Wojtek Sokolowski:
>> So what is a difference between fascistic wars and the
non-fascistic varieties?<<
Charles Brown wrote:
> The Soviet defensive war against the fascists was anti-fascist<
Jim D.: so the Soviet conquest of Finland in 1940 was non-fascist?
^^^^ CB: The USSR war against the fascist Nazi invasion was an anti-fascist, non-fascist war.
It is not necessary to debate what the conflict between the USSR and Finland to answer Wojtek's question about the difference between fascist and non-fascist war, because the Soviet anti-fascist war against Germany is an example.
The Viet Namese war against U.S. invasion was non-fascist war.
^^^^^^
what's the difference between Stalin's authoritarianism and Mussolini's authoritarianism? If the word "fascism" is infinitely elastic, so that it applies not only to Dachau but to the Pelican Bay prison here in California, why doesn't it apply to Stalin, who had all sorts of nasty prisons in Siberia?
no never mind. Treat that as a rhetorical question.
^^^^ CB: To me the word "fascism" or "fascistic" is not infinitely plastic. It is reserved to refer to forms and practices of capitalist states in the era of imperialism. The SU was not a capitalist state, ergo.
I'd say that the current U.S. system is not fascism,but has fascistic institutions and projects. The U.S. prison system's overly large population is the result of socio-economic processes - necessary mass poverty under capitalism, reversal of the welfare state, racism - that are deserving of being termed socio-economic fascistic because the result or Reaganite policies that a large mass of people will have to commit crimes to live is _foreseable_. In other words, at the time of the great Reaganite reversals of the New Deal/Great Society Policies and Programs, it was forseeable ( I'd say intended assault on the working class) that they would lead to much more poverty, social ennui and crime. When you add on the illegitimate illegalization of many drugs, and he percentage of prisoners who are in on drug-related crime...the whole thing stinks. I'd call it conscious rightwing social engineering, and it is worthy of terming fascistic.