Pseudo-fascism

Please please please read this extremely disturbing article by David Neiwert in his blog, Orcinus, on the rise of pseudo-fascism in America. It shakes me to my soul when I think of what is happening in this nation. It is the first 2 parts of a 6 part series.

See also Lawyers Guns Money for further commentary.

One of the real failings of the Left over the last 40 years or so is to call their enemies fascists without any real understanding of what the word means. Thus a racist is a fascist, someone in power who doesn't listen to your opinions is a fascist, even someone who disagrees with you in a meeting is called a fascist (I've witnessed this one myself). No, these people are not fascists. Now that we are really dealing with the potential rise of fascism in America, the word has lost much of its meaning. That is sad. I urge anyone reading this not to use that word without understanding exactly what it means.

I still have confidence that Americans will not follow the fascist path. Overall America is a stable country, which Germany and Italy in the 20s and early 30s were not, and thus extreme political ideologies seem unlikely to really take hold. In addition, America has a much stronger democratic tradition than either of those nations did at that time. And if Bush wins in 2004 I really believe that the Democrats will win in a landslide in 2008 for the following reasons--1) outsourcing of middle-class jobs is going to become a huge issue in the next 4 years. 2) We'll still be mired in Iraq with Christ knows how many dead Americans. 3) The likelihood of a major terrorist attack within the nation and/or another stupid invasion of another country is fairly high. Only if the Republicans truly start stealing elections in a way more blatant than they did in 2000 will we really have to worry seriously about America really embracing fascism.

That said, that doesn't mean that entire power structure built around pseudo-fascist values is not horrifying and very worrying.