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Fascism

The US Did Not Defeat Fascism In WWII

October 17, 2020 Gabriel Rockhill, Counterpunch. , , ,
One of the founding myths of the contemporary Western European and American world is that fascism was defeated in WWII by liberal democracies, and particularly by the United States. With the subsequent Nuremburg trials and the patient construction of a liberal world order, a bulwark was erected—in fits and starts, and with the constant threat of regression—against fascism and its evil twin in the East. American culture industries have rehearsed this narrative ad nauseum, brewing it into a saccharine ideological Kool-Aid and piping it into every household, shack and street corner with a TV or smartphone, tirelessly juxtaposing the supreme evil of Nazism to the freedom and prosperity of liberal democracy.

Liberalism And Fascism: Partners In Crime

October 15, 2020 Gabriel Rockhill, Counterpunch. , , ,
Time and again we hear that liberalism is the last bulwark against fascism. It represents a defense of the rule of law and democracy in the face of aberrant, malevolent demagogues intent on destroying a perfectly good system for their own gain. This apparent opposition has been deeply engrained in contemporary so-called Western liberal democracies through their shared origin myth. As every school child in the U.S. learns, for instance, liberalism defeated fascism in World War II, beating back the Nazi beast in order to establish a new international order that—for all of its potential faults and misdeeds—was built upon key democratic principles that are antithetical to fascism.

Chris Hedges: Trump’s Barrett Nomination

October 5, 2020 Chris Hedges, ScheerPost.com. , , ,
The Christian Right is content to have the focus on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett revolve around her opposition to abortion and membership in People of Praise, a far-right Catholic cult that practices “speaking in tongues.” What it does not want examined is her abject subservience to corporate power, her hostility to workers, civil liberties, unions and environmental regulations. And since the Democratic Party is beholden to the same donor class as the Republican Party, and since the media long ago substituted the culture wars for politics, the most ominous threat Barrett’s appointment to the court represents is going unmentioned.

The US Is Borrowing Its Way To Fascism

September 13, 2020 Richard D. Wolff, Information Clearinghouse. , , ,
Viewing the GOP convention seemed a little like binge-watching the last several years’ parade of none-too-subtle signs of incipient fascism. We saw extreme nationalism, scapegoating immigrants and foreigners in general, white supremacy, “strong (narcissistic)-man” government, aggressive foreign policies, and hysterical red-baiting. Those signs reflect how capitalism’s deepening crisis undermines both the centre-left (Democrat) and centre-right (GOP) and shifts politics further right and further left. Trump represents the anti-centre right, Bernie Sanders the anti-centre left.

Germany: Extreme Right Marches Under Anti-Lockdown Banner

September 4, 2020 Hans-Gerd Öfinger, Der Funke. , , ,
The large Berlin demonstration and rally against the federal government's corona policy on August 29 was a moral victory for the right and neo-Nazis. Pictures of fascists occupying the stairs to the Reichstag building with the Reichsflag (symbol of the empire overthrown by the revolution in 1918 and the Nazi dictatorship 1933-45) are circulating around the world and trigger alarms, especially among anti-fascists. Such symbolic images also serve to weld the right scene together. After all, more members of the extreme right are likely to have marched through the federal capital unified and unmolested on this day than in recent years.

Understanding Trump’s Plan In Portland Could Be Key To Preventing A Coup

July 29, 2020 By George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
One key to a winning strategy is to figure out what the opponent’s strategy is and refuse to be manipulated — in Portland and in the other cities on Trump’s target list. Federal intervention in Portland has turned the previous hundreds of late-night protesters into thousands. Nonviolent tactics include dancing, a “Wall of Moms,” and orange-clad dads with leaf-blowers, who blow away tear gas. Other activists have escalated violent tactics in response to the escalation by the feds. According to The New York Times, some of the protesters used lasers while federal officers fired projectiles into the crowd. Court papers claim that a Molotov cocktail was thrown and one protester was charged with hitting an officer with a hammer, while the Times reported multiple efforts by some protesters to set alight the wood on the façade of the federal courthouse. The fire attempt of course reinforces Trump’s dubious claim that the feds need to be there to protect federal property.

Chris Hedges: America Faces A Historic Choice — “Ugly Corporate Tyranny” Or Revolution

July 16, 2020 Chauncey Devega, Salon. , , ,
Time is broken in Donald Trump's America. Minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days. Weeks are months, and months are years. And there is an overwhelming sense of time warped by dread as the country careens towards a dangerous climax on Election Day — whatever the outcome. Disorientation is a feature of life in a failing democracy where fascism is ascendant. In a widely read conversation here at Salon during the first few weeks of the national pandemic lockdown and the implosion of America's economy, journalist and bestselling author Chris Hedges warned that, compared to what may lie ahead, "these were the good times." This was before the coronavirus pandemic continued its deadly march where today more than 136,000 people are dead.

From ‘I Have a Dream’ To ‘I Can’t Breathe’

June 9, 2020 Katu Arkonada,  La Jornada. , , ,
The killing of George Floyd is just the tip of the iceberg of a system based on racism and class discrimination that allows 99% of deaths at the hands of the police to go unpunished, during the years 2013-2019, according to the website Mapping Police Violence. In 2019 alone, there were 1,042 people shot by the police.  According to a Washington Post investigation, this represents a proportion, per million people, of 12 white persons, 23 Hispanic persons, and 32 African American people.  That is to say, in the United States, you have a three times higher chance of dying by a police shooting if you are Black.  Another terrifying statistic shows that although about 50% of all people murdered are white, about 80% of those given the death penalty have been condemned to die for having killed a white person.

Trump Sends Unambiguous Message To Police And Vigilantes

June 4, 2020 By Adam Weinstein, The New Republic. , , ,
It is time to embrace the parallels, to be unafraid to speak a clear truth: Whether by design or lack of it, Donald Trump and the Republican Party operate an American state that they have increasingly organized on fascist principles. It is also time to consider what else the fascists may yet do, during an unprecedented pandemic, amid unprecedented unemployment, faced with unprecedented resistance ahead of an unprecedented election. The Republican Party wants to make “antifascist” a category of terrorist; whether or not it actually uses active-duty soldiers to round up this new class of undesirables in the “national emergency,” it has at its disposal every police officer who flies a Punisher or Blue Lives Matter flag above the U.S. flag, every armed vigilante and Oathkeeper and Proud Boy who craves the boogaloo.

Trump Labels Anitfa As A Terrorist Organization Without Any Basis In Fact

June 2, 2020 Telesur English. , , ,
United States President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that the U.S. will go ahead and label Antifa as a “terrorist organization,” raising serious concerns about the unconstitutionality of such a threat if carried out.  “The United States of America will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization,” Trump said, as protests over the murder of the black man, George Floyd, continued in at least 30 cities in the United States on Sunday, with Minneapolis as the epicenter. Without evidence, Trump and several top officials from his administration, including U.S. Attorney General William Barr, have blamed Antifa and groups it describes as "agitators" for taking over the protests in U.S. cities.

Brazil: Right Wing Militias On The Loose

May 24, 2020 Shobhan Saxena, The Hindu. , , ,
On Wednesday, a police team picked up two men from a luxury condominium by a lake in Brasilia. They also seized posters with photos of heavily-armed men in full military gear, calling for a military coup in Brazil. The suspects had sent a mail, titled “Death sentence to the traitors of the motherland”, to the country’s top judges. “We call on the people to kill politicians, judges, prosecutors, Mayors, their advisers, relatives, and demons of all sorts in defence of themselves,” the mail said. For a year, judges have been receiving death threats from anonymous groups. A Supreme Court judge, Celso de Mello, said on Thursday the people behind the threats were “fascists” and “Bolsonaristas” — the fanatic followers of President Jair Bolsonaro.

A Delusional Nation In Decline

May 16, 2020 By Jared Yates Sexton, The Muckrake. , , ,
In recent weeks, the fabricated “Reopen America” movement, funded and focused by Right Wing billionaires and conservative media, has led to protests around the country, including in Michigan, where white supremacist militias have used it to their advantage for the purposes of recruitment and action. These militias have stormed the Michigan state legislature, interrupted business, and, as of this week, shut down the government of Michigan for fear of possible violence. Any student of history understands the process by which nations slide into authoritarian abyss. It comes, most often, after years of political and social decay, wherein the people lose faith in their corrupted governments and systems, are won over by a budding authoritarian, and watch lawlessness, both in the form of corruption and in out and out fascism, comes into full and unavoidable view.

The Unspoken Spread Of Fascism

May 14, 2020 Fred Nagel, LA Progressive. , , ,
It is difficult for most Americans to judge just how dangerous Donald Trump might be. It is not that the clues are missing; there is a daily list of lies, racist comments, misogynist ramblings, and outrageous self-dealing. But most citizens just don’t have the right vocabulary to put his actions into some sort of context, even in these pandemic times. The left has been more confident about where Trump fits in the general run of very bad presidents. He is simply a fascist, whose behavior is very similar to other calamitous dictators we have seen in the twentieth century. This conclusion becomes increasingly believable when Trump talks about a confrontation that could happen if he doesn’t get his way. "I can tell you I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump – I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough — until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad."

Are Armed Right-Wing Protests A Harbinger Of Fascism?

May 8, 2020 John Leslie, Socialist Resurgence. , , ,
Protests continue to call for the reopening of the economy, with demonstrations in Michigan, Massachusetts, Texas, California, and other states. Many of the protesters are armed with rifles and handguns. In Michigan, for the second time in two weeks, an “American Patriot Rally” took place on the state capitol steps on April 30. The event was initiated by Michigan United for Liberty and joined in by other right-wing groups. The thuggish Michigan Liberty Militia provided “security” for the action. Hundreds of armed protesters moved into the halls of the statehouse and crowded into the gallery of the state Senate after first demanding to be allowed on the House floor. At a May 2 protest in Boise, Idaho, militia extremist Ammon Bundy compared government quarantine measures to the Nazi holocaust against Jews and called such government intervention “tyranny.” 

Covid-19 Is Bringing Us Into A Hyper-Surveilled, Highly Policed Fascist Dystopia

April 16, 2020 Rainer Shea, SeeYouIn2020. , , ,
We must understand that the crisis we’ve entered into will never end, at least not for as long as our neoliberal capitalist system isn’t replaced with a socialist model. In the U.S., as well as the other countries where austerity has wrecked healthcare systems, Covid-19 is going to cause societal disruptions for years as the virus partially subsides and then regrows. So will be the case for the other pandemics that are sure to emerge in the coming years due to global warming and ecological degradation. This is aside from the collapse of the economy, which is going to put the capitalist world in a general state of crisis throughout the coming years and decades. Amid this new normal where the U.S./NATO empire is fighting a war on viruses, in addition to a war on terror, a war of great power conflict with Russia and China, a war on immigrants, a war on dissent, and a war on communism, the repression we’ve seen during these last two decades since 9/11 will look mild compared to what’s coming next.
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