[ExI] Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps

[Stefano Vaj]

On 9/28/07, PJ Manney <pjmanney at gmail.com> wrote:
> To be honest, I'm not quite sure I understood Stefano's point, either.
>
> Let's go with this, unless anyone strongly disagrees:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism#_note-0
> Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a
> mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests
> subordinate to the needs of the state. Fascists seek to forge a type
> of national unity, usually based on (but not limited to) ethnic,
> cultural, or racial attributes. Various scholars attribute different
> characteristics to fascism, but the following elements are usually
> seen as its integral parts: nationalism, authoritarianism, statism,
> militarism, totalitarianism, anti-communism, corporatism, populism,
> and opposition to economic and political liberalism.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

I think we are way off-topic, and I do not really have a specific
point to make, let alone in favour of the deplorable authoritarian
evolution of US politics.

But if I have to comment, even taking Wikipedia's oversimplification
for good (I assume that many fascists would find such definition at
least reductive), one wonders:
- where the Bush clique and its supporters consider their interests at
least in principle subordinate to "the needs of the State"?
- how their divisive action can be considered "to forge a type of
national unity"?
- what kind of corporative (which in a fascist sense has a totally
different sense from "corporate", as in "capitalistic corporations")
revolution do they foster?
- how would they be opposed to economic liberalism?
- what kind of "ethnic, cultural, and racial attributes" would they be
referring to?

If, on the other hand, "fascist" is simply a comfortable shorthand for
"evil", "politically inacceptable", "oppressive", "murderous",
"despotic", "illiberal", "anti-democratic" etc., as it is often the
case after 1945, fine with me. But I suspect that in a more precise
sense America is not more fascist today than than, say, the Inca
emperors or Stalin were.

Stefano Vaj