The Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
Those dogtags got me thinking about the fourteen defining characteristics of fascism, so I thought it might be kind of fun to do a little snapshot update of where America stands today.
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism. American exceptionalism. Toby Keith. Flags on every car everywhere. Check.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights. Abu Ghraib. Guantanimo. Check.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause. bin Laden. Saddam. Libruls. Check. Jebus, this list is already starting to scare me.
4. Supremacy of the Military. Military-industrial complex in full swing. Protests against how the military is used is twisted to opposition of hte military. Constant recruitment ads and movies. Check.
5. Rampant Sexism. All you have to do is look at the abortion debate and relative pay scales. Our government is dominated by old, white, men. Even Condi is an old white man. Check.
6. Controlled Mass Media. Oh my. I don’t know if it’s “controlled” but it’s trending in that direction. Fox News. I’ll give this one a tilde. ~
7. Obsession with National Security. Laws yes. Em oh oh enh, that spells obsession with national security. Words to the effect of said obsession, of course, not actual effective steps in that direction obsession. Check
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined. Definitely trending in that direction. And the slope of the line is increasing. Tilde.
9. Corporate Power is Protected. What’s the first response to a national disaster? Tax cuts for the rich and incorporated! Check.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed. What’s the second response to a national disaster? Create an appropriations bill that emasculates unions by suspending rules forcing companies to pay the prevailing minimum wage in regions where they receive federal funding. Thus allowing Halliburton to pay workers in the reconstruction efforts less that both the wage in the region and what collective action would achieve. Check. Double check, actually. Man, this one pisses me off.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts. American has always been anti-intellectuals. Recently, it’s just easy to point to the federal funding for the arts and the continued sociological climate. Oh, and we have a C+ Caligula for preznit. Check.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment. What’s the solution to every crime? More jail time! We’re increasing the capacity of Iraq’s jails by 10,000 too. Check.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption. Helloooo Michael Brown. Check.
14. Fraudulent Elections. Florida 2000. Ohio 2004. Check.
So that’s 12 checks and two tildes. How did we let it come to this? Too many damn sheeple.