America is becoming a fascist state

It's good that people automatically tune out whenever the word "fascist" is used, because it's used so often and so without merit that it's ultimately become meaningless. But it's bad because when there is actually a legitimate comparison to be made, nobody pays attention.

Nazi Germany was not the only fascist government. Let's go back and put the politics of the 1930s into context. Fascism was a legitimate political system. There were 'moderate' fascists like Franco in Spain. Italy (which was not as extreme as Nazi Germany) would constantly urge Franco's regime in Spain to be more 'fascist' so they would not come off simply as conservative reactionaries against the socialist government they overthrew (which they were). Franco murdered and tortured political dissidents and threw them into camps, and yet he had widespread support all the way up to his death in 1975 (he remained in power after World War II because he was neutral during the war. Spain had just gotten out of a brutal civil war when WWII broke out, and they didn't have the capacity to wage another one).

I watched a six-part documentary series on the Spanish Civil War a couple months back, up on youtube (I think it's been taken down. Nevermind, here it is). It was made in 1980, and they interviewed supporters of both sides. You have no idea how weird it is to see old grannies talking about how much they love monarchy and totalitarianism, with portraits of Spanish fascist military leaders hanging up on their wall in the background.

The reason I'm going through all of this is because I want to get the point across that it is very easy for normal people to fall in love with fascism. This seems like common sense with everything we learn about fascism in history, but when it actually starts happening, the dots just never connect. World War II is often considered to be "the good war," but the United States government actually cared very little about stopping fascism, as a government. U.S. corporations supplied Franco and the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. The CIA brought in hundreds of Nazi spies after the war ended. Richard Nixon, founder of the modern Republican party, once toasted Franco, and said upon his death that he "was a loyal friend and ally of the United States." Utilizing the tactics of the Nazi Gestapo, the FBI once drugged and murdered a man in his bed because they didn't like his political opinions. I'm not typically a conspiracy theorist, but the circumstances surrounding MLK's and Malcolm's deaths are extremely suspicious. King's own family doesn't think Ray was the shooter. Seriously, read that. They took out Fred Hampton, I see no reason why they wouldn't have the capacity to do the exact same things over again.

FDR said:

"The first truth is… a democracy is not safe if people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by… any controlling private power."

Sound familiar? How 'bout now? Click to enlarge.



The United Nations says the U.S. is not protecting the rights of the Occupy protesters. Barack Obama does not support the Occupy movement. He made a few gentle words towards it at the start, and then he immediately backed off once his donors on Wall Street got mad at him. It seems like the only argument Obama apologists have left is "At least he's not a Republican, and at least I'm doing something." This is extremely dangerous and self-manipulative. It's the last refuge of someone who actually believes he holds some amount of power in the way our government works. You have no power. When a petition to free Bradley Manning popped up on the White House's website, the White House simply removed it. Right now, Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing for a constitutional amendment that will overturn Citizens United and establish that corporations are not people. He has a petition on his website with over 110,000 signatures right now. It's not going to happen. It will never happen.

The sooner everyone realizes that we do not live in a democracy, the sooner we can focus our attention on the real enemy: every person who holds a position of power in the government. The House of 'Representatives' voted 406-17 to keep the NDAA conference committee closed to the public. This, of course, is the act that will allow the government to lock up anyone they want on American soil, for as long as they want, by simply calling them "terrorists." Obama was threatening to veto this, but the language his administration used seems to imply that it's for the wrong reasons: that it doesn't go far enough.

"We have said that the language in this bill would jeopardize our national security by restricting flexibility in our fight against al Qaeda… Any bill that challenges or constrains the President’s critical authorities to collect intelligence, incapacitate dangerous terrorists and protect the nation would prompt his senior advisors to recommend a veto."

But he likely won't veto it at all, since he's the one who wanted the provision in there in the first place.



I've tried being tolerant of Obama supporters (among friends at least) but if he signs this, there are no longer any excuses. If this happens, and if you vote for Barack Obama anyway, you are giving him permission to take away your rights. This goes way beyond what George Bush ever did, but I suppose Obama apologists wouldn't care, because they never raised a peep when he extended illegal wiretappings and assassinated American citizens either. I think I'll end this with a fitting quote from George Orwell (who opposed strict pacifism, and who actually had the courage to fight against fascism when he carried a gun for the socialists in the Spanish Civil War)

All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. . . . The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.