Fascism in America

[Glacier]

Fascism is on the rise in America... http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comme ... u-know-who

[Poindexter]

desire to transcend class (and later racial) differences within the national community by creating a “new order,” always couched in ringing tropes of hope, change and a unifying “war” (against poverty, racism, climate change, etc). This, Goldberg, argues, is “nice” fascism,.

Calling a liberal democracy "nice" fascism is what I'd call an "alternative" fact.

[Hassel99]

He was elected by the people to do these exact things he said he would do.....

About as democratic as it gets......UNLESS you don't like the things he is doing...then its Fascism!!

[Poindexter]

....UNLESS you don't like the things he is doing...then its Fascism!!

I'll have to check but I'm pretty sure the definition of fascism in Websters isn't, "Check with Poindexter".

"noun: fascism; noun: Fascism; plural noun: Fascisms

an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization."

Nope.
America First!

[Poindexter]

Very enlightening article. 'Here are the books you need to read if you’re going to resist Donald Trump'.

Unsurprisingly, the boldest, smartest and most brutal visions of a Trump-like America came from women of color. In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Talents, an evil Texas senator turned fascist dictator uses a folksy campaign slogan: “HELP US MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Reading that passage, I gasped out loud. We’re at a historical point in which dystopian literature isn’t just about imagining worst-case scenarios—it can apparently be used as a how-to book.

As I read, I became convinced that dystopian literature can help us all navigate the Trump era. As the old proverb goes, “Fish don’t see water.” Similarly, people often fail to notice the way that politicians are manipulating them. The insidiousness of an autocratic regime is the way it appeals to our lizard brains—most notably playing upon fear—and bypasses our rational centers. How else to explain the voters who claim they hate “big government” but need their Medicare? Or, say, people who hate “illegals”, but didn’t think to ask about my doctor-father’s immigration status when they were on the operating table? Dystopian fiction can help us recognize when—and how—we’re being played.

It’s no wonder Trump wants to get rid of the National Endowment for the Arts, an agency with a $146-million budget that represents roughly 0.01% of the federal budget. Artists are like deer: They sniff the winds of change long before the rest of us. So head to your library or bookstore and check out these reads. Forewarned is forearmed, as one of the novel’s folksy characters might say.

https://qz.com/899559/all-the-dystopian ... l-do-next/

[Poindexter]

From the above article. This one is uncanny.

It Can’t Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis

This 1935 novel follows a white-haired, socialist-leaning newspaper editor in a small Vermont quarry town. The editor watches with horror as Senator “Buzz” Windrip and his “League of Forgotten Men” (that is, the idealized white working man abandoned by the snobby élite) rise to power.

Windrip makes folksy declarations promising to return America to a better time, while also cannily purchasing airtime on the radio to make it seem as if his ideas have some validity. He also makes sure that men who disagree with him are tarred as tools of Mother Russia, and dismisses dissenting women as “silly socialists.”

Buzz Windrip’s supporters see his autocratic style and admiration of fascist regimes as strengths. As a local explains: “Didn’t Hitler save Germany from the Red Plague of Marxism? I got cousins there, I know!” Each chapter begins with excerpts of Windrip’s faux memoir, which sounds unnervingly Trumpian. He rails against the press as “a lot of irresponsible wind bags!” When told that his support in the Midwest is slipping, he replies:

“You forget that I myself, personally, made a special radio address to that particular section of the country last week! And I got a wonderful reaction. The Middle Westerners are absolutely loyal to me. They appreciate what I’ve been trying to do!”

Like any good autocrat, Buzz Windrip wins supporters by picking scapegoats. He has promised to save America from welfare cheats, immigrants, a liberal press, and college professors. Dissenters are quickly interned and often tortured, policed by an extra-legal group of goons, The Minutemen.

Lewis masterfully shows how a population that basically wants the same things can still be divided—much as the 2016 election results were driven by a schism between the coasts and the Midwest. And while his vision is dark, it’s made palatable by the book’s weird blend of satire and pathos—and by the editor’s admirable ability to continue to resist, even in the face of great suffering.

[The Green Barbarian]

and if anyone is ever interested in resisting political correctness and the liberal left in Canada and the US, here's a good book to read. It's uncanny as it predicted the onslaught of political correctness well in advance of the ravages we see today:

Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.[1] Orwell, a democratic socialist,[2] was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War.[3] The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"),[4] and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole".

The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story; U.S. publishers dropped the subtitle when it was published in 1946, and only one of the translations during Orwell's lifetime kept it. Other titular variations include subtitles like "A Satire" and "A Contemporary Satire".[4] Orwell suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the French translation, which abbreviates to URSA, the Latin word for "bear", a symbol of Russia. It also played on the French name of the Soviet Union, Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques.[4]

Orwell wrote the book between November 1943 and February 1944, when the UK was in its wartime alliance with the Soviet Union and the British people and intelligentsia held Stalin in high esteem, a phenomenon Orwell hated.[5] The manuscript was initially rejected by a number of British and American publishers,[6] including one of Orwell's own, Victor Gollancz, which delayed its publication. It became a great commercial success when it did appear partly because international relations were transformed as the wartime alliance gave way to the Cold War.[7]

[Queen K]

I've been meaning to add that one to my list GB. I have never read it, ever.

[noc_sgt_rock]

Wrong thread sorry bout that,

ur a *bleep*, i dont even live there and i can see your president is about everything that gives you the ability to make these statements, way better than the Hillary option.

[the truth]

He was elected by the people to do these exact things he said he would do.....

About as democratic as it gets......UNLESS you don't like the things he is doing...then its Fascism!!

62 million people voted him in, lets not blame trump here lol 62 million people