Just Two
One of the things that has interested me lately is a deep dive on common traits of fascism. For the record, there are twelve of them, but it was two in particular that interest me today. These two things are obviously overwhelmingly in the news, but also have been used to change our perceptions of the world around us. I will list them all just for people to have a good list to go by, but I’ll bold the ones I’m thinking of today.
- Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
- Disdain for human rights
- Identification of enemies as a unifying cause
- Rampant sexism
- Control of mass media
- Obsession with national security
- Religion and government intertwined
- Corporate power protected
- Labor power suppressed
- Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
- Obsession with crime and punishment
- Rampant cronyism and corruption
Some lists also include fraudulent elections and supremacy of the military. I highlighted the two I did because they seem to be in the news a lot lately. Obviously, the issue of abortion and women’s rights are in the news right now and everyone is rightfully concerned. However, a thought had occurred to me as we going through the news of yet another mass shooting yesterday.
The war on drugs officially began a little over 50 years ago. That war on drugs obviously has had a tremendous impact on society at large. According to ACLU, incarceration rates have increased 500 percent since 1970. The U.S. population hasn’t even doubled since then. So, the incarceration rate has increased more than four times faster than the population. At this point, it would be fair to ask what this has to do with recent events.
The events of yesterday should make this clear. When we hear there is a mass shooting event, all of us have a picture in our head of what the shooter looks like. He’s a white male. He is usually between 18 and 25. He is also usually a right wing extremist. The numbers back this up. Yet, we should consider for a moment who enters our brain when we think of a common criminal. Obviously, that picture is very different. It is almost as if it was done by design.
Ultimately, we are left with a ton of cognitive dissonance. Who are we collectively afraid of and who should we be afraid of? Right wing extremists have become inherently dangerous. If you don’t believe me then just ask the FBI. They are the domestic terrorists and their numbers are growing. Yet, ask any typical American and they will list anything other than young white males as the danger. They will list immigrants. They will list people of color. They will list radical Muslims. They will list everyone except for the people actually committing these mass shootings and acts of terror. It’s almost as if it were by design.
Worst S&M partner ever: Right-wing government. They don’t practice or acknowledge safe words.
1My 1933 Compton’s Encyclopedia also states that the head of a fascist regime has a private political part-army like the Blackshirts or Storm Troops. We’ve seen the GOP’s version of these on January 6th. BTW, there is a fasces on the back of a dime along with E Pluribus Unum. Scary.
2Grandma Ada —
several indigenous peoples also used the swastika.
Red, white, and blue flags are used by Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba. Czech Republic. Dominican Republic, Fiji. France. Iceland. Laos. Liberia. Luxembourg. Nepal. Netherlands. New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Panama, Paraguay. Russia. Samoa. Serbia., Slovakia. Slovenia. Thailand. United Kingdom, and the United States.
“Using a single star on a national flag is the most popular approach, which can represent many different things, ranging from Communism (North Korea, Vietnam, Angola), the light of Islam (Pakistan, Turkey), unity (Somalia, Myanmar, Jordan) or a guiding star (Chile, Croatia).” Add in Texas as the “Lone Star” state, and you have a pretty broad ideological meaning for that symbol.
A symbol needs to be considered within a context at its creation and over time. 13 arrows held in an American eagle’s talon mean something very different than the fasces found in Italy.
Clearly, the single star of the Soviet Union,
3Have I mentioned recently that it would be good to have an edit function for a few minutes on our comments? Or a warning box about cut and paste without full reading of comments?
4All good descriptions of fascism but a lot of those spring from one simple characteristic emotional state: A worship of strength and a visceral disdain and disgust of weakness.
This then gets into the preference for ‘company of men’ and a contradictory, usually latent, often blatant, homoerotic bent. The Spartans failed to prosper, in part, because they were too rigid to adapt and too busy worshiping masculinity to reproduce.
Hitler spend large sums building camps and Alpine settings specifically to encourage Aryan heroes to mate with fertile Aryan women but the rate of reproduction remained shockingly low. Seems preferring the company of men, caused by a hatred of weakness, might slow population growth … who knew?
5Hi Nick. Yes it is by design. Every civilization follows the same six steps. Look up Margaret Wheatley. Fantastic.
“…Wheatley didn’t stop there. She pointed to the long train of human history. She called upon the work of Sir John Glubb to illustrate that all civilizations move through the same lifecycles, regardless of their location, timing, or how they exercised power. These cycles as described by Glubb are:
The Age of Pioneers
The Age of Conquest
The Age of Commerce
The Age of Affluence
The Age of Intellect
The Age of Decadence
Religion
It’s in every one.
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