Equating the orange man with fascism while ignoring the collusion between the pharmaceuticals industry and the current US administration is disingenuous at best, and malicious lying-by-omission at worst.
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The case against crisis-mongering
31–40 of 131 posts
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#32Honestly it seems no one really understands what fascism actually is. What fascism used to be was ultra nationalistic, non democratic, centralised control of people's lives and the economy for the greater good of the state. And I means these to the most extreme you can possibly take these ideas, that's fascism. The word has no meaning when you throw it around against anyone with slightly conservative view points.
> What fascism used to be was ultra nationalistic, non democratic, centralised control of people's lives and the economy for the greater good of the state. And I means these to the most extreme you can possibly take these ideas, that's fascism. That's not entirely true. As Umberto Eco says[1]: > Eco grew up under Mussolini’s fascist regime, which “was certainly a dictatorship, but it was not totally totalitarian, not…
It applies to many modern governments, which was exactly the author’s point.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#33Humans are built to survive adversity. We got so good at it, we took over the planet. Now there's lots of humans who haven't ever faced serious challenges (by previous standards of everyday survival), and they need to feel the drama and triumph humans are programmed for even without the actual life threatening events that used to prompt those feelings. So for many, there's always going to be an imminent apocalypse th…
I don't believe in this perspective. I think most people are sick of it (and would live healthier lives if they were allowed to focus more attention on their immediate surroundings) but that it keeps being refueled by profit desperate news corporations.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#34Strange no mention of Covid as a crisis the US would struggle to handle. The most popular news network in the US is Fox News, and it is (although not uniformly) skeptical of vaccines, masks, lockdowns or even if Covid is real and killing the people its killing. We can look at the rising delta variant infections and deaths to see how the US handles this. Also missing is the threat of a full-scale war between nuclear-a…
> One sign of a sea shift - liberal is an old word, and speech codes, measures against hate speech, blocking presidents on platforms like Twitter, canceling and the like are departures from liberalism. The groups and institutions which formerly supported freedom of speech are now in favor of different things. There may or may not be good reasons for this but it is a departure from liberalism. That these institutions and groups which formerly embraced liberal ideals with regards to speech have now abandoned them is a sign of changes within the institutions he discusses. Liberalism hasn't changed, the formerly liberal groups and institutions have abandoned aspects of liberalism, for good or ill.
I think the divides between progressives and liberals are becoming more stark.
I live in a deep blue area, and some of my friends proudly proclaim they are liberals and not progressive. Was talking with a neighbor recently and she mentioned her background in the Intelligence Community, and her support for law enforcement. She is friends with local LE , and helped them with a recent case. Emphasizing that she is totally against defunding, her ideas on police reform was 100% body cameras, and beefing up their training. Not a progressive.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#35Humans are built to survive adversity. We got so good at it, we took over the planet. Now there's lots of humans who haven't ever faced serious challenges (by previous standards of everyday survival), and they need to feel the drama and triumph humans are programmed for even without the actual life threatening events that used to prompt those feelings. So for many, there's always going to be an imminent apocalypse th…
I don't believe in this perspective. I think most people are sick of it (and would live healthier lives if they were allowed to focus more attention on their immediate surroundings) but that it keeps being refueled by profit desperate news corporations.
I agree. How much not-for-profit, non-state media, non-clout chasing fear mongering content is there? It does exist but the scale is small.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What fascism used to be was ultra nationalistic, non democratic, centralised control of people's lives and the economy for the greater good of the state. And I means these to the most extreme you can possibly take these ideas, that's fascism. That's not entirely true. As Umberto Eco says[1]: > Eco grew up under Mussolini’s fascist regime, which “was certainly a dictatorship, but it was not totally totalitarian, not…
And some also apply to the current incumbent so I'm not really sure what we should draw from that.
You should recognize them as fascist adjacent, as they rightly are.
Most of the things on the list are actively bad in any political system. Half of them are inexcusable. A few are essentially descriptions of populism being acted upon, and a few are typical reactionary features.
For example, current Polish governing party fits: 1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What fascism used to be was ultra nationalistic, non democratic, centralised control of people's lives and the economy for the greater good of the state. And I means these to the most extreme you can possibly take these ideas, that's fascism. That's not entirely true. As Umberto Eco says[1]: > Eco grew up under Mussolini’s fascist regime, which “was certainly a dictatorship, but it was not totally totalitarian, not…
And some also apply to the current incumbent so I'm not really sure what we should draw from that.
The US is a democracy but it’s always been flirty with fascist elements. So it’s no surprise you can look at the American government, under any president, and see some fascistic elements at work.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#38Regardless of what Tyler Durden said: > "We’re the middle children of history. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war, our Great Depression is our lives." The 90s were a pretty fortunate decade. The threat of nuclear war had passed with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the economy was chugging along fine, and terrorism hadn't yet taken centre stage. Certain…
Definitely rose tinted glasses. I don't know where you live but it depends on that. For example they were the years of slaughters in former Yugoslavia, terrorist attacks in Israel, various wars in Africa
Or the Rwandan genocide https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_genocide
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#39Honestly it seems no one really understands what fascism actually is. What fascism used to be was ultra nationalistic, non democratic, centralised control of people's lives and the economy for the greater good of the state. And I means these to the most extreme you can possibly take these ideas, that's fascism. The word has no meaning when you throw it around against anyone with slightly conservative view points.
The word fascism lost its original meaning. Not it just means “nazi” - or something bad. Not that fascist were good but they were different kind of bad than nazis.
Re: The case against crisis-mongering
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What fascism used to be was ultra nationalistic, non democratic, centralised control of people's lives and the economy for the greater good of the state. And I means these to the most extreme you can possibly take these ideas, that's fascism. That's not entirely true. As Umberto Eco says[1]: > Eco grew up under Mussolini’s fascist regime, which “was certainly a dictatorship, but it was not totally totalitarian, not…
And some also apply to the current incumbent so I'm not really sure what we should draw from that.
Fascism isn't binary, it's a spectrum. Trump was closer to the "Literally Hitler" end of the scale than Biden is to the "Literally Stalin" end, but many symptoms of fascism are endemic to American culture and politics.