Friday, September 1

[IP] more on Keith Olbermann: There Is Fascism, Indeed

Henrik Brameus quotes Lawrence W. Briit (via Dave Farber's IP mail list):
14 common behaviours of fascism.
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.
✔ Yeah, I think we're are definitely doing this.

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
✔ With the creation of free speech zones, the incredibly poor handling of people outside and inside of the US, some of which are definitely US citizens, this is a definite yes.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.
✔ al Qeda, Islamo-Fascists, Bin Laden. We got that.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.
✔ Aren't we showing ourselves at least a taste of this with Rumsfeld shooting his jaw off?

5. Rampant sexism.
✖ I don't see this happening. Yet. With Condi Rice, it's almost the opposite, unless she's got more under that skirt than GWB has in his pants. Although it's still basically male dominated.

6. A controlled mass media.
✖ As Mr. Olbermann shows, they don't have that down. Yet.

7. Obsession with national security.
✔ We have that in plentiful abundance here. Security measures that really do nothing for the security of the people. Of course, meanwhile, we have a border that's pretty darn porous. If someone attacks us through that way, you'd really better watch out.

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together.
✔ There is no doubt in my mind that this is happening. It's pretty sad when the President makes orders because "God" told him to.

9. Power of corporations protected.
✔ All these tax cuts and what not. Yep.

10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.
✔ We're getting there, and Congress has tried to help there as well.

11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts.
✔ Yeah, let's cut off the NEA because a very small portion of what they do is controversial. Let's cut of PBS while we're at it. We're there. Not fully maybe, but we're there.

12. Obsession with crime and punishment.
✔ What's going on at Guantanimo certainly tells me this is at least in process.

13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
✔ Does Haliburton ring a bell in the Pavlovian sense? Does Enron? Cheney?

14. Fraudulent elections.
✔ If we didn't have a fraudulent election in 2000, Ohio certainly points out to the fraud in 2004.

Relevant Link

Permanent link posted by bytehead @ 9/01/2006 07:58:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post