The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Everybody should know by now, America is a fascist nation.
All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state...
As long as Christians feel they need to push their religion through the use if the state, they are acceptable fascists. If Christians start believing they can operate separate from the state, they will be persecuted...See Waco Tx for example.
This fake war on Christians is to keep Christians believing they need the government to recognize them in order to be legitimate. If the church stopped honoring troops on Veterans Day, or pledging allegiance to the American Flag in Church, they would be enemy number 1 of the state.
Everybody should know by now, America is a fascist nation.
World English Dictionary Fascism 1. any ideology or movement inspired by Italian Fascism, such as German National Socialism; any right-wing nationalist ideology or movement with an authoritarian and hierarchical structure that is fundamentally opposed to democracy and liberalism 2. any ideology, movement, programme, tendency, etc, that may be characterized as right-wing, chauvinist, authoritarian, etc
Dictionary.com Fascist a person who is dictatorial or has extreme right-wing views.
World English Dictionary fascist 1. an adherent or practitioner of fascism 2. any person regarded as having right-wing authoritarian views
The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith
Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
By Umberto Eco
In spite of some fuzziness regarding the difference between various historical forms of fascism, I think it is possible to outline a list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other, and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it. * * *
1. The first feature of Ur-Fascism is the cult of tradition.
Traditionalism is of course much older than fascism. Not only was it typical of counterrevolutionary Catholic thought after the French revolution, but is was born in the late Hellenistic era, as a reaction to classical Greek rationalism. In the Mediterranean basin, people of different religions (most of the faiths indulgently accepted by the Roman pantheon) started dreaming of a revelation received at the dawn of human history. This revelation, according to the traditionalist mystique, had remained for a long time concealed under the veil of forgotten languages -- in Egyptian hieroglyphs, in the Celtic runes, in the scrolls of the little-known religions of Asia.
This new culture had to be syncretistic. Syncretism is not only, as the dictionary says, "the combination of different forms of belief or practice;" such a combination must tolerate contradictions. Each of the original messages contains a sliver of wisdom, and although they seem to say different or incompatible things, they all are nevertheless alluding, allegorically, to the same primeval truth.
As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth already has been spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message.
If you browse in the shelves that, in American bookstores, are labeled New Age, you can find there even Saint Augustine, who, as far as I know, was not a fascist. But combining Saint Augustine and Stonehenge -- that is a symptom of Ur-Fascism.
2. Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism.
Both Fascists and Nazis worshipped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon blood and earth (Blut und Boden). The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life. The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.
3. Irrationalism also depends on the cult of action for action's sake.
Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Hermann Goering's fondness for a phrase from a Hanns Johst play ("When I hear the word 'culture' I reach for my gun") to the frequent use of such expressions as "degenerate intellectuals," "eggheads," "effete snobs," and "universities are nests of reds." The official Fascist intellectuals were mainly engaged in attacking modern culture and the liberal intelligentsia for having betrayed traditional values.
4. The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism.
In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge. For Ur-Fascism, disagreement is treason.
GLOBAL WARMING IS A FACT!!
5. Besides, disagreement is a sign of diversity.
Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.
TERRORISM!!!
6. Ur-Fascism derives from individual or social frustration.
That is why one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups. In our time, when the old "proletarians" are becoming petty bourgeois (and the lumpen are largely excluded from the political scene), the fascism of tomorrow will find its audience in this new majority.
7. To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country.
This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the United States, a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson's The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others.
99% vs 1% "Tax cuts for the rich"
8. The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies.
When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance. However, the followers of Ur-Fascism must also be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.
Afghanistan Vietnam Al Qaeda 9. For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.
Thus pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. It is bad because life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such "final solutions" implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament.
The U.S. has been in perpetual war 70+ years
10. Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology, insofar as it is fundamentally aristocratic, and aristocratic and militaristic elitism cruelly implies contempt for the weak.
Ur-Fascism can only advocate a popular elitism. Every citizen belongs to the best people in the world, the members or the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party. But there cannot be patricians without plebeians. In fact, the Leader, knowing that his power was not delegated to him democratically but was conquered by force, also knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler. American exceptionalism
11. In such a perspective everybody is educated to become a hero.
In every mythology the hero is an exceptional being, but in Ur-Fascist ideology heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. It is not by chance that a motto of the Spanish Falangists was Viva la Muerte ("Long Live Death!"). In nonfascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.
Veterans Day & Memorial Day
12. Since both permanent war and heroism are difficult games to play, the Ur-Fascist transfers his will to power to sexual matters.
This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons -- doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.
Gay Marriage
13. Ur-Fascism is based upon a selective populism, a qualitative populism, one might say.
In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view -- one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction. There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.
Because of its qualitative populism, Ur-Fascism must be against "rotten" parliamentary governments. Wherever a politician casts doubt on the legitimacy of a parliament because it no longer represents the Voice of the People, we can smell Ur-Fascism.
THE NUCLEAR OPTION USED BY THE SENATE TO END THE FILIBUSTER AND THE 200 YEAR OLD 60 VOTE RULE
14. Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak.
Newspeak was invented by Orwell, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, as the official language of what he called Ingsoc, English Socialism. But elements of Ur-Fascism are common to different forms of dictatorship. All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.
Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be so much easier for us if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, "I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Blackshirts to parade again in the Italian squares." Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances — every day, in every part of the world. Franklin Roosevelt's words of November 4, 1938, are worth recalling: "If American democracy ceases to move forward as a living force, seeking day and night by peaceful means to better the lot of our citizens, fascism will grow in strength in our land." Freedom and liberation are an unending task.
Dictionary.com Fascist a person who is dictatorial or has extreme right-wing views.
Dictionary.com Fascist a person who is dictatorial or has extreme right-wing views.
Communism
Wealth redistribution.
All means of production are controlled by the state.
Technology has enriched the wealthy and impoverished the poor. The workers must overthrow the bourgeois.
Government controls all business, as well as business decisions.
All choices, including education, religion, employment and marriage, are controlled by the state.
Government in a Communist-state is the agent of change rather than any market or desire on the part of consumers.
Socialism
Wealth redistributed so that everyone in society is given somewhat equal shares of the benefits derived from labor, but people can earn more if they work harder.
Government regulation of businesses and the workplace.
All health care and education is provided free to everybody.
All choices, including education, religion, employment and marriage, are up to the individual.
Liberal
Prefer more regulation and services like free universal health care to be provided by the government to all citizens.
Government should provide more services to the less fortunate (like health care) and increase taxes if necessary. High-income earners should pay a larger percentage of their income as taxes.
Gay couples to get equal rights like everyone else (e.g. marriage); abortion should be legal; support embryonic stem cell research. Support restrictions and regulation around the right to bear arms.
The people should look to the government to provide a structure. Laws are enacted to protect every individual for an equal society sometimes at the expense of economic freedom or individual rights, if necessary
Libertarians
Prefer minimal government influence in any area of society. Want almost all services, to be provided by private enterprises.
Often claims to hold a more strict interpretation of the US Constitution than conservatives.
Government should tax very little. Taxes should be equal for all demographics.
Believes in broad definition of marriage, but often believes in privatization of marriage completely.
On abortion libertarians are often divided, and there is no universal view.
Support right to carry weapons, often with no restriction whatsoever.
Socially liberal, fiscally conservative.
Believe taxes shouldn't be increased for anyone (including the wealthy) and that wages should be set by the free market.
American liberalism is not that associated with the works of George Orwell or the racism and genocide of the Holocaust.
It is much less brutal, “smiley-face fascism.”
Liberals hold political principles which are similar to those found in many fascist regimes. They have a desire to form a powerful state which coordinates a society where everybody belongs and everyone is taken care of; where there is faith in the perfectibility of people and the authority of experts; and where everything is political, including health and well-being.
Apparently, the Nazis were strong promoters of organic foods and animal rights, fought against large department stores, and promoted anti-smoking and public health drives.
John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton as each tried to create an “all-caring, all-powerful, all-encompassing” state.
Liberal Fascism is the nanny state, enforced by laws and regulations.
Everybody should know by now, America is a fascist nation.
All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state...
As long as Christians feel they need to push their religion through the use if the state, they are acceptable fascists. If Christians start believing they can operate separate from the state, they will be persecuted...See Waco Tx for example.
This fake war on Christians is to keep Christians believing they need the government to recognize them in order to be legitimate. If the church stopped honoring troops on Veterans Day, or pledging allegiance to the American Flag in Church, they would be enemy number 1 of the state.
True. But there are 'christians' and there are 'politically correct christians'. The 'politically correct Christians' are controlled by GOV ALMIGHTY. They are the ones who pledge their allegiance to 'a flag'....'in church' that their biblical teachings make no exception about pledging an allegiance to ANYTHING other than God Almighty. It would be like saying that all men are alike....all women are alike....all kids are alike....all political party supporters are alike.....all white people are alike....all black people are alike. There is no such thing...even in religion. So to say this country is a 'Christian nation' is a moot point and a silly misconception.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Question for the so-called Libertarian: How can one support free education and health care AND individual control of personal decisions such as education and health care SIMULTANEOUSLY? The state is not going to hand out free education and health care without strings attached. And if you don't want strings attached the state is not going to pay for it.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
Question for the so-called Libertarian: How can one support free education and health care AND individual control of personal decisions such as education and health care SIMULTANEOUSLY? The state is not going to hand out free education and health care without strings attached. And if you don't want strings attached the state is not going to pay for it.
I passed at pointing that out . Obviously it can't be done.
I passed at pointing that out . Obviously it can't be done.
It would seem that a true libertarian would not want "free" anything from the government and absolutely no government regulation of anything.
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
It would seem that a true libertarian would not want "free" anything from the government and absolutely no government regulation of anything.
Certainly not free "education"....Government controlled education leads to government controlled curriculums, which leads to government shaping impressionable minds, and ultimately leads to how people will view the world around them. Giving a centralized authority to determine what goes into children's minds destroys individuality. If the majority of people had any ability to critically think and assess the world around them, they would quickly realize that the country they live in is far different than the country the text books tell them they live in. The best example is how everybody waves the flag and says we are the freest nation on earth, and totally disregard the fact we have more people locked up in jails(mostly for non violent crimes) than any other nation in the world. When I hear a mindless drone regurgitate the freedom line, I immediately think about their 13 years of indoctrination. Because anybody that has a half of lobe in their head working, can see that the incarceration rate in America is totally contradictory to the claim of a "free country".
The only thing free about America is when somebody empowers the government to take what one person earned, and give it to another person for FREE.
True. But there are 'christians' and there are 'politically correct christians'. The 'politically correct Christians' are controlled by GOV ALMIGHTY. They are the ones who pledge their allegiance to 'a flag'....'in church' that their biblical teachings make no exception about pledging an allegiance to ANYTHING other than God Almighty. It would be like saying that all men are alike....all women are alike....all kids are alike....all political party supporters are alike.....all white people are alike....all black people are alike. There is no such thing...even in religion. So to say this country is a 'Christian nation' is a moot point and a silly misconception.
I was talking more about the Christian leaders. The James Dobbson's, Billy Graham's, and Pat Robertson's. Those Christian leaders that worked arm in arm with political leaders and preached the Bible in political terms. They led their flock to the government, and convinced them that their involvement in politics was somehow Jesus' teaching. I'm no theologian, but in my understanding of Jesus' time on earth, he spent much of his time defying the rulers and leading his followers away from the Kings. His claim that He(God) was the King of the Jews, is what lead to his death. It seems as if these Christian leaders are teaching the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Jesus was more of an Anarchist, I don't think he was a statist.
I was talking more about the Christian leaders. The James Dobbson's, Billy Graham's, and Pat Robertson's. Those Christian leaders that worked arm in arm with political leaders and preached the Bible in political terms. They led their flock to the government, and convinced them that their involvement in politics was somehow Jesus' teaching. I'm no theologian, but in my understanding of Jesus' time on earth, he spent much of his time defying the rulers and leading his followers away from the Kings. His claim that He(God) was the King of the Jews, is what lead to his death. It seems as if these Christian leaders are teaching the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. Jesus was more of an Anarchist, I don't think he was a statist.
that was my point to the topic of this thread..'america is a christian nation'. Not all christians are the same. Some are 'political christians' (who merge and honor GOV ALMIGHTY) and then there are 'jesus following christians' (who distance themselves from GOV ALMIGHTY). Neither of which constitutes a so called 'christian nation'. ALL religions are divided the same way...some who follow, worship and look to GOV ALMIGHTY for their absolutes and those who follow and worship their GOD. Again....it's a moot point.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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