The 4th of July is now a memorial rather than a celebration, and the Spirit of ‘76 is nothing but a ghost. – “The Spirit of ’76”
Humans have a rather pathetic tendency to mistake form for substance, and to confuse symptoms with causes. So if I had thought about it hard enough, I probably would’ve been able to predict that eventually Americans would realize they were living in a fascist police state, but that they’d do so long after such a state was established and reach the conclusion for completely wrong reasons. It’s become fashionable to refer to Donald Trump and his government as “fascist” due to his openly-racist rhetoric, but the US government has always been racist since its inception, and as I wrote almost a year ago,
…fascism has a specific meaning, namely rule by a coalition of political, corporate and military or paramilitary interests. [Americans] seem to think US fascism started with Donald Trump, which is patently absurd. Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Lawrence Britt’s seminal article on the 14 defining characteristics of fascism; you’ll note that most of these describe American government as far back as the Reagan administration, and a few of them as far back as the FDR administration.
I might also point out that FDR openly admired Mussolini, and Hitler openly praised FDR, right up to the point when that tyrant historians celebrate as one of the “greatest presidents” decided US interests would be better served by joining the Allies. Furthermore, though the anti-Trump crowd loves to style themselves “The Resistance”, they also unironically talk about government officials committing “treason” (you know, the charge used by tyrannical governments for executing actual resistance members), obsess about Russian agents more than Joe McCarthy did, and blindly support candidates every bit as fascist as Trump (though, admittedly, saner and more polished). Moronic blue hat/red hat partisanism has rotted Americans’ brains to the point where they actually blame the other party for every ill they can identify, even when a few minutes of research on the internet will demonstrate that our current tyranny is solidly bipartisan. Our idiotic, shallow, appearance-obsessed culture is long overdue for collapse, and when it does “the ash left behind [may] provide…fertile soil for new (and gods willing, healthier) growth“. The moribund American Empire will produce no more good in the world except by its collapse and replacement, and though I grieve the innocent blood which will be spilled, it isn’t like US policies aren’t spilling rivers of innocent blood right now. The sooner it happens, the better for the world; the end of this monster who once promised so much can’t possibly come soon enough.
“blindly support candidates every bit as fascist as Trump (though, admittedly, saner and more polished). ”
I’m puzzled as to who this might be. It can’t be Her Shrillness (would be) Hillary The First. Oh, her insanity may not have been showy, but you can’t tell me that anyone who runs for election by ostentatiously insulting her opponent’s supporters is sane. She ran a campaign so flagrantly arrogant and elaborately stupid that it can’t have been an accident. She pretty much HAS to be bugf*ck …unless she’s a paid shill for Trump.
Thanks for a proper celebration of the date. I wrote a long comment but bastard wordpress dropped it because I didn’t give it proper password. This never happened before and I suspect it is a new feature meant to discourage us. Fuck them all.
[Pretty harsh. I think Trump is a fascist, but I do agree that fascism in America didn’t start with Trump. I think that Trump is an authoritarian. Authoritarians aren’t necessarily fascist, but fascists must be authoritarians. For example, Communism isn’t necessarily fascist, but it is authoritarian. In my opinion, it is authoritarianism that underlies the anti-liberty ideologies. Nothing I can think of offhand is more authoritarian than ripping families apart than Trump’s current immigration policy. Sorry, but just because America goes to other countries to murder people, does not mean it is not murder because it is not Americans being murdered, although Obama intentionally murdered an American citizen under the guise he wasn’t in America, so due process doesn’t apply, like they house prisoners in Guantanamo to get around the Constitution. Like some might call border checkpoints, Guantanamo is a “Constitution free zone.”
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
The drift toward fascism goes back at least as far as Woodrow Wilson. But it’s not over yet. First Amendment freedoms are still fairly well preserved. There’s still hope for substance to regain some of the ground lost to form. Hope for a soft landing rather than collapse.
It goes back further than even Wilson. Lysander Spooner had the right of it all the way back in the mid-19th century: either the Constitution allowed for the government we have now or else it is (was) entirely incapable of restraining the government. I side with those who think it was not a bug but a feature of the Constitution to allow for unrestrained government.