responsibility among those least able to asses their validity and a major selection of the rentier-capitalist elite who are only capable of aggrandisement at the expense of others. The control of the former over the latter is the fundamental cause of our current circumstances; developing political economies and processes that prevent such a coup from ever occurring again is a subject for further inquiry. At the moment, one is ultimately reminded that politics is primarily determined by extra-parliamentary means, with the law and institutions dragging rather than leading. Strap yourself in and show solidarity to all, for this is going to be an extremely rough next four years, the worst in living memory.

kiaa

This could be a day when part of our common history goes into the museums and places of worship forever. A day in which statesmen shook their hands with the knowledge that a hundred years later, the horrors of WW1 have faded out of our memory and will be a subject of discussion only among historians. But the blood shed near Iper and Verdun and the sufferings of the thousands of young people - the future of Europe - are suddenly returning as a warning with a shocking reference to the present reality.

"There is sometimes a danger of repeating tragic events in history that will take away the peace that we thought was bought with the blood of our ancestors." French President Emmanuel Macron couldn't have formulated his message better to the dozens heads of state from around the world gathered in Paris for the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1. In his speech, the leader of France talked about "old demons" and "new ideologies" that again threaten world peace. And his words came just timely.

( Read more... )

fridi

I know this is counter-intuitive, but here's my take: the Trump presidency is the end point of a road the US society has been on for over 40 years.

During this time (of Neoliberalism) democratic institutions and the rule of law have been systematically dismantled as the result of the wholesale takeover of all relevant levers of power by American oligarchs (both in industry, characterized by the rise of monopolies, oligopolies, cartels, media conglomeration, and government, as the result of influence-peddling corruption).

This process can be thought of a "creeping fascism," as the legal, societal, and technological infrastructure for an eventual fascist state was put in place.

Trump's ascension to power (however it happened) represents the tipping over (of the country) into an actual fascist state.

Within that context, I believe we've been experiencing a sort of psyops campaign at the national (and international) level; this situation has caused enormous stress on the population, to the point that people feel psychologically exhausted and overwhelmed.

I see this unprecedented anonymous op-ed in that light: as another (psyops) attack on the population.

Who does it benefit (ultimately)? Trump. Why? It should be clear by now that he will not be impeached or prosecuted.

Given that reality, and given the depravity of his administration, convincing people that he may be a little (or a lot) crazy will ultimately serve as a shield for future unconscionable actions.

fridi

"Fascism is what happens when people try to ignore the complications and to make life too easy for themselves. Fascism denies all identities except the national identity and insists that I have obligations only towards my nation."

(Relevant Ted Talk)

Mussolini knew why people followed him. "People are tired of freedom". It really is as simple as that. Making decisions for yourself is hard. Keeping tabs on your politicians is hard. Being told what to do is so much easier. Moreover, you then conveniently have someone to blame for failures. And the general trend toward bigger government, bigger regulations, and against Constitutional rights is the perfect example of this. Little by little, freedoms can get eroded if people don't push back and assert their rights.

In a nutshell, fascism is what happens when people get lazy. And no one is immune to that. No one is immune to brainwashing, it's so easy that it's scary. I hate when people argue with me, but at the same time, I enjoy it. The moment the conflict ceases, is the moment to be scared.

Meanwhile, we're witnessing the resurgence of authoritarianism now, it's gaining momentum around the world, and even scarier, people are getting sold on the idea that it's more convenient to have a strongman taking the decisions for them. They prefer "law and order" to the trouble of having to think for themselves, and all that mess that is democracy. We're now hearing the argument that other than the Holocaust, no one can explain why fascism or national socialism is a bad thing. Ironically, the proponents of this argument are saying we've all just learned to take it as a fact without trying to analyze why it is wrong and evil.

So help me out on this one if you will: could we formulate the reasons that fascism is evil and wrong?

mahnmut

While we're about fringe and extreme political ideologies, could we say the Juche ideology of the Kims of North Korea is actually fascism of some sorts? I mean, anyone who compels their people to wear clothes made out of coal is a friggin facist, am I not right?

Juche basically argues that any nation should be self-sufficient - which may partially explain why NK is so prone to self-isolationism (the other part being the international sanctions because of their nuclear program, of course; as well as the fact that they didn't bow down to US pressure and become a Western neo-colony when they had the chance to). Juche is also basically a militant irredentist ideology that seeks to reunite the Korean people under one nation, and is dedicated to the preservation of the "Korean race" - so you might argue that it's inherently racist and nationalist as well.

( My take on my own inquiry )

underlankers.livejournal.com

Once upon a time there was a country which had been run by a small group of people who abrogated to themselves disproportionate power, excluding people from running the state they theoretically had a say in.
( cut for length )

The issues of our time do not have the kind of singular charismatic focuses that were prevalent in the 1930s/40s. The world is a much bigger place than it used to be, it's back to being a single interconnected bloc, and the major crises are economic and environmental ones. Subjective, in other words, not visibly parading massive Freudian testaments to.....political potency. Let's leave it at that. These are problems requiring long-term solutions that transcend previous gaps, the kind that invariably only see too little and too late of a solution, if a solution appears at all. Focusing on the horrors of a long-vanished time whose spirit is long-dead does not provide the answers we need.

The 21st Century's problems need 21st Century solutions. The 1940s are dead and must at some point become as obscure in terms of references as things like the Battles of Varna and Pruth, or the Battle of Myriokephalon, or the Battle of Cajamarca, or the Chu-Han Contention. We need new rhetoric for a new era.

peristaltor.livejournal.com

Just finished yet another book that gives me that Our Future Is Soooo Fucked feeling, Andrew Blechman's Leisureville, a more in-depth look into America's planned retirement communities than, surprisingly, anyone has yet undertaken. These places are hardly new; Ben Schleifer developed the first ironically named Youngtown in 1954 by simply buying an old dude ranch, gussying up the barracks and transforming them to a community center, parking mobile homes on lots and paving the roads to them. Add water, sewer and power, price the units low enough that people could pay for a lot with their meager Social Security allotment and pensions, and open for business. Youngtown's initial open house caused a traffic jam three hours long when ten times the ten thousand expected to turnout jammed the narrow county road north of Phoenix, then just a sleepy burg itself.

What Schleifer started has been copied again and again; but now certain copies have metastasized into engines of social change, ( sadly probably not for the better. )

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

So Hitler & Mussolini Have Their Own Beer Now, Thanks to Italian Distributor

One could travel to northern Italy and purchase beer, wine and liquor with the likeness of Hitler and Mussolini on the label.

Here are the bottles for the Hitler variety:

And the ones for Mussolini:

( So how can you get that stuff? )

underlankers.livejournal.com

The self-proclaimed champions of 100% Americanism claim to represent some pure version of American ideals, where they represent a pure freedom and a pure, honest representation of democracy. The problem is that these self-proclaimed champions embrace as one of their great "intellectuals" one Patrick Buchanan.
( cut for length )

It is not an exaggeration to say that say, the USSR was a morally repugnant and evil society as far as the men that led it and the institutions they created. It was, after all, a Tsarism that actually worked. It is repugnant to minimize the Holocaust and claim Hitler was a right charming fellow and to say that such gross anti-American pro-fascist rhetoric refighting the battles of Robert Taft and Charles Lindbergh *is* real "Western" values. If claiming WWII was a senseless, evil mistake is Western, I am proud to not value such concepts of "the West." And if claiming that the Treblinka Death Camp didn't really kill anyone is how one represents Western values, I damn well will be Eastern. This claim in particular puts Buchanan square into David Duke territory.

What say you?

underlankers.livejournal.com

This post is perfectly appropriate to the monthly topic but offers me the chance to work out a few irritations I have whenever the F-word comes up (Fascism, not fuck, though of course fucking is always a more fun topic than fascism) for cheap political points by people without any obvious elements to support their case. Specifically the source of irritation is a claim made by both the Mises-worshiping Right and the Trotsky-worshiping left that the historical totalitarianisms were exactly the same. They generally prefer to use the word "fascist", claiming for instance that Stalin and Mao were fascists when reality, of course, says something precisely different.
( cut for length )

To me I think that the dangers in treating all totalitarians as equal and the same is that these movements are clearly not the same,and it does no good to go after a crocodile with methods appropriate for hunting wolves. The very menace movements like this posed means that their true natures should be remembered, and their clear differences noted. Otherwise absurdity reigns triumphant in a fashion that while producing some hilarity portends a greater menace than recognizing the obvious evils and dangers of both of these long-dead and unlamented movements.

underlankers.livejournal.com

Why is the generic go-to bad guy totalitarianism fascism? I mean everyone from Jonah Goldberg to Vidal uses that word to identify someone as a member of the Generic Evil Horde of Bad Guys of Doomy DoomTM but nobody seems to point out the obvious that fascism only survived in the Hispanophone and Lusophone countries the USA propped up against the other guys. It would seem to me that the Stalinists, who went from barely keeping their own capital intact to overrunning half of Europe to stay there for several decades would be the more obvious totalitarians to admire. Why?

1) They won the damn war. Fascism in its German variant lasted two years, Communism in its Soviet variant lasted for most of the 20th Century and was quite epic in terms of winning wars. The Communists in fact arguably were only good at winning wars but that's another discussion. Why do we admire and consider a bunch of backstabbing losers like the the Nazis, who weren't even able to keep their own promises to themselves that well but not the guys who both won the war and pretty much shitcanned the Nazis across the greater part of the Balkans?

2) Stalin looks like Mario. Seriously, it's almost uncanny. Charlie Chaplin v. Mario should totally go to the plumber who regularly kicks turtle ass and rescues princesses no doubt to enjoy another kind of plumbing. Hitler's a pretty ugly guy with a terrible taste in facial hair, Stalin had a pornstache. Obviously Stalin has more testosterone, so we should admire the real mensch.

3) The Soviets had everything people admire about the Nazis, and didn't have death camps. You can admire your snazzy uniforms, butchering political secret police that slay entire towns and shoot thousands of people without mercy, murderous rapist armies that had precious little restraining them and The PartyTM without having to worry about the whole Treblinka and Sobibor thing. Too, the Soviets even had Jews in their leadership, so there's not the same risk of being shown to be a Jew-hater for admiring a bunch of murderous dicks.

4) Without the USSR we would not have the Command and Conquer series, and honestly, wouldn't the world be poorer without it? I mean really, that's a franchise which would be boring with Nazis in it, it'd be Captain America all over again and comic books did that first.

And finally.....

5) Soviet just sounds better to say than Nazi. Nazi has a sad tendency to run into nazi unpleasant puns that end up making one seem unwilling to fasc the music, Soviet is like the word smock, people should really just say it because it sounds funny and most people don't know what it means and the ones who do prefer to keep their own council.

This satire brought to you by Underlankers Incorporated, you may now return to your regularly scheduled LJ political discussion.

mintogrubb.livejournal.com

In order to woo British voters, the BNP has dropped anti Semitism from its agenda
and now targets Muslims instead. Hitler gave anti Semitism a bad name, and when the presenter on BBC's programme 'Question Time' reminded the BNP spokesman Nick Griffin that Griffin himself had once said 'Hitler just went a bit too far' it proved to be disastrous for Griffin as he fumbled for an answer to distance himself from his earlier position. ( Read more... )

underlankers.livejournal.com

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015711360_norway24.html

http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/breivik-my-beloved-oslo-has-become-a-multicultural-shithole/

I am one of the most pedantic people on this community about what is and isn't fascism. The manifesto and comments of this particular terrorist are fascist, plain and simple. To use this snippet:
( cut for FLs )
__________________

Now, my thoughts on this are that this is not a surprise in a steadily growing climate of racism and Neo-Nazism in Europe. Fascists now as then are not shy about mass murder, they have always seen it as a positive and necessary good. Fascists have also always had a fear of multi-culturalism, because the fundamental basis of the fascist state is irreconcilable with said ideology. Only the surviving members of the Hitler fanclub use Nordic/Germanic race these days as a descriptive term, which admittedly is circumstantial evidence (obviously there are some that don't but then http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HitlerAteSugar).

So this is the first terrorist attack by Neo-Nazis in Europe in quite some time. I suppose with the WWII generation dying off the Hitler fanclub thinks it can go back in business. >.<

mintogrubb.livejournal.com

As I have said before, the working class in Britain have a history of their own, and it is different from what you learn in British Schools, and is more about working people themselves, and less about kings and queens and miltary conquests.

Here is one pivotal and instructive event from this view of history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Dock_Strike_of_1889

The dockers went on strike for a tanner - sixpence. Not worth a lot of money these days, but to a poor family back then, sixpence would have been a godsend. And the London dock workers wanted sixpence, not fivepence, for their pay. They went on strike for it, even though it meant hardship in the short term. ( Read more... )

underlankers.livejournal.com

Before I start this post, I might note that everything Paft has said about Liberal Fascism is historically accurate and she's rather better at wasting time with Jonah Goldberg's Nepotistic piece of garbage than I am. What I'm going to bring up here is this growing meme on the progressive side that the USA is now a fascist state, and that Barack Obama is just a velvet glove version of Bush-fascism.

The following link-spam shall be under a cut:

( cut to spare FLs )

Notice one thing every one of these articles has in common? You see there is a problem that is very obvious when the likes of Jonah Goldberg make ridiculous assertions that Woodrow Wilson was the first fascist, this when Mussolini was still a member of the Italian Socialist Party. Even more ludicrous are comparisons of the Obama Administration with any variation of historical fascism, from the Silver Legion of America to the Legion of the Archangel St. Michael. Still more ludicrous is seeing Bush as anything but a Texas-accented Woodrow Wilson with less eloquence than the other.
( another cut because this is pretty long )

Both Liberal Fascism and the articles linked above are symptoms of a common disease in US politics whereby terms with very real, literal meanings like Communism (which in the real world applies to the regimes that began with the USSR and Mongolia and spread for a time to much of Eastern Europe and Asia) and fascism, meanings horrible enough that neither should be thrown around with rhetorical abandon, are both watered down as to be essentially meaningless. Obama is not Stalin or Pol Pot, Bush was a dumber Woodrow Wilson, not Hitler or Antonescu. Similarly that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh say nasty things does not make them fascist. Nor does that make Tea Party rallies fascist rallies.

Real fascism is always murderous and quasi-military in overtone. There is no "talking only" variant. Nor is fascism a version of Left-Wing politics. US political issues, like the stagnant real wages connected with the increasing gap between rich and poor and the mainstreaming of the Religious Right, once seen as a fringe to be safely ignored, not to mention the US predilection for senseless military ventures that serve to make us a lot of enemies with no gains that make it worthwhile are much more serious than trash-talking assclowns who are just that: trash-talking assclowns.

underlankers.livejournal.com

As this book keeps recurring as a topic in this community, I'll remind the apologists for this particular piece of fishwrap what exactly it is that they're trying to claim as high scholarship on international fascism of the 1920s through the 1940s:

Do these striking parallels mean that today’s liberals are genocidal maniacs, intent on conquering the world and imposing a new racial order? Not at all. Yet it is hard to deny that modern progressivism and classical fascism shared the same intellectual roots. We often forget, for example, that Mussolini and Hitler had many admirers in the United States. W.E.B. Du Bois was inspired by Hitler's Germany, and Irving Berlin praised Mussolini in song. Many fascist tenets were espoused by American progressives like John Dewey and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR incorporated fascist policies in the New Deal.

Fascism was an international movement that appeared in different forms in different countries, depending on the vagaries of national culture and temperament. In Germany, fascism appeared as genocidal racist nationalism. In America, it took a “friendlier,” more liberal form. The modern heirs of this “friendly fascist” tradition include the New York Times, the Democratic Party, the Ivy League professoriate, and the liberals of Hollywood. The quintessential Liberal Fascist isn't an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore.

_______________

( cut for FLs )

So those on this community that reference this particular book that could more or less define the TVTropes Critical Research Failure on its own........this is what you're referencing. And this, BTW, is why I have a hard time taking anything the Goldberg apologists say seriously.

steve-potocin.livejournal.com

The great Thomas Sowell, one of this nation's finest minds, has just published a new book, "Intellectuals and Society"....it is a must read

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/02/12/intellectuals-and-society/

"These intellectuals are different from others not only because of their interests, but because of their method of operation and the incentive structure that comes with it. Unlike carpenters, who produce tangible goods, or scientists, who produce theories that must be tested against results, the dealer in pure ideas is cut off from the normal feedback mechanisms that filter faulty notions out of the intellectual landscape."

"Not only have intellectuals been insulated from material consequences, they have often enjoyed immunity from even a loss of reputation after having been demonstrably wrong.” Their insularity can also lead to dilettantism, as the intellectual is not constrained from wandering into fields completely outside his or her own. The pattern is clear: Chomsky the linguist becomes Chomsky the foreign-policy wonk."

You might remember last week I posted excerts from Mussolini's Fascist Manifesto....many of which parallel the screeds of Leftists....Sowell is here to remind us that contrary the historical revisionism of leftist academics....Fascism was seen as a LEFT-WING ideology...not right-wing...\

"It comes as no surprise, then, that the revolutionary creeds of Italian Fascism and German National Socialism were especially intriguing to the intelligentsia, despite their being mislabeled today as “conservative” or “right wing” movements. Sowell reminds us that these ideologies were originally considered left wing by the intellectuals themselves. Lincoln Steffens, who glorified Soviet Communism, also reserved praise for Mussolini. Other radical socialists who shared his sentiments included British novelist H.G. Wells and American historian Charles Beard.

Still more saw the ultimate promise of collectivism in the Nazi movement. During the 1920s, W.E.B. Du Bois, prominent black historical figure and devoted communist, became so fascinated with Nazism that he decorated the magazine he edited with swastikas. This love affair was not a one-night stand, either. As late as 1936, Du Bois remarked that “Germany today is, next to Russia, the greatest exemplar of Marxian socialism in the world.”"

The Conservative is wise and brave because He stands alone because he stands alone in his doubt of intellectuals and resists the Vision of the Anointed....whereas the Leftists sheepishly endorse any idea that emanates from their ivory tower.....Socialism...Marxism...Progressive Education...Affirmative Action...Anti-Americanism....all are products of the delusional intellectuals...thankfully we have people like Thomas Sowell to defend FREEDOM and the values which make America great....

ed-rex.livejournal.com

'If you're simply fed up with trying to counter fantasies and lies with logic and truth, remember that "the price of liberty is eternal vigilance". Freedom never comes without a price, a price paid (in good times) with time and with effort, with the repetition of the truth in the face of brazen lies.

'If you believe that all politicians are liars or corrupt and so avoid the political process all together, you deny a truth repeated throughout history, that all politicians are not the same. Even a seriously cynical mind, if honest with itself, understands there is a very real difference between the pathology of a Mussolini and the petty misdemeanours of a Bill Clinton.'

Scared? Maybe you should be

Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship [...] the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

— Hermann Goering interviewed during the Nuremberg Trials, as per the invaluable Snopes.com.

Shutting down for being shouted down

I know, I know: long-time readers will notice that I have quoted Goering before, but the words bear repeating.

I was talking with my father last week and we had a brief conversation about the "debate" they're having south of the border on the Obama administration's attempt to reform the American health care system.

"Oh that," I said, "I haven't really been paying much attention. I can't take the lies and the lunacy any more. I think it was the senior citizen, who didn't understand that Medicare already is 'socialized medicine' that broke my brain."

But that's an important strategy used by fascists — to turn "debate" into such a stinking pile of lies that ordinary people simply shake their heads and ignore it all-together, either believing that no reasonable person could possibly be taken in, or simply unwilling to expend the necessary energy to call the liars on their lies. (Yes, I used the word, fascist; give me a chance. I'm going somewhere with this.)

( Find out where! )

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Talk politics.

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Entries tagged with fascism

The Turd Reich in action

The Nerd Reich

Trump and the Global Rise of the Far-Right

Demons are here to stay

Re: The anonymous White House Resistance op-ed

On fascism

On-topic: The Juche ideology

A story:

Geritopia

To LOL or to sob: Cheers to Hitler?

The real version of Conservative Fascism:

Why Communism and Fascism are different things:

A question:

The changing face of Fascism in Britain

Fascist murders children, uses bomb for fear of multi-cultural Norway with integrated Muslims:

Working class history - from the 1889 Dockers Strike to Cable Street and beyond.

On lies, damned lies, and fascists:

On Liberal Fascism:

The Folly of the Intellectuals.....

Land of the free? Home of the Brave?

Scared? Maybe you should be

Shutting down for being shouted down

Credits & Style Info

Links

May 2025

Summary