> Using "fascist" like this is ludicrous. Is the Bush era any more
> repressive than the era of the Palmer Raids or the Red Scares? The roundup
> of the Japanese? The Jim Crow south, when the Klan worked in league with
> the cops? There's more opposition now, elite and popular, than there ever
> was in those earlier eras. If the regime really were fascist, your email
> would be censored, and you might even be locked up.
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Your last point is the important one. We'll know fascism has arrived when
chat groups such as this are closed down and prohibited, and you wouldn't
want to post to one anyway or make your views otherwise publicly known
because of the consequences for your work and personal life. McCarthyism
created a political climate conducive to fascism, but liberals and radicals
still had the institutional means for the bravest among them to express
themselves, despite the ideological assault which cowed many others.