There are comments here I want to reply to, but I need to not look at a computer for a while. If you've commented or sent me an email and are waiting to hear from me, I'll be back soon.
This is why it's so important to protect the rights of everyone and especially those you dislike. Because what happened under these authoritarian governments is that a group of people were labeled as the enemy (sometimes based on race, sometimes based on class, sometimes based on economic prosperity). Once that group was hated enough, their human rights were put aside and they were treated very badly, often killed.
Get ready to hate me. This is what has been bothering me about Andrew Tate being held without charges in a Romanian prison. No one will defend him because everybody hates him. Keep in mind, I'm no fan either, but if they can do it to him they can do it to anybody who is deemed an enemy. Justice is supposed to be blind.
“The trouble about fighting for human freedom is that you have to spend so much of your life defending sons-of-bitches; for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
This is a great point. It’s why I said to everyone it was very, very, very bad when YouTube shut down Alex Jones. You may hate him for what he said, and you may have not listened yourself, but shutting him down and letting them get away with it was the start of everything. I suspect the last 3 years would have been very different if YouTube wasn’t able to get away with that first cancellation.
I think we mostly agree with you here. Tate's accusers say 'He didn't do it's the only people who think he did anything wrong are all paid by a 'human trafficking unit' built with US dollars to put away people that our regime doesn't like.
I think Andrew Tate is a master manipulator and the problem Romania is having is it's a "he said she said" situation .He's able to coerce women without actually doing anything overtly illegal. That being said, unless they can find something on which to charge him, he should not be held in prison. Personally, I find him despicable but I stick with the fact that justice should be blind.
Mussolini stated that fascism should really be called corporatism. DeSantis and Trump took on the Pharmaceutical companies in fact DeSantis is pushing a criminal investigation into Pharma right now. He's also advocating no permit concealed carry which would allow anyone to carry a weapon. But Biden standing at a podium backed by red lights and Marines no mention at all. Got it.
Please don’t make the same mistake the left does when they use “corporatism” as one of points of evidence as to why the right is “fascist”. “Corporatism” as an ideology and “corporations” as legal entities are not related other than word. The following is from Brittanica but you can find more elsewhere especially as it relates to Mussolini
“According to corporatist theory, workers and employers would be organized into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and controlling to a large extent the persons and activities within their jurisdiction.”
Your argument that Desantis is putting the individual rights of the people ie right to carry over the rights of the government has merit and is absolute proof he is not a fascist. Something the left does not seem to understand is that fascism requires the strong centralized government they desire not the weak decentralized government most of us desire. Thus while they may not see themselves as fascist they are certainly creating the environment for it to exist.
The Left’s understanding of Fascism is it’s Anti-Bwando, it’s not the stuff that Democracy likes.
The Left are now 7 year old sociopaths and psychotics, manipulated for decades by aging Boomers now dying of old age - Soros is 91, most of our government is over 65, it’s just Brezhnev in Drag now.
Thanks for that response. I see the relationship with the gov't and twitter, facebook and google and their absolute advocacy of one political party to the point of shaping searches, banning anti vax groups and suppressing IVM and HCQ at the gov't request. I believe that they were either threatened by the gov't regulatory power or induced by gov't favorability.
I used to believe that private business wanted a fair playing field until political parties offered them monopolies in exchange for their "loyalty". All 3 of the companies listed above suppressed IVM and HCQ to the benefit of Pfizer and Moderna in effect granting them a monopoly and protection from liability. These private companies worked in league with the FDA and CDC to further suppress competition. It was my understanding that the difference between communism and fascism is that communists own the means of production while fascists simply control the regulatory environment. That feels like where we are now.
This from a historian who studied Fascism:
Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of Fascism
Historian Lawrence Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.
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.
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, and long incarcerations of prisoners.
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…
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.
Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation.
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 by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government censorship and secrecy, especially in war time, are very common.
Obsession with National Security
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
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.
Protection of Corporate Power
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.
Suppression of Labor Power
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 .
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 is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
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.
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.
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.
Simple explanations for simple minds. I call it the “supermarket tabloid” view of the world: the madcap antics of those zany and fun-loving “celebrities”, politicians and assorted randoms who can be fashioned into bad guys or good guys at the whim of some cocaine-snorting “writer”. It’s manufactured drama for mall-zombies and assorted lightweights. Current events as “The Young and the Restless”. Click-bait is the new scholarship, ignorance is knowledge, vice is virtue, sickness is health, perversity is normal.
I’m betting that the descent into madness is nearing an inflection point at which it will accelerate rapidly and what we knew as civilization will finally crash and burn. It will be followed by an interregnum of aimlessness and drifting of who knows how long before the next Renaissance dawns.
Exactly - it’s not analysis anyway. It’s propaganda for her audience, which is mostly flabby brained Marxist pseudo intellectuals who want to hear that Donald Trump = Hitler = Putin = everybody who disagrees with the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
I moved from CA to FL, but I immediately joined the Florida Fascist’s Falangist militia, and spend most of my time arresting anyone that dares say the word “gay,” so I’m ok
Sorry, I already moved from San Francisco two years ago. I'm now telling most of the people I know in California that they wouldn't like it here. Especially, in the rural area I live in, people have the nerve to fly American flags! Even the Betsy Ross flag (me) to remind us of our roots!
Oh no. It is really horrible here. I don't have to lock the door to my house. In the summer when it's hot, I can leave my car running with the AC on when I go into the grocery store so the car is still cool when I come back out. People are polite and considerate. I got lost at a big hospital complex and someone walked ten minutes out of their way for me to find the right building. I'm sure its around (just like it was in San Francisco), but I haven't seen or heard any racism (my wife is originally from China) or homophobia (there are a couple of very out gay men in my small town) in two years. People pitch in on civic causes like putting together groups to help people hit by hurricane Ian and then taking a week or two from their jobs or business to go down and help. They don't really make a big deal about it. I asked one person who shut down his business where he went for vacation (I had assumed) - wouldn't really tell me, but then another acquaintance walked up and asked him how his Ian relief trip went. Oh yeah - those hunter types, I see them cleaning up the national forest, stopping to move turtles out of the road, etc.
New Year's Day 2020, in San Francisco, I went outside in the morning to find human feces on my doorstep. I won't get that here. Maybe some bear poop on my dock.
Hope that's enough to help you understand how horrible it is.
The concept of "strongmen" is a nice distraction from the actual problems of this country. Maybe that's why the PTB are more than willing to spill a ton of ink over the concept. Don't look behind the curtain...
I legitimately want a discussion about what fascism really is. The fact that someone with “oracle-like” knowledge and intelligence can, with a straight and serious face, compare DeSantis with the likes of Mussolini can not be a serious person. But where does the fascism hysteria come from? I mean, when DeSantis says, stop speaking about sexuality to kids because 70% of the state’s population WANTS YOU TO STOP, how are they screaming fascism over that? Where is their freaking morality, for crying out loud??
I’ve also been listening to the Witch Trials of JK Rowling, which in general, as a podcast series, I’m enjoying. Except that she compares the crazy Christian parents in the early 2000s trying to ban Harry Potter - because witchcraft! - to the focus on books in libraries again. But she naively thinks it’s just about “LGBT” stuff. Sure. A book about a boy wizard and a gay sex manual for small children...those are the same. (Tell me how this ends!!!)
It’s like racism in that it no longer has meaning and is instead just a weapon. Most people don’t what fascism really is or what it derived from (Mussolini was a socialist) only that it is associated with hitler and therefore bad therefore anyone who is called a fascist is bad. It’s both a dog whistle and sign of how bad our education system has become.
There's no discussion to be had. Educated, honest, and intelligent people who know the period understand what fascism is. It does become a little confusing in deciphering the differences between Nazism and Fascism and communism and socialism but nothing a little reading and effort can't remedy. Once you accept the starting point that they are all derivatives of Marxism and in fact are 'left-wing' ideologies, it becomes easier to navigate. For example, based on this rudimentary rule, you can see fascism is to the 'right' of Marxism. But it's still on the left side of the ideological spectrum. People then mistake it for being 'right-wing'. Mussolini was a SOCIALIST as was his father. So his own starting point was from the left.
This idiot Chris writes about is shooting blanks laced with ignorance,
Not looking at politics and ideologies as if they were on a left-right spectrum is a good start.
Every ideology can, by using rationalisation and semantics, contain any idea.
A far better wayof evaluating ideologies is to compare the theory with how it looks (or looked) when it was put into practice, and not forgetting to compare how different cultures (or races in american parlance) differed in interpreting theory and how they varied in implementation of same.
F.e. - socialist democracy worked very well in all of Scandinavia, up until the mid-1990s and the onset of invasion from Asia and Africa under the guise of multiculturalism and globalism. In Venezuela it led to disaster instead.
Here's a thought-exercise to consider:
Venezuela and Norway both have huge oil deposits. Norway is among the richest, happiest and safest and free-est nations in the world. It gained independnce from Sweden in 1905 and was dirt-poor back then. Now, do you think that if we could magically transfer all venezuelans to Norway and vice versa, that Venezueal would remain a shithole and Norwaya Shclaraffenland?
Or would the venezuelans turn Norway into the same cockroach-infested dump they've made of their ownnation? Do you think the displaced norwegians would become as lazy and corrupt as the venezuelans?
Race and culture matters far more than ideologies.
Must be nice to talk tough when you know there is no possible way you'll be the one sent to fight the wars you advocate for, huh? Ruth and Christine will never have to live with the consequences of their calls for war.
This is an excellent discussion. Throughout the world today as far as I can see is the "new" style totalitarian strong man culture. It has so many parallels to past strongman cultures it won't fit in a comment. Safe to say that whether tyranny arises in a "democratic"/ "capitalist" society or within a communist society they are all too recognizable and similar. The synergistic alliance of governments, corporations and institutions.
No unfortunately most folks don’t think. It is covered mainly under corporations here. But yes defining it exactly for people is what I have done in my stack. Not sufficient space in comments. Mainstream press is linked to World Economic Forum corporate partners. So are many “non-profit” institutions like YMCA, American Red Cross.
Nah they'll hate us for not putting up enough of a fight to save civilization from the woke mindvirus. Still, anything you think the future might want start thinking about how to preserve it
Most days Chris makes me smile. For whatever reason, today, I just can't take it anymore--all these total idiots and bullies in power, poised to sponge up more.
So her publisher says she is able "to predict with uncanny accuracy the recent experience in America and Europe." I wonder how uncannily "accurate" she has been with her predictions about things like the danger posed by COVID, the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, inflation, Ukraine, whether Hunter Biden's laptop was "Russian misinformation," whether Russiagate would be proven true, etc?
I don't think the laws are dead -- I think they won't save us, and are running on about 3% battery, but there are examples of the law still sort of working a little bit: the Bundy Ranch mistrial and dismissal in Nevada, the Mark Houck acquittal. If the law was *dead* dead, Trump would already be in prison. The law won't save us, but its decline may not currently be in the form of the final assault.
Many years ago, I saw Steve Martin perform a bit in which he stood on the stage disheveled and explained that he did not know how to dress, but he knew women. He went on to recite several lists of things he didn’t know, but would conclude each list with “but I know women.” At the end of the bit, a man walks across the stage and Martin says “excuse me miss.” That’s Ben-Ghiat. She knows dictatorships, but doesn’t recognize the Biden Administration’s censorship of dissenting views, abuse of law enforcement to target political opponents and its picking and choosing of the laws it will and will not enforce. I wonder what she thinks of the Biden Administration’s prosecution of Douglas Mackey for posting anti-Hillary memes on social media under anti-KKK laws passed in 1870?
Chris, the comments to your posts are written by intelligent, critical thinkers. This is a testimony to your evaluative writing and wisdom. As a Christian who ultimately knows where she is going, I am an optimist. Let these people prattle on because their ideas cause everyone to think about issues we need to confront. I am pro-life and without the whole "my body, my choice" mantra, we would never have had the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The argument fell apart when the government tried to force us all to take the Covid shot. Thirty-one percent of us resisted, almost one in three Americans. I'm pretty sure the whiplash is becoming the boomerang.
Once again Chris, you hit the nail on the head. What I love as well is the intelligent respectful conversation that them takes place amongst us “fascists” 😂
“Othering” will be the soft weapons used against us. We saw it in full force here in Chinada last winter as those of us in the fringe minority were pilloried as white supremacist, climate denying, transphobic, misogynists (I think I checked all the boxes). It was terrifying for us and yet my fellow vaxxed citizens have completely forgotten or minimize the events of the past 3 years. Blessings to you all. Happy Thursday!
There are comments here I want to reply to, but I need to not look at a computer for a while. If you've commented or sent me an email and are waiting to hear from me, I'll be back soon.
This is why it's so important to protect the rights of everyone and especially those you dislike. Because what happened under these authoritarian governments is that a group of people were labeled as the enemy (sometimes based on race, sometimes based on class, sometimes based on economic prosperity). Once that group was hated enough, their human rights were put aside and they were treated very badly, often killed.
Get ready to hate me. This is what has been bothering me about Andrew Tate being held without charges in a Romanian prison. No one will defend him because everybody hates him. Keep in mind, I'm no fan either, but if they can do it to him they can do it to anybody who is deemed an enemy. Justice is supposed to be blind.
“The trouble about fighting for human freedom is that you have to spend so much of your life defending sons-of-bitches; for oppressive laws are always aimed at them originally, and oppression must be stopped in the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”
H. L. Mencken
This is a great point. It’s why I said to everyone it was very, very, very bad when YouTube shut down Alex Jones. You may hate him for what he said, and you may have not listened yourself, but shutting him down and letting them get away with it was the start of everything. I suspect the last 3 years would have been very different if YouTube wasn’t able to get away with that first cancellation.
I think we mostly agree with you here. Tate's accusers say 'He didn't do it's the only people who think he did anything wrong are all paid by a 'human trafficking unit' built with US dollars to put away people that our regime doesn't like.
I think Andrew Tate is a master manipulator and the problem Romania is having is it's a "he said she said" situation .He's able to coerce women without actually doing anything overtly illegal. That being said, unless they can find something on which to charge him, he should not be held in prison. Personally, I find him despicable but I stick with the fact that justice should be blind.
No, they don’t reciprocate and that makes it impossible. We can’t protect ourselves from them, this statement is pathetic.
Sorry.
Mussolini stated that fascism should really be called corporatism. DeSantis and Trump took on the Pharmaceutical companies in fact DeSantis is pushing a criminal investigation into Pharma right now. He's also advocating no permit concealed carry which would allow anyone to carry a weapon. But Biden standing at a podium backed by red lights and Marines no mention at all. Got it.
Please don’t make the same mistake the left does when they use “corporatism” as one of points of evidence as to why the right is “fascist”. “Corporatism” as an ideology and “corporations” as legal entities are not related other than word. The following is from Brittanica but you can find more elsewhere especially as it relates to Mussolini
“According to corporatist theory, workers and employers would be organized into industrial and professional corporations serving as organs of political representation and controlling to a large extent the persons and activities within their jurisdiction.”
Your argument that Desantis is putting the individual rights of the people ie right to carry over the rights of the government has merit and is absolute proof he is not a fascist. Something the left does not seem to understand is that fascism requires the strong centralized government they desire not the weak decentralized government most of us desire. Thus while they may not see themselves as fascist they are certainly creating the environment for it to exist.
The Left’s understanding of Fascism is it’s Anti-Bwando, it’s not the stuff that Democracy likes.
The Left are now 7 year old sociopaths and psychotics, manipulated for decades by aging Boomers now dying of old age - Soros is 91, most of our government is over 65, it’s just Brezhnev in Drag now.
"Brezhnev in Drag"
+100,000
Thanks for that response. I see the relationship with the gov't and twitter, facebook and google and their absolute advocacy of one political party to the point of shaping searches, banning anti vax groups and suppressing IVM and HCQ at the gov't request. I believe that they were either threatened by the gov't regulatory power or induced by gov't favorability.
I used to believe that private business wanted a fair playing field until political parties offered them monopolies in exchange for their "loyalty". All 3 of the companies listed above suppressed IVM and HCQ to the benefit of Pfizer and Moderna in effect granting them a monopoly and protection from liability. These private companies worked in league with the FDA and CDC to further suppress competition. It was my understanding that the difference between communism and fascism is that communists own the means of production while fascists simply control the regulatory environment. That feels like where we are now.
This from a historian who studied Fascism:
Lawrence W. Britt: 14 Characteristics of Fascism
Historian Lawrence Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile) and found they had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.
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.
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, and long incarcerations of prisoners.
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…
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.
Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation.
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 by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government censorship and secrecy, especially in war time, are very common.
Obsession with National Security
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
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.
Protection of Corporate Power
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.
Suppression of Labor Power
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 .
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 is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
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.
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.
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.
Simple explanations for simple minds. I call it the “supermarket tabloid” view of the world: the madcap antics of those zany and fun-loving “celebrities”, politicians and assorted randoms who can be fashioned into bad guys or good guys at the whim of some cocaine-snorting “writer”. It’s manufactured drama for mall-zombies and assorted lightweights. Current events as “The Young and the Restless”. Click-bait is the new scholarship, ignorance is knowledge, vice is virtue, sickness is health, perversity is normal.
I’m betting that the descent into madness is nearing an inflection point at which it will accelerate rapidly and what we knew as civilization will finally crash and burn. It will be followed by an interregnum of aimlessness and drifting of who knows how long before the next Renaissance dawns.
Exactly - it’s not analysis anyway. It’s propaganda for her audience, which is mostly flabby brained Marxist pseudo intellectuals who want to hear that Donald Trump = Hitler = Putin = everybody who disagrees with the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
I live in the fascist gulag of Florida. PLEASE don't move here from CA, NY or MA!
I moved from CA to FL, but I immediately joined the Florida Fascist’s Falangist militia, and spend most of my time arresting anyone that dares say the word “gay,” so I’m ok
Sorry, I already moved from San Francisco two years ago. I'm now telling most of the people I know in California that they wouldn't like it here. Especially, in the rural area I live in, people have the nerve to fly American flags! Even the Betsy Ross flag (me) to remind us of our roots!
😂😂😂😂 me thinks you doth protest too much 😉
Oh no. It is really horrible here. I don't have to lock the door to my house. In the summer when it's hot, I can leave my car running with the AC on when I go into the grocery store so the car is still cool when I come back out. People are polite and considerate. I got lost at a big hospital complex and someone walked ten minutes out of their way for me to find the right building. I'm sure its around (just like it was in San Francisco), but I haven't seen or heard any racism (my wife is originally from China) or homophobia (there are a couple of very out gay men in my small town) in two years. People pitch in on civic causes like putting together groups to help people hit by hurricane Ian and then taking a week or two from their jobs or business to go down and help. They don't really make a big deal about it. I asked one person who shut down his business where he went for vacation (I had assumed) - wouldn't really tell me, but then another acquaintance walked up and asked him how his Ian relief trip went. Oh yeah - those hunter types, I see them cleaning up the national forest, stopping to move turtles out of the road, etc.
New Year's Day 2020, in San Francisco, I went outside in the morning to find human feces on my doorstep. I won't get that here. Maybe some bear poop on my dock.
Hope that's enough to help you understand how horrible it is.
Exactly! Here on the ground we are around diverse people and we get along. Stop watching TV and maybe you'd see the kindness all around you.
....As you type in a mask on a beach enjoying the pleasures of freedom Florida hasn't taken from you.
Right?
The concept of "strongmen" is a nice distraction from the actual problems of this country. Maybe that's why the PTB are more than willing to spill a ton of ink over the concept. Don't look behind the curtain...
I legitimately want a discussion about what fascism really is. The fact that someone with “oracle-like” knowledge and intelligence can, with a straight and serious face, compare DeSantis with the likes of Mussolini can not be a serious person. But where does the fascism hysteria come from? I mean, when DeSantis says, stop speaking about sexuality to kids because 70% of the state’s population WANTS YOU TO STOP, how are they screaming fascism over that? Where is their freaking morality, for crying out loud??
I’ve also been listening to the Witch Trials of JK Rowling, which in general, as a podcast series, I’m enjoying. Except that she compares the crazy Christian parents in the early 2000s trying to ban Harry Potter - because witchcraft! - to the focus on books in libraries again. But she naively thinks it’s just about “LGBT” stuff. Sure. A book about a boy wizard and a gay sex manual for small children...those are the same. (Tell me how this ends!!!)
It’s like racism in that it no longer has meaning and is instead just a weapon. Most people don’t what fascism really is or what it derived from (Mussolini was a socialist) only that it is associated with hitler and therefore bad therefore anyone who is called a fascist is bad. It’s both a dog whistle and sign of how bad our education system has become.
There's no discussion to be had. Educated, honest, and intelligent people who know the period understand what fascism is. It does become a little confusing in deciphering the differences between Nazism and Fascism and communism and socialism but nothing a little reading and effort can't remedy. Once you accept the starting point that they are all derivatives of Marxism and in fact are 'left-wing' ideologies, it becomes easier to navigate. For example, based on this rudimentary rule, you can see fascism is to the 'right' of Marxism. But it's still on the left side of the ideological spectrum. People then mistake it for being 'right-wing'. Mussolini was a SOCIALIST as was his father. So his own starting point was from the left.
This idiot Chris writes about is shooting blanks laced with ignorance,
Not looking at politics and ideologies as if they were on a left-right spectrum is a good start.
Every ideology can, by using rationalisation and semantics, contain any idea.
A far better wayof evaluating ideologies is to compare the theory with how it looks (or looked) when it was put into practice, and not forgetting to compare how different cultures (or races in american parlance) differed in interpreting theory and how they varied in implementation of same.
F.e. - socialist democracy worked very well in all of Scandinavia, up until the mid-1990s and the onset of invasion from Asia and Africa under the guise of multiculturalism and globalism. In Venezuela it led to disaster instead.
Here's a thought-exercise to consider:
Venezuela and Norway both have huge oil deposits. Norway is among the richest, happiest and safest and free-est nations in the world. It gained independnce from Sweden in 1905 and was dirt-poor back then. Now, do you think that if we could magically transfer all venezuelans to Norway and vice versa, that Venezueal would remain a shithole and Norwaya Shclaraffenland?
Or would the venezuelans turn Norway into the same cockroach-infested dump they've made of their ownnation? Do you think the displaced norwegians would become as lazy and corrupt as the venezuelans?
Race and culture matters far more than ideologies.
I do think we put too much emphasis on isms and ideologies.
Californians escaping their state only to vote the same way in states they invade is another example.
Must be nice to talk tough when you know there is no possible way you'll be the one sent to fight the wars you advocate for, huh? Ruth and Christine will never have to live with the consequences of their calls for war.
You hit the target
And win the game
From bars 3, 000 miles away
3, 000 miles away
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
We zap and maim
With the bravery of being out of range
We strafe the train
With the bravery of being out of range
We gained terrain
With the bravery of being out of range
With the bravery of being out of range
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
- Roger Waters (yeah, yeah, I know)
This is an excellent discussion. Throughout the world today as far as I can see is the "new" style totalitarian strong man culture. It has so many parallels to past strongman cultures it won't fit in a comment. Safe to say that whether tyranny arises in a "democratic"/ "capitalist" society or within a communist society they are all too recognizable and similar. The synergistic alliance of governments, corporations and institutions.
Your last sentence will stay with me, KW Norton
It is a great one to keep in mind. Feel free to repeat it.
I think it should include press. People won’t think that as covered under institutions.
No unfortunately most folks don’t think. It is covered mainly under corporations here. But yes defining it exactly for people is what I have done in my stack. Not sufficient space in comments. Mainstream press is linked to World Economic Forum corporate partners. So are many “non-profit” institutions like YMCA, American Red Cross.
...and why do we use today’s morals to judge the past?
Never makes any sense, if you use your brain and maybe just a smidgen of common sense.
I’d rather hear from the monkey too!!!
Sometimes for fun I like to think of what future humans will hate us for.
I think eating meat is #1, but "the climate" might be #2 (even if it's the exact same climate as today).
Nah they'll hate us for not putting up enough of a fight to save civilization from the woke mindvirus. Still, anything you think the future might want start thinking about how to preserve it
Most days Chris makes me smile. For whatever reason, today, I just can't take it anymore--all these total idiots and bullies in power, poised to sponge up more.
Same.
So her publisher says she is able "to predict with uncanny accuracy the recent experience in America and Europe." I wonder how uncannily "accurate" she has been with her predictions about things like the danger posed by COVID, the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, inflation, Ukraine, whether Hunter Biden's laptop was "Russian misinformation," whether Russiagate would be proven true, etc?
Chris Bray; the laws are dead.
Work with what exists.
I don't think the laws are dead -- I think they won't save us, and are running on about 3% battery, but there are examples of the law still sort of working a little bit: the Bundy Ranch mistrial and dismissal in Nevada, the Mark Houck acquittal. If the law was *dead* dead, Trump would already be in prison. The law won't save us, but its decline may not currently be in the form of the final assault.
Read Machiavelli’s Diplomatic dispatches, this is our world.
PS Compleat works of Machiavelli $1.99 on Amazon Kindle.
Many years ago, I saw Steve Martin perform a bit in which he stood on the stage disheveled and explained that he did not know how to dress, but he knew women. He went on to recite several lists of things he didn’t know, but would conclude each list with “but I know women.” At the end of the bit, a man walks across the stage and Martin says “excuse me miss.” That’s Ben-Ghiat. She knows dictatorships, but doesn’t recognize the Biden Administration’s censorship of dissenting views, abuse of law enforcement to target political opponents and its picking and choosing of the laws it will and will not enforce. I wonder what she thinks of the Biden Administration’s prosecution of Douglas Mackey for posting anti-Hillary memes on social media under anti-KKK laws passed in 1870?
Chris, the comments to your posts are written by intelligent, critical thinkers. This is a testimony to your evaluative writing and wisdom. As a Christian who ultimately knows where she is going, I am an optimist. Let these people prattle on because their ideas cause everyone to think about issues we need to confront. I am pro-life and without the whole "my body, my choice" mantra, we would never have had the overturn of Roe v. Wade. The argument fell apart when the government tried to force us all to take the Covid shot. Thirty-one percent of us resisted, almost one in three Americans. I'm pretty sure the whiplash is becoming the boomerang.
Once again Chris, you hit the nail on the head. What I love as well is the intelligent respectful conversation that them takes place amongst us “fascists” 😂
“Othering” will be the soft weapons used against us. We saw it in full force here in Chinada last winter as those of us in the fringe minority were pilloried as white supremacist, climate denying, transphobic, misogynists (I think I checked all the boxes). It was terrifying for us and yet my fellow vaxxed citizens have completely forgotten or minimize the events of the past 3 years. Blessings to you all. Happy Thursday!
https://open.substack.com/pub/roundingtheearth/p/couey-on-fire?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web FYI for those of you who haven’t heard of JJ Couey, follow the links to his presentation in the Substack above. I think he’s also bang on and pulling back the curtain on all the bs and limited hangouts TPTB have been giving us.