How close are we to being a Fascist country?

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

I heard some guy from Vanity Fair last night talk about it and it seems eerily similar to what bush and co have been doing for the last 5 years. My question is then are we about to be a fascist country? Are we there yet? Or when will we know we are there?

[LaurenG]

1. We already are, sorry. nt

[silverweb]

2. You might find some answers here:

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/harpers101205.cfm

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

5. that'll help thanks n/t

[GrumpyGreg]

3. We'll be there when the railroads run on time. (Old,old joke)

[punpirate]

6. Someone writing recently said her ancient...

... grandmother, who had lived in Italy during the reign of Mussolini's "Black Shirts," said, "they didn't make the trains run on time. They just stopped people from complaining about it."

By that standard, we're much closer than we think....

[sofa king]

9. That's pretty much true.

According to some now forgotten source I read years ago, the Fascists also re-wrote the railroad timetables to cover their failure to make the trains run on time.

http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.htm

But seriously, I think this pales in comparison to the deceptions being propagated by the criminal elements of the Republican Party today.

However, there are critical differences between the Fascists of yore and the Republicans of today. They don't yet need a police state because they practice artful deception instead.

When the people begin to realize how bad they've been deceived, however, they're going to wish they had a police state. I have no doubt whatsoever that they will try.

[punpirate]

11. Even Mussolini saw the need to maintain...

... the appearance of democratic structure, but what is happening today is the same as under Mussolini--collusion between the people's representatives and the administration of government, for the sake of retaining one-party rule.

As for artful deception, that's being aided by the national security state in this country, which, in different ways, is far more powerful than the police states of old.

Cheers.

[AntiFascist]

4. Fascism is more than just corporatism....

Mussolini was likely trying to deflect from the brutality aspect of fascism. Pre-emptive invasion of a foreign country, occupying that country through force and violence, torturing prisoners in secret prisons, using torture for psy ops purposes....these are all aspects of a type of fascism we all know too well.

[Sandpiper]

7. We're already there: Let me count the ways

1) A Leader whose support is as much a personality cult as a political movement

2) Corporate Oligarchy

3) Worship of Heroic Militarism

4) Wars of Aggression

5) Demonization of an ethnic "enemy"

6) Dissent labelled as unpatriotic/treasonous

7) The Patriot Act and its evisceration of the Bill of Rights

8) Secret gulag-style prisons and torture centers

9) Anti-intellectualism and open hostility towards science, scientists, researchers, university professors, etc.



I don't know how much more obvious it needs to be for Americans to wake up and see what's become of their country.

[Gato Moteado]

8. all that's left to be done is for cheney to grow the little square, black

moustache and that will be it.

[DBoon]

10. When a prominent Democratic leader is murdered

an there is no attempt to conceal that it is anything bu a political hit job

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/murder_of_matteotti.htm

...On May 30th 1924, Matteotti made an passionate speech in Rome condemning Mussolini's leadership of Italy. He declared that the 1924 election was a fraud and that the Fascists had won it using violence and a system corrupted by the Acerbo Law. He was clearly seen as a threat to Mussolini and his speeches had the potential of undermining Mussolini's position.

On June 10th, Matteotti disappeared. People in the street where he lived had noticed that his house was being watched and they specifically noticed a Lancia car parked in the street which did not belong to anyone in that street. One man had taken the registration number of the car and after Matteotti had disappeared, he gave this number to the police. The police quickly traced the car and found blood on the back seat. This was in an era before DNA testing and the finding of blood itself did not specifically link the car to Matteotti...

[rock]

12. While there are currently elements of Facism

in the government, we are mostly still a Democracy. However, this implies that the people must make some hard choices that should be rationally based. We, on the whole, have been negligent in that respect.

[Faygo Kid]

13. We were closer right after the election. Now, the rebellion.

Unless martial law is declared (always a possibility, before 2008), we are moving away, not toward, fascism. And learning that the media is no protection (Woodward, Miller). And the waking up has really begun, even for the uninformed. Uh-oh. War is not the answer.

[KamaAina]

14. Too close for comfort!

Kick 'em out NOW! (or at least in Nov. '06)

[MindPilot]

15. Anyone recall the tv movie "V"?

There was an old jewish guy who'd seen it all before...

Right after the Patriot Act was introduced, I went to a meeting sponsored by the Lawyers Guild, and there was that old jewish guy who'd seen it all before. He spoke about how in Germany, the very first thing that went away was judicial review.

We've been fascist for right about four years.

[Hubert Flottz]

16. I think you are exactly right.

9/11 was the Reichstag Fire volume II.

[proud patriot]

17. "It's always later than you think in an Empire"

:think: