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Showing posts with label Fascism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fascism. Show all posts

Saturday, August 31, 2019

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Saturday, July 07, 2018

Brainwash Them At An Early Age

Here is a video that is certain to make you ill on a Saturday morning (see also: Germanys, 1930s, nationalism, fascism).

Sunday, July 01, 2018

Saturday, October 21, 2017

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Outrage Over Outrage

I've been very amused at just how clueless conservatives have been over the protests and anger over the election of Donald Trump. How dare they question his racist statements and stated policy paths? He doesn't really mean those things so why should people be upset? Silly, silly liberals...

Even more hilarious is how fucking dense they over what exactly happens when leaders use scapegoats to cement nationalistic rule. Surely they can't be so ignorant to have forgotten about what happened in Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia in the early 20th century. Getting angry over people (Muslims, Hispanics) being naturally worried that they are now targets of either civilian or government oppression makes you more than stupid.

It makes you a dick.

In fact, it makes you like these guys...















Oh, and by the way, Godwin's law no longer applies in this situation. Reality is not the internet. And when someone openly advocates for the registration of an ethnicity or religion, it's time to recognize it for what it is.

Fascism.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Two Articles of Warning

Two great pieces popped up in my news feed this week. The first was written right after Brexit on July 23 of this year.

History tells us what may happen next with Brexit & Trump

At a local level in time people think things are fine, then things rapidly spiral out of control until they become unstoppable, and we wreak massive destruction on ourselves. For the people living in the midst of this it is hard to see happening and hard to understand. To historians later it all makes sense and we see clearly how one thing led to another. During the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme I was struck that it was a direct outcome of the assassination of an Austrian Arch Duke in Bosnia. I very much doubt anyone at the time thought the killing of a European royal would lead to the death of 17 million people.

This is, of course, what the right wing bloggers have been predicting for years would happen for years if Democrats were allowed to lead. But, as is usually the case, they engage in projection and completely fail to see that it's THEM that are taking steps toward this. If they could only see how they are secret authoritarians...

The other article is about the value of alarmism,

Alarmism saved my family from Hitler: Why I won’t tell anyone to calm down about Trump

Again, the alt right has been saying for years that Obama is Hitler but that's more of an adolescent whine about doing things they don't wanna do, dad gubmit! Hitler rose to power by using an ethnic group as a scapegoat (the Jews) to cement his fascist power. The Democrats never had such a scapegoat.

But the alt right and Donald Trump certainly do. In fact, they have several.

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Best Political Moment of 2015

Looking back on this year, I suppose I could note the various accomplishments that the president helped to achieve (Iran, final legality of the ACA, gay marriage legal in all states, ISIL long term strategy drives group out of Ramadi... among others).

Honestly, though, the best political moment of this year was all thanks to Donald Trump. He has singlehandedly laid bare the neo-fascist, ultra-nationalism that permeates a substantial portion of the conservative base. There can be no more denials of racism when the leading candidate for the GOP (now five months running) calls for no Muslims to be allowed in the country AND THE PEOPLE CHEER.

If you want to know how totalitarians take over a country, this is it. They use anger, hate and fear as a fuel to drive nationalism and pick a scapegoat. With the Nazis, it was the Jews. With the Soviets, it was capitalists. With the Italian fascists, it was socialists. With the Japanese, it was the imperialists...even though they themselves were imperialists.

It's this last example that makes me crack up the most. The conservative base bemoans state control and authoritarianism. Yet, that is EXACTLY what they want. They want a return to the aristocracy of the Antebellum South where the non whites remained at their lower station. Donald Trump is their perfect king, even using the word "reign" instead of presidency.

He is their hero and the Best Political Moment of 2015.


Friday, December 11, 2015

Look In The Fucking Mirror

Since Barack Obama was elected president, we've heard quite a bit about fascism, Hitler, and totalitarian states from the Children (aka conservatives in the United States). They've foamed at the mouth and fretted their little noses about fascist states and re-education camps.

Yet, their support for Donald Trump and his call to ban all Jews...oops...I mean Muslims from the United States shows just how adept they are at the art of projection. As the Times recently noted, this attitude has spread across Europe and it's all rooted in that same insecure, "appeal to fear" nationalism that we saw in the late 19th century.

It was this same nationalism that gave rise to Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler. A key ingredient to this form of totalitarianism is a scapegoat and, boy oh boy, do we have one now. As I have said for quite some time now, conservatives are deeply bigoted and support the policies that Trump is espousing.

Thankfully, we have people like Doris Matsui to remind us when our country has made horrible mistakes.