Hey i was wondering what is the true definition of fascism. i know that nazi's are fascist and italy used to be a fascist country during world war 2. From some of the stuff i have heard i pictured fascism where they want a perfect society. Like hitler's idea of a perfect society was killing off everyone except for white aryan's with blonde hair and blue eyes. Mussolini wanted a pig on every street corner in his revolution. My thought of the reason Mussolini wanting a pig on every street corner was to let people know that where ever you go in that neighborhood your being watched by authority so u better be on your best behavior or you'll go to jail. I don't know a lot about fascism, so could someone explain. I'd like a better understanding of it.
http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/Structure3.htm they seemed to have a good definition of it
The last half of the article seems to define it well: " 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. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution. 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 and letters is openly attacked. 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. "
"Fascism creates confusion through "facts". It relies on junk science, revisionism, the elimination of cultural records/treasures and obfuscations to create its case and gain acceptance." The U.S. seems to be suffering a bout of the use of 'junk science' on the part of certain religious/political groups, especially during the past 20 years. .
Well, fasciscm is about percieving the state as a living organism that all the statesman are apart of. This means that you listen to the brain, the government, and worship them religiously. You are trained from an early age that you are only a small part of the larger whole. Invariably this leads to thinking that other people are parasites, living off your state, and mass executions follow. Fascism(or however the hell you spell it) should not be confused with communism.
Fascism is the mixing of the state and the economy. Fascism has a strong focus on nationalism, capitalism as the economic system, but with socialist rhetoric. Fascism seeks to binding the classes together (to put it in sheer terms, making the poor guy, friends with the rich guy). This is somehow going to happen through a "great national feeling". Somewhat like the US nationalism. Fascists want a strong state, with the people's duties toward the state. The state will in turn, (in theory) serve the people. Fascists seek "a third way", between marxian socialism, and capitalism. "...Fascism [is] the complete opposite of ... Marxian Socialism, the materialist conception of history of human civilization can be explained simply through the conflict of interests among the various social groups and by the change and development in the means and instruments of production...." Add a little authoritarianism to the social democratic parties, and you pretty much have fascism.
Speaking of Facists... Do a Google or Yahoo search on GW's granddaddy Prescott Bush. You'll find some pretty interesting things about ol grandpa Bush.
Then you laugh in vain Matthew ignoring the writing on the wall as the police surveillance state and steady elimination of Constitutional protections continues unabated. Just because you don't see a holocaust taking place immediately doesnt mean the incremental process of tyrannical abuse of power isnt transpiring. More than sufficient parallels have already been exposed both in the rhetoric employed, the media santisation and control, the regular character smears of any who too visibly call this admin to account, the refusal to submit to investigative scrutiny, massive allocations into the MIC at the expense of the public's future opportunities, obscene denials of due process of law so long as one is simply accused of being a "terrorist", and the list goes on. The resurgence of fascism and the inattentive apathy of the public which is enabling its ascent is quite real.
Now when i read the definitions and read other definitions i can quite see the simplistic comparisons that can be made..sure you can put a broad overview of fascism on a lot of countries . Ramp it up to your proportions or compare it to places like germany circa pre 1945..and it makes it all slightly laughable. If you think things like 'sleep deprevation' or 'loud noises' is torture or cctv cameras are the orwellian nighmare come true.. then sure America is the pinnacle of a fascist state if ever i saw one...i am probably deluding myself right ?.
Why does it have to the "pinnacle" of a fascist state in order for you to take the steady ascendancy of fascist ideological tyranny serously? Noone said it was the "pinnacle", merely that it is indeed steadily displaying the signs of fascism which are, as you seem to demonstrate, foolishly being ignored. Considering the lessons taught through much suffering on this side of the pond the last time fascism arose (and that from a duly and popularly elected government to begin with) I find it all the more inexcusable that you , like many others (and especially this current generation of European leaders) should make light of the warning signs before it does coelesce into something capable of much further reaching oppression than that exercised by 1930's Germany. Obviously all it takes is long term PR, branding and mythmaking to convince those who should know better that it just can't happen in the good ol US of A. Sorry to say, the lust for power and control doesn't discriminate on the basis of nationality.
I can't but look back and see pre 70's oppression discrimination etc etc in our societies (especialy yours) and i do wonder what the hell could have happened if it was not quashed . I can't realy fault your logic or your proposition to be fair..because i do infact (if i think about it hard enough) have to begrudgingly agree.. On the other hand i may be being swindled by yours and people like you thoughts and opinions (because of prejudices you have)... This is why i listen an hopefuly come to some copromise in my mind, between thoughts from yourself (and others) and thoughts from PB (and others).. I don't think i am confused by it (much)..it is just hard for me to explain .
Well just bear in mind what happened the last time Britain and its public made compromise with fascism and the decades of recriminations which have been levied against figures like Chamberlain for his "appeasement". The wheel of history is coming full circle and if repeatedly exposed lies and abrogations of justice such as Gunatanemo (where due process in a supposedly "rule of law" abiding nation has been thoroughly suspended by reason of executive declaration alone, regardless of the absence of any proof sufficient to actually convict anyone) and already two cases of unprovoked transnational aggression without Constitutionally mandated Congressional declaration of War are not enough to raise alarm bells of the direction in which things are headed, then I fear the lessons of Europe's own not too distant past history HAVE been forgotten. Nevermind the rapidly advancing infrastructure for surveillance and invasive collection of information of both our nations' citizens in the form of biometrics, chips in passports and other hyper-inflated "WoT" policies currently moving forward on both sides of the Altantic (to the gleefull profiteering of electronics companies eager for a chunk of the tax-payer funded "homeland-security" budgetary pie).
nothing against, but I think that Americans will never understand to the hell of nazis, communists.. and so..
Not in same way your parents have Jana no, but some of us Yanks have had the opportunity to spend time in the former Soviet Union before it collapsed so Im well aware of the insecurity of being watched and forced to produce transit passes even within a single country. Im also well acquainted with the paranoid whispers of people who had to look every which way when daring to talk to me. All the more reason I see all too clearly the warning signs of similar tyranny graudally entrenching itself in once supposedly open country. Don't be fooled by labels like Democracy and Lebrty, these days they becoming hollow soundbites to mask that same will to power under which Eastern Europe had to suffer.
i think the best example of a fscisist state is mousolini, cause he pretty much invented fascism as he went along...the closest thing to it before him was Napoleon... hitler was a bad facist cause he basically copied everyhitng mousolini did, cept mousollini did things a little better... fasicism does not need to elimninate people...its basically ultranationalism, ultramilitarism, ultrareactionary, and has a planned economy but private ownership [government says what to produce, but you keep the profits]... the weird thing about mousolini is that he was a socialist, but he was foremost an opportunist, so when he saw how he could get into power by helping the rich, he abandoned all his socialist ideals, and made up fascism
