Frankly, as someone who lived in the US for about 5 or 6 years, I think it's been pretty fascist for a long time. Things got much, much worse after
9/11 and I found it quite sickening to listen to the ignorant ranting on about nuking Afghanistan... and then there was the whole propaganda push
about Iraq. Mmm... Saddam and Bin Laden.
The Bush family had closer ties to Bin Laden than Saddam Hussein. Watching sheeple swallow whopper
after whopper, lapping it all up...
The US is a hugely thought controlled society. It starts, naturally, at school, with textbooks that lie and with
saluting the flag every day.
It should be noted that veneration of the totems of one's country is one of the attributes of fascism.
Then there's the propaganda. I remember on CNN during the illegal invasion of Iraq, there used to be a banner across the bottom of the screen -
"America fights back". No-one questioned this. People barely even noticed.
Mussolini, of course, said that fascism should more properly be called corporatism, as it's the merger of state and corporate power. Well, I don't
think it matters whether the state takes over the corporations or the corporations take over the state (which is what happened years ago in the US),
the result is the same: the military arm of the state is used to help the corporations make money, whether it's by subverting states all over the
world or simply invading states that have resources you want.
And of course the Republican efforts to turn everyone into a snitch via the TIPS program... that hasn't gone away. There'll be a facelift and
it'll come back around.
Then there's the question of outgroups. Well, while the Neocons/Neo-Nazis were in, there were two obvious ones: the muslims and the liberals.
Now Obama's come in it's a bit trickier... but of course after 8 years of the neocons and the huge financial crisis, "troublemakers" will be high
on the list.
I left the US because the lies and BS were doing my head in. Those who live there, mostly, can't see it - it's like wallpaper.
But don't worry - you're most of the way to fascism already. Not far to go now. Just look at the
14 points of US fascism:
- Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
- Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
- Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause:
- Supremacy of the Military
- Rampant Sexism
- Controlled Mass Media
- Obsession with National Security
- Religion and Government are Intertwined
- Corporate Power is Protected
- Labor Power is Suppressed
- Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
- Obsession with Crime and Punishment
- Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
- Fraudulent Elections
I'd say the US ticks ALL those boxes to a greater or lesser extent. The ones I think are most important I've emboldened.