14 characteristics of fascism

[PhillyKev 0]

Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, wrote an article about fascism which appeared in Free Inquiry magazine, a journal of humanist thought. Dr. Britt studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The article is titled "Fascism Anyone?," and appears in Free Inquiry's Spring 2003 issue on page 20.

The 14 characteristics are:

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'; of 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 government if 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 and national policy.

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 through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

7.. Obsession with National Security; Fear is used as a motivation 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 in 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 is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

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 who use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability.

14.. Fraudulent Elections; Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against (or even the assassination of) the opposition candidates, the use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and the manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

[Amazon 7]

OUCH

That article is starting to hit a bit too close to home...

So this is what it comes down to. Living in a Fascist/ Cabalistic state just like in some of the SCI-FI stories when I was young.

A very sad and ashamed Amazon

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

I might have agreed with these points if they were not an obvious swipe at the Bush administration. Almost all of the key points are true, but little things have been added to make them more true to Bush.

And, for the record, I think Bush is moron.

[PhillyKev 0]

Yes, I agree it's definitely skewed. But the fact that it only takes a little stretching to make it more applicable to our current administration is pretty telling of itself.

[Jib 0]

I think you'd have to do some serious twisting and generalization to be able to apply it to Bush.

--------------------------------------------------
the depth of his depravity sickens me.
-- Jerry Falwell, People v. Larry Flynt

[BlueEyedMonster 0]

Yup, not that far of a stretch.

But, what is going to save us: He's gonna screw up the economy so bad, he'll be lucky to make it through the next election. Jeeze I hope the Dems actually find someone qualified for the job! I don't want to have to vote for Micky Mouse again.

[PhillyKev 0]

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I hope the Dems actually find someone qualified for the job!

What do you mean? Al Sharpton is on the ballot

[billvon 3,111]

Well, this isn't 100% true of our current administration:

>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.

From the Army Times:
-----------------------
In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap — and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately.

For example, the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are wasteful and unnecessary — including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity paid to families of troops who die on active duty. This comes at a time when Americans continue to die in Iraq at a rate of about one a day.

Similarly, the administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones.
------------------------

And it would be hard to claim that the Army Times is run by a bunch of whining liberals.

[livendive 8]

A government can simultaneously throw money at it's military while giving the shaft to it's working class troops.

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[flyhi 24]

Anyone remember the Soviet Union from post-WWII through 1989?

The 14 characteristics are:

1.. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism; Rampant drug use and skirting of the rules (hockey teams comprised solely of "military" members) to ensure USSR athletes on the podiums at the Olympics. The only ones who consistently beat the USSR were the East German "women".

2.. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights; Remember gulags?

3.. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause; The evi influences of western nations

4.. Supremacy of the Military; More tanks and men than we get ever hope for.

5.. Rampant Sexism; Let's name some of those famous Soviet women leaders. Anyone come up with someone, yet?

6.. Controlled Mass Media; Let's see, there was Pravda and...

7.. Obsession with National Security; Fear is used as a motivation tool by the government over the masses. (Don't even have to change that one.)

8.. Religion and Government are Intertwined; I got nothing here.

9.. Corporate Power is Protected; Status quo was maintained with little or no outside competition.

10.. Labor Power is Suppressed; Fewer unions in the USSR than in the USA. Gotta give the nod to Ivan on this one.

11.. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts; Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. One out of four engineers put to death when the construction of a railroad was delayed. How many winners of the Nobel Prize were refused the right to accept it from current fascist nations?

12.. Obsession with Crime and Punishment; So infamous they even wrote a book about it. But seriously, do you think the travel industry booked all those people to Siberia?

13.. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption; The Western presses could call the next leaders before the elections even happened. Wasn't Stalin Krushcev's sugar daddy?

14.. Fraudulent Elections; See thirteen above.

Seems to me that the former USSR fits the mold very well in 12 of the 14 categories. And I'm sure that anyone with a BA could probably make a pretty good case for the other two.

The hard part, I think would be to prove that Monaco or the Vatican were Fascist states. Although the Vatican does have that religious thing going for it, and all that imported help from Switzerland, hmmmm

Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

[TheAnvil 0]

Not that far of a stretch? You've got some imagination.

It's hard to screw up the economy worse than he inherited it. Running a deficit that is such a small percentage of GNP as he is doing in light of recent events is fairly remarkable.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[billvon 3,111]

>It's hard to screw up the economy worse than he inherited it.

When he inherited it we had a $236 billion surplus. (2000)

>Running a deficit that is such a small percentage of GNP as he is doing
> in light of recent events is fairly remarkable.

You do realize that the deficit is at record highs, and is growing at twice the rate of the GNP, right?

If a democrat wins next year, and inherits the largest deficit in US history, will you say "Wow, Bush handed him a great economy and he went and screwed it up!"

[TheAnvil 0]

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You do realize that the deficit is at record highs, and is growing at twice the rate of the GNP, right?

Yes I do. And I also know that as a percentage of GNP this is not the largest deficit in history.
The economic burble experienced under the Clinton administration was due to the 'dot.com' explosion among other things - which initially started under the first Bush administration. When that went into the 'dot bomb' plunge, it sent the market back down - way down. Kind of a correction of sorts to compensate for the artificial boost created by the dot com buying frenzy. Do a quick visual linear fit of the DJIA since the 20's and look at it. We're coming back up to where the line should be right now. (I know it's not precise, but its close).

WRT the Dow, Russel, NASDAQ, and whatever, I think the approaching Grey Dawn is going to have an effect - I just don't have the financial acumen to know exactly what. A lot of the people who fueled the market surge were baby boomers. Now - if they're smart, they are going to be moving a lot of their $$ to more conservative funds/venues of investment. That's a LARGE portion of investors by any standard. I wonder if anyone has written anything on this...

Quote

If a democrat wins next year, and inherits the largest deficit in US history, will you say "Wow, Bush handed him a great economy and he went and screwed it up!

No, not at all. I'll pass judgement on the dem (if elected, which I doubt; no leader is running, just a bunch of wannabes) AFTER he's had one of his budgets in effect for a bit. The deficit the next administration inherits (dem or Bush for another term) will be the largest in history by magnitude - inflation, demographics, CBO projections, and etc make this a mathematical certainty. It would be interesting to make a graph of the national debt with administration turnovers as data points. I might do this if I get bored.

Truth be told, I think Bush set himself up for long term success and then 9/11 (and to a lesser extend the idiotic ILWU strike) knocked him for a loop. He set up a ten year plan of tax cuts. As tax cuts inevitably spur the economy, had 9/11 not happened we would be riding pretty well right now and through his next term. He would probably have turned over to a Republican (other than Cheney I think) a booming economy that had recovered from a Clinton recession. The sucker punch of shutting down the airline industry, the war on Iraq, and such forced him to accelerate the cuts he had planned in order to save the economy from disaster.

Could be wrong, but that's what I think. I am still a bit miffed at this recent tax cut, as I think it blurs the line between corporation and LLC way too much. I would prefer to have seen us end taxation of corporate profits earned abroad - which would make us like every other industrialized nation on Earth in that regard. That alone would boost the economy immeasurably and be a boon to US companies vs foreign competition.

Beers,

Vinny

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[Tonto 1]

It would also apply to the "old South Africa" as it stands, dispite the fact that SA is not mentioned in the origional list of nations.

t

It's the year of the Pig.