It's all in the cap locks

The subject of tonight's episode (the 2nd in the series) will be fascism. Unlike the previous topic of racism, fascism is a lot trickier to define. Just like with Anarchy and anarchy, whether Fascism is capitilzed or not makes a big difference. Technically, capitilized Fascism is nearly synonomous with Italian Fascism and Mussolini, whereas uncapitilized fascism is a more generic term, that isn't as strictly defined. People often assume that that the word nazi and fascist are nearly synomous, but many scholards don't even consider Nazism to actually be Fascism, while others see it as mearly an offshoot of generic fascism. It seems as though nazis are about as poor an example of true Fascism as the USSR's communism was of true Socialism. That's why when it's not really realistic when people seem so offended when someone is called fascist. Sure, it's often implied that calling someone fascist is comparing them to Hitler, but I think we need to learned to detach the two in our minds. My purpose here is to demonstrate that American fascism isn't as far-fetched as it seems. While comparing it to Fascism might be a litle tough, there's certainly simliarities to be pointed out with regards to generic fascism. A political scientist studied the fascist regimes of 5 major countries, and found them all to share these same 14 characteristics. This is taken directly from his findings (unedited)...

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.


2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.


3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.


4. Supremacy of the Military

Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.


5. Rampant Sexism

The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.


6. Controlled Mass Media

Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.


7. Obsession with National Security

Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.


8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.


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.


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 .


11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.


12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.


13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.


14. Fraudulent Elections

Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Now if we use this as our I reference point, I personally think that the USA easily qualifies for 12 of those and I suspect that any layman can easily agree with at least 10 of the 14, which is a pretty high number. Sexism is a tough one. I think it's just like racism, alive and healthy, but so ingrained in society that's it's hard to bring into the light. So while I'm certainly not denying that we live in a patriarchal society, I don't think the USA is an more sexist than any other country. As far as Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts, I think that one is present, but even more subtle than the others, so I won't argue for that one. But I think the other 10 or 12 are easy to spot. The Bush Administration has been caught paying journalists to praise the government, and embedded-jounralists in the war are a pretty obvious conundrum too. If you were a general, would you allow any journalist near your soldiers if you thought he might print any dissent? Self-censorship is rampant these days, and that's really typical of the whole situation. There's no need to have a dictator if the elections are rigged, if you catch my drift. You can cry "DEMOCRACY" all you want, but at the end of the day, the way the system is set up down south, it's all very legal and suppposedly representative to pass something like the Patriot Acts (see Characteristics 2,7, & 12), even if it does bring about a police state. It's becoming clear that we can no longer rely on common sense and the media to help lead us through the storm. Things are not as they appear on the surface, and until we learn to see through the veil, the current prevailing themes of the day are going to keep spreading until 1984 (the book, not the year) stops seeming so distant afterall.