Living Under Fascism

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Living Under Fascism
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Witnessing the Pain :: Post Democratic America 2005 & Beyond
Excerpts:

<a href="newyork.tribe.net/thread/3f...c6825fdec5 here for Original Article Posting</a>

?They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.

Their final objective toward which all their deceit is
directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection." -

In an essay coyly titled ?Fascism Anyone?, ?Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, identifies social and political agendas common to fascist regimes. His comparisons of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Suharto, and Pinochet yielded this list of 14 ?identifying characteristics of fascism. ?(The following article is from Free Inquiry magazine, Volume 23, Number 2.

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 the media are directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media are 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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What ?s coming in Post Democratic America:

When all fascisms exhibit the same social and political agendas (the 14 points listed by Britt), then it is not hard to predict where a new fascist uprising will lead. And it is not hard. The actions
of fascists and the social and political effects of fascism and fundamentalism are clear and sobering. Here is some of what ?s coming,
what will be happening in our country in the next few years:

* The theft of all social security funds, to be transferred to those who control money, and the increasing destitution of all those dependent on social security and social welfare programs.

* Rising numbers of uninsured people in this country that already has the highest percentage of citizens without health insurance in the developed world.

* Increased loss of funding for public education combined with increased support for vouchers, urging Americans to entrust their children ?s education to Christian schools.

* More restrictions on civil liberties as America is turned into the police state necessary for fascism to work.

* Withdrawal of virtually all funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System. At their best, these media sometimes
encourage critical questioning, so they are correctly seen as enemies of the state ?s official stories.

* The reinstatement of a draft, from which the children of privileged parents will again be mostly exempt, leaving our poorest children to fight and die in wars of imperialism and greed that could
never benefit them anyway.

* More imperialistic invasions: of Iran and others, and the construction of a huge permanent embassy in Iraq.

* More restrictions on speech, under the flag of national security.

* Control of the internet to remove or cripple it as an instrument of free communication that is exempt from government control. This will
be presented as a necessary anti-terrorist measure.

* Efforts to remove the tax-exempt status of churches like this one, and to characterize them as anti-American.

* Tighter control of the editorial bias of almost all media, and demonization of the few media they are unable to control ?the New York
Times, for instance.

* Continued outsourcing of jobs, including more white-collar jobs, to produce greater profits for those who control the money and direct
the society, while simultaneously reducing America ?s workers to a more desperate and powerless status.

* Moves in the banking industry to make it impossible for an increasing number of Americans to own their homes. As they did in the
1930s, those who control the money know that it is to their advantage and profit to keep others renting rather than owning.

* Criminalization of those who protest, as un-American, with arrests, detentions and harassment increasing. We already have a higher percentage of our citizens in prison than any other country in the world. That percentage will increase.

* In the near future, it will be illegal or at least dangerous to say the things I have said here this morning. In the fascist story, these things are un-American. In the real history of a democratic
America, they were seen as profoundly patriotic, as the kind of critical questions that kept the American spirit alive ?the kind of questions, incidentally, that our media were supposed to be pressing. - fff , posted 12/19/04

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