[lbo-talk] why Paul is a fascist

[Carrol Cox]

Joseph is correct; and given the general misuse of "fascist," I would
suggest that it be regarded as a technical term (jargon) amongst leftists, &
its reference be confined to those movements that emerged in the interwar
period. It really can be crucial to (left) political practice to understand
and be clear about variations of repressive regimes. The secrecy necessary
in an open autocracy (fascism or Czarism of Military dictatorships to name
three) needs to be avoided in other kinds of repressive state. We live in a
pretty damn repressive state, willing to murder its own citizens, but
secrecy in political organization would play into the hands of that
reression rather than contribute to resisting it. "The American Gulag" is a
metaphor, not an identity. "Apartheid," as recently illustrated on this
list, can really distort understanding of and resistance to racial
oppression in the U.S.

Anti-capitalist politics is not a science, but some of the care of
scientific thought, including some care with terminology, is needed. (Random
sneers at jargon, almost always NOT accompanied by any particular example,
can contribute to sloppy thinking.)

Carrol

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Joseph Catron
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2011 2:23 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] why Paul is a fascist

It depends on how you define your terms, I guess. To me, a word that can
mean pretty much anything effectively means nothing.

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 7:40 PM, martin schiller <mschiller at pobox.com>wrote:

My read of the wiki 'fascism' page informs me that the word has lots of
> definitions - if anything it is overflowing with content, which tide is
> sweeping discussion along.
>

-- 
"Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
lytlað."
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