Fascist States of America

This article, called "Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism", describes trends seen within several different fascist countries.

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

I'll post the ones which I believe apply to modern day America.

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.

Both politicians and American citizens tote the American flag and boast about patriotism, although this isn't a bad thing.

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.

Torture is justified by both Americans and politicians.

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.

This applies perfectly to America. Terrorists are used as scapegoats for anything from the systematic dismantling of the Constitution to endless wars.

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.

We spend trillions on our military while our country is falling apart at home.

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.

The corporate media is controlled by 5 or 6 corporations. They push a pro-establishment agenda and censor those who don't, for example Ron Paul.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Americans are fooled into giving up their Constitutional rights in the name of safety, a thing that Benjamin Franklin advised against.

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.

Big bankers have hijacked our government. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to get into it.

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.

The militarization of police has been on the rise for the past couple of decades. While the Constitution is dismantled, the police and other security forces like the TSA have more power to do things that shouldn't be allowed, from unwarranted searches to violations of the 10th amendment.

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.

Bankers send in puppet politicians to further their agendas.

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.

There's tons of evidence that Bush stole one of the elections. Ventura covers it in his book American Conspiracies.

Here ya' go ... one more for your list ...
Obama pondering national police force - again
Obama's own jack booted facist 'police' force. Yeah, that gives me the warm fuzzies.

2004
2008
2011

Like the "Political Compass" this one is a regular repeat.

Looks like you may have read the list back in June too: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Those points are compelling...

But I don't think we fall into 5, 8, 10, or 11.

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.

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.

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.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Yeah that was on my mind when I originally read #12, I remember hearing Obama talking about that. Jesse Ventura is spot on when he calls America the "Fascist States of America".

This is as if someone multiplied the seven deadly sins.
We the people have the worst possible people as our leaders.
Everytime I listen to politicians they talk a good talk, but they are taught to talk and act that like that during their election. They always talk about how America needs this...they are talking about their personal America, not the people's America.
I have never heard much sense out of a politician sense I got wind of Ron Paul. As far as politicians go, he is the logical choice.
I pray to Yah that he stays true to his word for the good of us all.

reply to post by GeorgiaGirl


I think sexism could be argued, because we haven't had any female presidents. Religion influencing government also could be, because how many times can you recall politicians talking about God and their religion?

But the ones I posted in the OP are the ones that I believe absolutely apply to America.

reply to post by TupacShakur


Great thread OP. Very informative for me.

The last thing I found about elections in US :

Money talks.

Originally posted by Vitchilo
reply to post by hmdphantom

 

How every one who is going to be a candidate should have a lot of money to be winner in the election ?

Ads on tv.

How other variables for choosing the right candidate is affected with money ?

Usually... more money = more ads = people see you more = more chance of being elected.

I mean , I Iran , when people see some candidate is using a lot of money to win the election , they get suspicious and the chance to win the election will be law.

Only a minority of people vote that way. The majority just believe the lies and ignore the truth and vote for the puppets.

After reading your post I remember my 3rd thread on ATS :

why are you americans so silent ?

Those fourteen indicators of fascism are not universally accepted. Here is a critique I stumbled on:

I'm going to disagree with most of the points on this list. I think it's very vague and inaccurate. Personally, I believe that Kevin Passmore has produced the best description of Fascism in his book "Fascism: A Very Short Introduction" for Oxford University Press. His research into the matter is impeccable and gives arguments for different sides before giving a solid justification for his definition (pg. 31). This definition is also similar to those presented by Ernesto Laclau and Roger Eatwell and is the definition I use to define fascism. However, 90+% of my criticisms are simple refutation by historical evidence so this definition should play very little (if any) part in my criticisms.
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights is a characteristic of many totalitarian governments, not just fascist ones. Sadam Husein disregarded more human rights than could be said of some fascists yet he certainly wasn't a fascist.
5. Saying rampant sexism is a defining characteristic of fasicsm is blatantly incorrect. Many fascist parties had strong support from feminist organizations and certain feminist goals were part of the Fascist party's original goals (but then of course so was a dedication to democracy). Sexism was only a later result of making women more productive for the nation and possibly appeasing conservative groups. It is quite concievable that a fascist party could operate in an entirely different way if they believed it to be more productive for the nation to do so.
7. Many countries are obsessed with national security. Yes, the fascists did care deeply about national security but that was mostly in regards to their goal of controlling every aspect of the nation. The same could be said about any national issue.
8. I wonder where this comes from but it does not seem to have any real basis. The Fascists were opposed to the Catholic political parties at various times and the church to a degree. I can't seem to find any references of "religious and ruling elite coming together" in the different fascist movements.
9. This is partially true. The Fascists protected buisnesses so far as they were beneficial to the welfare of the nation. Although, many buisnesses were reorganized, all buisnesses were forced to join the fascist "corporations", and some buisness leaders felt betrayed by the Fascists. Laissez faire capitalism would "protect" companies more than fascism's corporatism I think. I'd say the fascists regulated buisness more than protected it.
10. This is like the sexism one: historical evidence says otherwise. Labor was one of the main target of the Fascists for voters. Their goal was to provide a "right-wing" alternative to socialism that would persuade the workers to vote for them. After gaining power the unions that were fascist were merged into the corporations while the others (usually socialist/anarchist/generally left leaning) were eliminated. However, workers's rights did take a backseat to the perserverance of the nation but saying that largescale oppression of labor is a common definition for fascist movements is just wrong.
11. This is another one of those points that seems directly contradicted by historical evidence. Many intellectuals of the period advocated fascism. In fact, the entire fascist movement in Romania came from the students and professors of the universities and many Nazi leaders were influenced by anti-semitic writings of "learned scientists" and professors of the period. Also, both Hitler and Mussolini funded art projects. Heck, fascism was widely regarded as the ultimate form of government by the futurists in Italy and many futurist artists had posts in the Fascist government.
13. Cronyism? Sure. Corruption? Possibly, but nothing immediately springs to mind. Any specific events that could back this up?
14. I would have to see specific data on this but both the Fascists and the Nazi's were legally voted into office in the beginning. Afterwards, they mostly passed laws consolidating their power and making elections more or less unnecessary but, again, I'd have to see the data for this.
While I think that the current definition can be revised/expanded the points you list seem to have no relation on real fascist movements. Could you give us more information on where this information specifically comes from? EDIT: I found the article this is from. It can be read here: [1]. The definitions presented in this article can not be seriously considered as a proper definition of fascism. The work is horribly POV and is designed with the express purpose to villify fascism. I'm making no judgement about the quality of the article or the views expressed in it but such a work can not be considered to be a neutral, scholarly work on the nature of fascism.

The problem with that list is you can insert any nation in the headline and basically get the same results. How many of those relate to China, or Russia. More than your list for America.

reply to post by MrStyx


True, many of them apply to many countries. However it's still frightening to see that we match up with over 50% of the fascist criteria, but not suprising IMO.

I disagree with the sexism part of fascism. To me, the tyranny of political correctness, is really bad. Plus, one of revolutionary communism's tactics, is to destroy morals and the family, by putting women to work away from children and the home, and turning them against men.

reply to post by MrStyx


.
Any nation? You mentioned two communist countries
as an example. China, Russia and the US are much
alike indeed.
.

I know there is going to be a lot of ignoring Bush was president in this thread but the article is 8 years old. There was a book on the same theme that also came out while Bush was in office and this pretty much sounds like a direct rippoff of that. Either way, I want people to remember the time frame. This is how bad things were and looked 8 years ago.

Wow we have been groomed for so many years it has not been very apparent has it? I would like to say more on this but must leave for work...