101–106 of 106 posts
How can America gain the incredible technology of knowing the outcome of national elections in fewer than 60 days?
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If the printing can’t be verified by the person right after voting, it’s useless. He did have a problem with the machines for a long time, and so did other candidates and parties. It was them who changed their stance to avoid being on the same side as Bolsonaro.
> If the printing can’t be verified by the person right after voting, it’s useless. I don't agree with that. I'm curious about where a person can verify that their vote is actually the one counted? Because you can't in the US (whether by mail or in person). Don't get me wrong, I think and individual printout would be great! And even better if you could go online (or somewhere) and verify that the vote counted was the…
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The defining slogan of fascism is “Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State”. Bolsonaro tried to reduce the size of the state, in direct contradiction with that. Please list concrete actions by his government that can be reasonably characterized as “anti-egalitarian” or “militaristic”. In fact the military in his government was mostly used in the process of helping Venezuelan refu…
Brazilian politics aside, just because Mussolini said it doesn't make it the definition. Of course Mussolini would describe it in such a way -- it's an incredibly self-serving definition. How else is a totalitarian dictator to mask the fact that his regime is entirely about his own personal power and not some Platonic ideal called "the State"? How else is he to rally normally sensible, everyday people around a cause…
So important for the environment and planet. Bolsonaro would have equaled the death of the Amazon as a rainforest. The Amazon is already close to the tipping point of becoming a savanna and net carbon emitting system. Think this doesn't matter to people in the US? Well, turns out the rain in the Midwest of the United States comes from the Amazon rainforest. The planet is intricately intertwined and we do not truly un…
Bulshit. Deforestation was at record levels during Lula’s first terms. Please don’t normalize the election of a criminal.
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Brazilian politics aside, just because Mussolini said it doesn't make it the definition. Of course Mussolini would describe it in such a way -- it's an incredibly self-serving definition. How else is a totalitarian dictator to mask the fact that his regime is entirely about his own personal power and not some Platonic ideal called "the State"? How else is he to rally normally sensible, everyday people around a cause…
I don’t understand what you’re trying to imply about my comment. Can you be specific?
Mussolini and Hitler did not care about empowering "the State" for its own sake. The State was simply a vehicle to exercise a particular racial and/or political ideology and to gain personal power. If they could've excised state apparatuses and achieved power in some other way, they would've. Indeed, that's exactly what both dictators (though more so Hitler) did once they found the appropriate political leverage to do so. Everything is subordinate not to the State, but to the Fuhrer. The State itself was subordinate to the Fuhrer. You only need look at Hitler's public actions leading up to the war, not to mention the private memoranda, letters, and other documents, to see that. How many times did Hitler risk the complete destruction or occupation of Germany by the Versailles powers? How many times did he exclaim that if he failed, Germany would fail, and would deserve it? Hitler did not care about the State, he cared about his own personal power and legacy and maintaining the facade at all costs.
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I don’t understand what you’re trying to imply about my comment. Can you be specific?
Fascism is not just "expanding the size of the state". That's just incredibly naive, bordering on denialism. Substitute "the State" with "il Duce" or "der Fuhrer" in the statement you quoted. That's the true meaning behind the statement -- it's propaganda. You really don't need to take the words of notorious propagandists and liars at face value, especially on a subject that's been studied for almost 100 years now. M…
Fascists use the state to empower themselves. By reducing its size, by definition, a politician reduces his own sphere of influence.
Rereading your comment, I think you’re more or less equating the State with the country, while I’m talking about the government and supporting structure and bureaucracy.
Of course Hitler didn’t care about Germany. He cared about his own power and he had an overreaching state under his control to maintain it.