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>Don't be silly. In fascist country we couldn't kvetch on this list.
Ah, you have a democratic notion of fascism, you believe that repression applies equally to everyone. But that is far from being true. Weren't some prominent Nazi leaders like Roehm openly homosexual while less prominent gays languished in concentration camps?
Fascim is not about repression. It is about the state using repression selectively as the means of social control. US is certainly not as murderous as Nazi Germany (much of it, BTW, was the war effect), but it pursues similar tactics when comes to fighting the perceived enemies of the state. "Communist subversives" in the 1950s or "narco-terrorists" of the 1980s and 1990s have as many rights as Jews or Gypsies in Nazi Germany, at least before the outbreak of 2ww - both are subject to arbitrary raids and propety confiscation that enriches SS or police departments.
Add to it serious restrictions on the political process (the "Ein Fuehrer" idea), national security state, racism, mysogyny, etc. The main point is, however, that not everyone experiences that in the US or in Nazi Germany -only the selected 'tiermenschen." Others do not have it that bad, no reason to complain, and are quite surprised to learn that compound 'out there' is a death camp (remember the Bergen-Belsen footage?)
To further illustrate: some time ago I took a friend to the Holocaust Museum in DC. When we ventured to the 'children's section' of the museum, designed to show what it meant to be a Jewish kid after Hitler came to power, my friend was visibly disappointed. When I asked why, he explained that the message conveyed by this particular exhibit was that of an essentially middle class home facing a few nasty restrictions. "What message does it send" he continued "to the inner city children for whom racist restrictions are a relatively minor problem vis a vis vermin-infested slums, sleazy slumlords, war zone policing, crime, shootings etc? That those Jews in Germany did not have it that bad after all."
I had to admit he scored a point here. I think we live a rather privileged life here and indeed it would be silly for us to cry fascism. But there are others who have every right to do so. But that reminds me of the famous Niemoller dictum "They first came for the Communists..."
Regards,
Wojtek