Has America become fascist?
twisztad
Posts: 49
http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2005/08/27/has-america-become-fascist-the-14-defining-characteristics-of-fascism/
Has America become fascist? The 14 defining characteristics of fascism
By: Michael Hampton
Tim West at Liberty for Sale argues that America has adopted these 14 defining characteristics of fascism. Unfortunately, I think he might be right. Read them for yourself and think long and hard about it.
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
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 the 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.
Has America become fascist? The 14 defining characteristics of fascism
By: Michael Hampton
Tim West at Liberty for Sale argues that America has adopted these 14 defining characteristics of fascism. Unfortunately, I think he might be right. Read them for yourself and think long and hard about it.
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
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 the 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.
Even though I know I am, I still cast no shadow.
"We'd rather challenge our fans and make them listen to our songs than give them something that's easy to digest. There is a lot of music out there that is very easy to digest but we never wanted to be part of it."
"We'd rather challenge our fans and make them listen to our songs than give them something that's easy to digest. There is a lot of music out there that is very easy to digest but we never wanted to be part of it."
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmgphotos/4731512142/" title="PJ Banner2 by Mister J Photography, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1135/4731512142_258f2d6ab4_b.jpg" width="630" height="112" alt="PJ Banner2" /></a>
The term is just a label...but these seem to me to be most important - and happening.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
that is very true. if America has become fascist, it is not due to those reasons pointed out in the article. one of the main points of fascism though is keeping the lower classes weak......the lowest class weak through racism (or some other -ism) and keeping the middle class weak through complacency. now THAT much, I can agree with. our so called representatives have fed lies upon lies to us because we are, for the most part, too complacent to care.
R.i.p. My Dad - May 28, 2007
R.i.p. Black Tail (cat) - Sept. 20, 2008
If I opened it now would you not understand?
IBTL
WTF? Did someone put something in my drink? This thread's before my time here
I missed the joke. I guess I'm having a dense moment- I don't get it. I generally avoid conversations with that particular "f" word in it- Seriously- I don't want to be connected with that shit. Edit me out, would you guys?
I'm the "green" "tree hugging" guy, remember?
Again, WTF?
I like the question posed; if we ARE headed that way, what are we doing about it?
I just came from another forum. there was a thread about a Million man Muslim march slated for 9.11.13
The general consensus there seemed to be -- good! It's about time. The Jews that run America deserve to be exposed.
I''ll try to post the thread below.
Muslims to march on White House next September 11th
Everyone knows that AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is the most powerful lobby in Washington.
But starting next September 11th, a new group called AMPAC, the American Muslim Political Action Committee, will challenge AIPAC’s stranglehold on American political life.
AMPAC will be forcefully announcing its presence with a “Million Muslim March” on the White House on September 11, 2013. The goal, announced at AMPAC’s press conference in New York:
“We at AMPAC (American Muslim Political Action Committee) are planning a historic event for 9/11/13. One million Muslims will march to Washington D.C. and demand that our civil rights be protected by our government. We are demanding that laws be enacted protecting our First Amendment rights. We are asking President Obama to fulfill his promise from his first campaign for the Presidency of a transparent government. Lastly we are asking for the establishment of a real 9/11 Commission to reveal the truth to the American people.”
AMPAC founder M.D. Rabbi Alam, a well-known Missouri Democratic Party organizer, points out that
American Muslims, like other Americans, were targeted on 9/11. More than 60 Muslims were murdered in the explosive demolitions of the three World Trade Center skyscrapers on 9/11, and a mosque in the South Tower was annihilated. Alam points out that “Muslim and non-Muslim alike were traumatized by 9/11, but we as Muslims continue twelve years later to be victimized by being made the villains.”
American courts have traditionally held that the Bill of Rights guarantees that all religions must be treated equally by the government. Alam cites “the ‘war on terrorism’ in Islamic countries, Congressional hearings on Islam in America, and changes to the NDAA” as infringements of the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
AMPAC organizers also argue that the US government and media have lied about 9/11 and its aftermath. According to the AMPAC press release, “These lies told to the American population have made it impossible for us to do true Dawa (Islamic outreach).”
The attack on American Muslims’ free speech actually appears to have begun a few days before 9/11, when the FBI raided key Muslim organizations and shut down their computer servers. The FBI’s raids preemptively prevented Muslims from freely expressing and disseminating their view of 9/11: That it was an inside job, presumably orchestrated by Israel and its American agents.
Polls show that more than 80% of Muslims globally, and two-thirds of American Muslims, believe that 9/11 was an inside job - and these polls undoubtedly understate the real numbers. Yet the corporate media, dominated by Jewish Zionists, has refused to allow Muslims’ perspective on 9/11 to even be heard, much less debated. To this day, most Americans falsely believe that Muslims accept the official story of 9/11.
9/11 was used to shut down the free speech rights of Muslim Americans - and not just about 9/11. Sami al-Arian, America’s leading Muslim political organizer, was harassed and imprisoned after 9/11 for the crime of publicly stating his strong opposition to the apartheid state of Israel. At his trial, jurors were swayed by graphic footage of Israelis maimed by suicide bombers. The prosecution implied that al-Arian was responsible for these acts of violence simply because he was Palestinian, Muslim, and opposed to Israeli apartheid.
Another American Muslim leader, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah of Detroit, Michigan, was murdered by the FBI in 2009 in reprisal for his statements criticizing US imperialism and injustice. His body was riddled with 19 bullet holes in an FBI raid reminiscent of the FBI murders of Fred Hampton and other Black Panthers in the 1960s.
Imam Abdullah is not the only American Muslim killed by US authorities for his political views. Among the better-known cases is that of scholar Anwar al-Awlaki, who, along with his son and grandson, were murdered by cowardly drone strikes in Yemen. Al-Awlaki was imprisoned, tortured, mischaracterized as a “terrorist,” and finally murdered by US authorities due to his outspoken opposition to the 9/11-triggered war on Islam.
Another influential, politically-engaged American Muslim, the scientist Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, was kidnapped, raped and tortured by US authorities who disapproved of her political views. Like so many other American Muslim leaders, she was tried in a kangaroo court on ridiculous trumped-up charges in order to silence her eloquent voice.
The FBI and other secret police agencies, along with Israeli Mossad spin-offs such as the ADL, have used both federal agents and hired criminals to infiltrate, surveil, and terrorize mosques since 9/11, chilling Muslims’ rights of free speech and free association. A key FBI goal has been to entrap young, naive Muslims into appearing complicit in FBI-concocted “terror plots.”
As of 2006, the US had already kidnapped and tortured more than 80,000 Muslims worldwide, according to the UK Guardian. Today, that number has undoubtedly grown into the hundreds of thousands. Virtually all are innocent of any acts of violence. Many have been targeted because they are the most charismatic and outspoken leaders, or the best organizers, in the Muslim community. (See, again, even the best of gentiles must be killed, does not matter if that is European gentile or otherwise..)
Faced with a reality reminiscent of the Jews’ situation in 1930s Nazi Germany, most American Muslims have been terrorized into silence. But today, more than a decade after 9/11, more and more are finding the courage to speak out.
Last year, AMPAC founder MD Rabbi Alam was targeted by the Zionist-dominated media for raising questions about Israel’s role in 9/11. Alam refused to be intimidated. Instead, he responded by founding AMPAC and launching plans for next year’s 9/11/2013 Million Muslim March on the White House.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01...n-white-house/
Yeah, I don't oppose any question per say but, in part, I would answer the one this thread asks with a little twist on some of your words. I would say: "I don't really know but if we ARE headed that way, what [can] we [do] about it- jump in front of a bad-assed train?"
No, I'm not jumping off a cliff for anyone or anything besides my immediate and extended family and only then if necessary, so I don't want an invitation to this kind of party. It's hard enough working to make sure my kids are ok and slow down our environmental impact on the planet and save animals and trees and rocks. And find time to do music and books and draw good sketches.
So again, I don't understand why this was bumped for my benefit or, if it was a joke, what's the punch line?
(and I thought MY memory was bad
Oh don't worry- I provide a good fall guy for bad memory.
But now maybe I see what Drifting was doing there.
OK, Drifting- just a different subject next time. I don't need no stinkin' drones!
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - I don't honestly think we have that. I think we debate about what that "means," but I think we mostly do support the concept.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - OK, you got me there.
4. Supremacy of the Military - We don't have a supremacy of the military here in America. We certainly hold them in high regard but Supreme? Our leader is elected by the people, not appointed by the army.
5. Rampant Sexism - I mean… our last three secretaries of state have been women. Every country has sexist people, and Americans are maybe ahead of the curve… but "rampant?"
6. Controlled Mass Media - Then explain how Fox "news" is still on the air.
7. Obsession with National Security - OK, got me there. Although I think our last administration was worse.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Yeah.. got me there.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - Got me there.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Got me there.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Got me there.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Yeah… ok… got me there.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Yeah. OK.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Oh shit.