Charles Brown wrote:
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> CB: I realize this it was a long time ago , and things that long ago are oh so ..what is it , such a turn off for the youthful new lefties, but when the Nazis came to power in 1932, did they put everybody in jail immediately ? No. Did that mean they weren't Nazis in 1932 ? No.
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No, they thought it was Bonapartism -- so it never dawned on them until too late that it was a new kind of tyrany. Now everyone is so interested in screaming "fascism" or "naziism" that they may well blind themselves to a brand new authoritarian threat.
This use of "facism" etc to describe every sort of nastiness reminds me of the time I gave a freshman class as a paper topic to describe "thoughtfulness." By the time they had finished every positive word in english had been emptied of its meaning. Similarly, if you label everything fascist, you empty fascism of meaning, making a mere synonym for nasty.
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CB: So, what would you do to expose rather than conceal such a new tyrannical threat ? At least we have the historical precedent that there could be a tyrannical threat worse than Bonapartism.
The greater danger is in your position. It is that in trying not exaggerate, you overlook a truly new level of tyrannical threat or just a repetition of the level of threat that Nazism was.
The Bush KKKism is more like Nazism than Italian Fascism in that Bush is beginning to openly project military conquest of the entire globe with such things as his "axis of evil" concept. Mussolini didn't really project conquering the whole world, but Nazism saw the Third Reich as a military world system. I believe.
Also, Bush is a demogogue of a type similar to Hitler. Or at least there is an extraordinary demogogic effect at work in, as I say, the "good German" response of the American masses to his extraordinarily bellicose and dangerous prenouncements. Bush's mindless "good and evil" talk is being responded to by people as if they were zombies or cult members. That's a lot of it. The American masses are really responding as if they are in a mass cult, waving flags, having football game gala celebrations of America. What kinda shit is that ? The religious aspect of American nationalism ( I don't mean the Christianity, though Bush did name it correctly a "Crusade" but the religious like nature of the rituals of patriotism) is to the fore. Or rather the fervor of the patriotism is reaching religious levels in terms of rituals, mindless obedience to authority, blind faith. I'm talking these people look like they just flipped back to the 1950's with the red , white and blue, and didn't ! miss a beat. True back to the future stuff.
Anyway, Bush is a demogogue, and personality type keyed to the American national culture the way Hitler was a successful demogogue based on his mastery of a certain personality type that was appealing to the German national culture.
On the other hand, Bush's grandfather continued to do business with German companies during WWII with the Nazis in full bloom. And actualy Nazis were part of the Republican Party when his father headed it ( Russ Bellant's book). So, Bush has some direct background connections that are comfortable with Nazism.
You are quite mistaken that I use terms such as "fascist" or "Nazism" in an overbroad and not defined and specific way, as if I were a freshman in one of your classes. In fact, I use a more rigorous and specific definition than most others. I follow Dimitrov. Do you use that specific of a defintion ? I doubt it. I'm usually more rigorous than the student or her liberal arts professor in examining fascism.