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J_J_

(1,213 posts)
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 12:03 PM Oct 2014

Defining Characteristics Of Fascism: Sometimes Elections in Fascist Nations are a Complete Sham


What kind of elections will the "Homeland Generation" look foward to?

Please take a look at the 14 characteristics of Fascism:

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 or 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 governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational 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 into 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 and letters is openly attacked.

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 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.

14. 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.




Since we clearly can see we have 13 out of 14 characteristics here....

Is it that much of a stretch to think maybe number 14 is accurate as well?
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woo me with science

(32,139 posts)
1. K&R Another way to have sham elections
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 12:23 PM
Oct 2014

is to ensure that both major candidates represent the same fascist agenda.

The Bernies and the Elizabeths will be welcomed to speak for as long as they are useful to sustain the illusion that we still have debate and democracy.

The PTB will dispose of anyone who begins to present a serious threat to their power.




Donald Ian Rankin

(13,598 posts)
2. Except these 14 characteristics don't have much to do with fascism.
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 12:25 PM
Oct 2014

They were created by Dr Lawrence Britt, not to identify or characterise fascist states, but to help pretend that the USA was fascist; if your goal is discriminating between fascist and non-fascist states then a good starting point is to ignore these.

 

bobthedrummer

(26,083 posts)
3. K&R + Global Subversion Begets a Question for Ed Snowden: Are Covert OPS Compatible With Democracy?
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 12:30 PM
Oct 2014

by Bill Blunden 10-12-14 via cryptome (pdf)
http://cryptome.org/2014/10/cia-snowden.pdf

We've been corporate fascist since the installation of Bush/Cheney now it's increasingly worse.

SidDithers

(44,228 posts)
5. Shouldn't you at least provide attribution for the list...
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 02:26 PM
Oct 2014

and give credit to the person who wrote it?

You're not trying to pass off the work as your own, are you?

Sid

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
14. Or mention how long people have been saying "see? we're exactly like this!"
Tue Oct 14, 2014, 12:08 PM
Oct 2014

I'd note also that people have been breathlessly saying for equally long that the US has enacted 9 of the 10 planks of the communist manifesto, with about as much accuracy.

 

Rex

(65,616 posts)
8. You like closed systems of government?
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 03:17 PM
Oct 2014

Can't have a democracy if you don't have freedom of the press.

MattSh

(3,714 posts)
11. Change the subject much?
Tue Oct 14, 2014, 11:31 AM
Oct 2014

You insinuated that Russia was fascist. Now you're talking about closed systems of government?

And if you think the USA has freedom of the press, you are sadly mistaken. Freedumb of the Press? Well yes, the USA has a lot of that.

pampango

(24,692 posts)
10. New study shows that Europe's fascists agree. New study: Europe's far right - anti-EU, pro-Putin.
Mon Oct 13, 2014, 03:26 PM
Oct 2014


Yet despite the extreme Right’s much-vaunted irredentism, it has also mounted strong critiques of the very modern phenomenon of globalization. The internationalization of capitalism, its unprecedented ability to cross the boundaries of national political and legal jurisdictions, has led to a sea-change in the way fascists respond to the vital question ‘where does the national interest lie’. Today, fascist and nationalist movements don’t just wave the flag of the nation-state. Despising the liberal values of Europe, deploring the subservient actions of European governments in the face of the EU’s hegemonizing tendencies, extreme-right leaders gaze admiringly across the EU border to authoritarian leaders abroad, longing for the day when they too can govern illiberally.

But for many of the up-and-coming demagogues of the populist and anti-Communist extreme Right, ranging from UKIP’s Nigel Farage to the FN’s Marine Le Pen, from Gábor Vona of Jobbik to Nikos Michaloliakos of Golden Dawn, it is the autocratic leadership of Russian president Vladimir Putin that is most admired and emulated.

HRF suggests that eight European far-Right partiesthe Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), Vlaams Belang of Belgium, the FN in France, the German National Democratic Party, Golden Dawn, Jobbik, Lega Nord in Italy and the Lithuanian Order and Justice party (TT)have aligned themselves with Russian interests and hints that Russia is funding some or all of these parties. In the context of the ‘Trojan Horse’ theory, the modest gains for the extreme Right in the European parliamentary elections could be seen as ‘a victory for Moscow’.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/protecting-european-democracy-or-reviving-the-cold-war-the-rising-tide-of-fascism/5407372

Nye Bevan

(25,406 posts)
17. I always love it when people post on a free, open, message board,
Tue Oct 14, 2014, 12:19 PM
Oct 2014

without fear of any repercussions, to solemnly claim that we are "living under fascism".

The outcome of this kind of debate in a coffee shop in 1930s Berlin would have been........different.

And yeah, yeah, I know, "it's a continuum, we are not quite there yet, but very very very soon......"

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