20-09-2009, 09:58 AM
As a distant observer but with a real stake in the outcome, I can't agree with most of this analysis.
Paxton's def of fascism as presented is doctrinaire and party oriented. Plug left in here, plug right in there, examine for symptoms of fascist tendencies.
Real fascism is about mobilizing popular discontent and aspirations to serve an elite corporate industrial set of interests. Whether the mobilizers call themselves leftist or rightist is insignificant. The extreme left and the extreme right perform exactly the same in historical practice. The real continuum is a line that runs from no government to total government control, not from right to left.
The author is also stretching reality to fit the theory in asserting that mobilized thugs are sent to attack farm workers specifically, and thus anti-immigration activists in America fit the bill of thugs.
Fascism only occurs in well established democracies? When did that ever happen? In the Weimar republic? In Italy?? In Russia??
In America right now Obama has mobilized the masses to rally around a corporate agenda that doesn't differ from that of the Bush administration in any way. Congress likewise is seeking to immunize itself from public input by bellitling the concerns of constituents, calling the opposition names and lying about the size of the opposition to both parties.
Externally, viewing the symptoms, Obama has furthered the cause of fascism beyond what Bush was capable of doing by recruiting child soldiers a la obama corps, boy scouts of america, girl scouts etc. The PSAs (public service announcements) show children in military uniforms and formations. Voices of dissent at so-called townhall meetings intended to be venues for demonstrating public support of government policy are being not just shouted down, hauled off and arrested, but physically assaulted by pro-government enthusiastic crowds, aka mobs. These are the hallmarks of fascism taking root in society.
Obama has faked the American public out like a pass in a basketball game, masquerading as a progressive in order to buy enough time before people catch on to ram through an inherited corporate agenda that includes expansion into central Asia, a broadening of the conflagration to new frontiers, a dissolution of civil rights in America and in allied states and a popular rewriting of history designed to appeal to the lowest intellectual denominator in society. This is fascism.
(to admit a bias: I think the "birthers" have a damn good point. I thought it was a canard until the Obama people started hiding documents and the governor of Hawaii lied on his behalf. Since when does an employer not have the right to check the eligibility for employment of a candidate? Since around the same time the public started believing that politicians form a special elite higher than mere mortal members of society. When John Kerry couldn't answer some hard questions and so remained silent as police illegally administered shock treatment to a member of the audience, people told me with a straight face that it had to be done because Kerry was a former presidential candidate and VIP.)
Paxton's def of fascism as presented is doctrinaire and party oriented. Plug left in here, plug right in there, examine for symptoms of fascist tendencies.
Real fascism is about mobilizing popular discontent and aspirations to serve an elite corporate industrial set of interests. Whether the mobilizers call themselves leftist or rightist is insignificant. The extreme left and the extreme right perform exactly the same in historical practice. The real continuum is a line that runs from no government to total government control, not from right to left.
The author is also stretching reality to fit the theory in asserting that mobilized thugs are sent to attack farm workers specifically, and thus anti-immigration activists in America fit the bill of thugs.
Fascism only occurs in well established democracies? When did that ever happen? In the Weimar republic? In Italy?? In Russia??
In America right now Obama has mobilized the masses to rally around a corporate agenda that doesn't differ from that of the Bush administration in any way. Congress likewise is seeking to immunize itself from public input by bellitling the concerns of constituents, calling the opposition names and lying about the size of the opposition to both parties.
Externally, viewing the symptoms, Obama has furthered the cause of fascism beyond what Bush was capable of doing by recruiting child soldiers a la obama corps, boy scouts of america, girl scouts etc. The PSAs (public service announcements) show children in military uniforms and formations. Voices of dissent at so-called townhall meetings intended to be venues for demonstrating public support of government policy are being not just shouted down, hauled off and arrested, but physically assaulted by pro-government enthusiastic crowds, aka mobs. These are the hallmarks of fascism taking root in society.
Obama has faked the American public out like a pass in a basketball game, masquerading as a progressive in order to buy enough time before people catch on to ram through an inherited corporate agenda that includes expansion into central Asia, a broadening of the conflagration to new frontiers, a dissolution of civil rights in America and in allied states and a popular rewriting of history designed to appeal to the lowest intellectual denominator in society. This is fascism.
(to admit a bias: I think the "birthers" have a damn good point. I thought it was a canard until the Obama people started hiding documents and the governor of Hawaii lied on his behalf. Since when does an employer not have the right to check the eligibility for employment of a candidate? Since around the same time the public started believing that politicians form a special elite higher than mere mortal members of society. When John Kerry couldn't answer some hard questions and so remained silent as police illegally administered shock treatment to a member of the audience, people told me with a straight face that it had to be done because Kerry was a former presidential candidate and VIP.)