[lbo-talk] More Rightwing proto-fascism

Alan Rudy alan.rudy at gmail.com
Fri Feb 25 04:55:56 PST 2011


There's already been a definitional exchange on this topic... about six months ago. If you want to introduce new material please review the prior discussion and situate yourself relative to what a number of us contributed then.

Otherwise, what's the point other than you insisting that you understand things the rest of us don't.

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 7:24 AM, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:


> [WS:] Speaking of precision, the Euro-American view of fascism as
> something very uniquely horrifying in history seems rather imprecise.
> In fact, Euro fascist atrocities have plenty of historical precedence
> - the only difference is that in the victims of Euro fascist were
> white, whereas the victims of other fascist violence were yellow,
> brown, or black. That is why, imho, Euro fascism appears so uniquely
> horrifying to European and American whites. Case in point: Nazi
> atrocities in Europe pale in comparison to Japanese atrocities in
> China, yet the former receive all the attention whereas the latter are
> barely mentioned. But then again, the victims of the former where
> white, whereas the victims of the latter where Asian.
>
> If we abandon the ethnocentric view of fascist victimization and stop
> erroneously believing that fascism is something unique and
> unprecedented and accept the fact it is something quite common in
> history, there will be nothing imprecise in calling US right wingers
> fascists. They are fascist in their hearts, they just happen to
> operate within the constraints of a liberal state which limits what
> they can do to their political enemies. But those constraints are not
> unbreachable (cf. McCarthy)
>
> Wojtek
>
>
> On 2/24/11, Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Precision, dear boy, precision. You said "the GOP as a whole" was
> > "full-blown fascist". :)
> >
> >
> > On 2011-02-24, at 4:00 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> >
> >> I do not think the repugs will do it themselves - more likely, they will
> >> use
> >> goons (militias, klansmen, think tanks etc) to do the dirty work for
> >> them.
> >> If the Wisconsin protests escalate, (and I wholeheartedly hope they
> will)
> >> it is not the question of whether but when.
> >>
> >> Wojtek
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 3:42 PM, Marv Gandall <marvgand at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On 2011-02-24, at 12:37 PM, Wojtek S wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Why do you call it proto-fascism? These guys, and GOP as whole I may
> >>> add,
> >>>> are full blown fascists, there is no reason to pull wool over it. The
> >>> only
> >>>> difference between them and the Nazis, the Mussolinis, the Pinochets
> and
> >>> the
> >>>> Videlas is that GOP does not have the power to do as they please with
> >>> their
> >>>> enemies, or perhaps not yet.
> >>>
> >>> I propose we reserve judgement on this question until the Republicans
> >>> give
> >>> the order to open fire on unarmed demonstrators, ban opposing political
> >>> parties, purge left-wing academics from universities, and shut down all
> >>> avenues of democratic expression, including lbo-talk.
> >>>
> >>>
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> >>>
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> >
> >
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> >
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-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319



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