All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!(Part II)

[InformationGeek]

I flipped to CNN for the news and they are covering an Trump Rally. Blaring out the speakers is "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey.

Don't think they got permission for that song either.

[zinderel]

America is Collapsing into Fascism Because Americans Don't Understand Fascism

The reason is that Americans have been badly miseducated about fascism. They have been told a terrible and stupid lie, that I will come to. That part of you that objects, “but this isn’t fascism fascism,” does so because somewhere, probably in grade school, and then all over again in college, you were taught the definition that every American is taught. Fascism is the “concentration of state and economic power.”

Now, let’s think about this for a second. If this is fascism, then Britain’s NHS, France’s retirement system, and Germany’s high speed rail network meet this definition, too — and all those kind folks working in them are…fascists. Lol. In fact, they are the precise opposite of fascism — goods designed explicitly to make everyone better off, regardless of their position in society, their caste, creed, place — which is why we call them “public” goods. And yet this definition — “the concentration of state and economic power,” or those like it — has no racial or ethnic component, nor one of violence, whatsoever. Isn’t that, well, strangely, bafflingly ignorant? After all, isn’t fascism at its core about exactly that?

Americans have been taught that socialism is fascism. Not even totalist communism, a la Soviet Russia — even lightweight social democracy. Quite literally, under the terms of this bizarre definition — “the concentration of state and economic power” — Americans are left badly, deeply, and profoundly confused. But wait! If we build that high speed rail line, or give people healthcare — isn’t that a step on the road to fascism? LOL — of course not: it is an inoculation against taking that step. I’ll come back to exactly why. Do you see how convoluted our logic grows, how dim our reason becomes, when our definitions begin from a backwards place? When we suppose fascism is a thing without a politics begin with, when we have reduced it to a ghost, a shell — then what are we to fight against?

Now. The interesting question is: why? Why were Americans taught that socialism is fascism — when in fact the diametrical opposite is true? The reason is quite simple, but to really understand it — and you will not like the explanation — we need to consider America’s gruesome, weird, and terrible history.

[Michael Watkins]

I really can't stand The Young Turks. They're a "principled" version of Fox News on the left.

You're thinking of MSNBC. TYT is more trustworthy than CNN, FOX, and MSNBC imo.

[InformationGeek]

Never ends with this piece of crap, does it?

Rep. Steve King says he hopes Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagan ‘will elope to Cuba’

[numberthirty]

You're thinking of MSNBC. TYT is more trustworthy than CNN, FOX, and MSNBC imo.

Agreed.

..........

[Tazirai]

I really can't stand The Young Turks. They're a "principled" version of Fox News on the left.

No they are not. VERY VERY False Equivalence. One lies, the other doesn't. I don't even know how you can say that seriously.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

It scrapes my colon to write this, but in fairness, the actual reporters who work for Fox news are pretty honest. They fact check and correct. The problem with FN is that their commentators (Hannity, Carlson, Judge Jeanne, etc) aren't held to that same standard and can say whatever they want because they're 'only' entertainers. But considering how much of their programming these days is 'entertainment', I'm surprised they've never faced any legal challenges to their claim to be a news channel.

[Daoud]

America is Collapsing into Fascism Because Americans Don't Understand Fascism

Fascism is best seen this way. A person who believes that there is a hierarchy of personhood — that some people are more human than others, and some fall below the threshold of being people entirely — and furthermore, that that hierarchy should be institutionalized, is a fascist. A movement composed of such people is a fascist movement. A government managing such a project is a fascist government. (The natural moral logic of such a hierarchy is that violence must be done to the weak by the strong, since they are not human beings at all, but parasites and predators.)

But that creates a very big problem for America. If that definition is true — you are welcome to think about whether it is — then America was a fascist country for a very long time, and many Americans have always been welcoming to fascist ideas, because the central organizing principle of American life was just such a hierarchy of personhood — and its institutionalization. Slavery and segregation, after all, was exactly all this, wasn’t it?

So now we come to a difficult truth — one that is perhaps too difficult for America to ever really face, and that is why it is where it is now.
You see, the problem is that fascism was an American creation. The Nazis didn’t begin by being America’s enemies. They were its great admirers. They openly studied America’s long history of slavery and segregation to model their own race laws upon. Now, Americans, quite naturally, wanting to disown this legacy, were left calling fascism “white supremacy” and “white nationalism” and so on. But these are inaccurate, sanitizing terms, which only hide a bitter and grim reality — and leave us unable to ever really improve upon it much, either.

Fascism didn’t come to America. It didn’t even come back to America. It was born here, nourished here with centuries of slavery and segregation — hence, the Nazis learned it from us — and only slumbered a few short decades, while Americans told themselves proudly that the real monsters were not the people they had once been, but the people they did not want to be.

It’s hard to face the truth of yourself. The guilt and shame and fear that come with it. Is this really who I am? And yet until and unless you do — you will stay just that person. If you ask me, that is what the lie that fascism is socialism, but slavery and segregation weren’t, has done to America. Made it incapable of ever really changing very much.

Excellent article zinderel. Thank you for posting.


Daoud

[worstblogever]

All I know is I'm taking a belt of something with a respectable percentage of ethanol in it tomorrow. Either in celebration, or in disbelief that everything I'm seeing and hearing from actual people aged 18-40 excited, angry, and hopeful to vote is not reflected in the results. I've not heard anything like this in a decade.

If that passion still leaves a status quo, I fear for American democracy.

[InformationGeek]

The last Trump Rally is happening and crazy crap is happening. Here's a thread.

Here's some highlights.
+ Opens by playing Sympathy for the Devil from the Rolling Stones
+ Rush Limbaugh appears and has to explain the meaning of the word "indefatigable" to the crowd to stop them booing him
+ Sean Hannity appears
+ Jeanine Pirro appears
+ Kellyanne Conway appears
+ Trump: I'm smart too. I'm smart. In many things.

[4saken1]

No they are not. VERY VERY False Equivalence. One lies, the other doesn't. I don't even know how you can say that seriously.

I'd say TYT is more trustworthy than FOX, but they both present opinion as if it were fact.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Rush Limbaugh: America Is A ‘Great Nation At Risk’ Without Donald Trump

“They say we’re divisive, but we’re not divisive,” Limbaugh said. “We’re defending an America that has strayed from our founding.” Strayed from being all about white people, Rush? Well, I say you're a fat shitbag, and that's no bull! Speaking of shitbags....

**********

Rep. Steve King continues being a vile and hideous son of a bitch....

Rep. Steve King Blasts National Republicans For Supporting A Gay Candidate

Rep. Steve King Makes Bigoted Joke About Supreme Court Justices Kagan And Sotomayor

Sometimes I think King is worse than Trump, and that's saying a lot!

**********

These Cities Are Offering Free Public Transport On Election Day

Los Angeles, Houston, Tampa and more are making it that much easier for voters to get to the polls. This should be a nationwide effort.

**********

Michelle Obama Has An Update For ‘When They Go Low, We Go High’

“Going high isn’t just about the fight you want to win, but it’s also about the person you want to be,” the former first lady said. Since she said that, Democrats have been bringing knives to gunfights ever since.

**********

Confused Trump Fans Chanting ‘4 More Years’ Forget It’s Only 2018

Supporters began chanting as the president held a final rally in Missouri ahead of Tuesday’s midterms. Confused or not, those clueless buffoons will be voting today. Don't forget that.

[Spike-X]

+ Rush Limbaugh appears and has to explain the meaning of the word "indefatigable" to the crowd to stop them booing him

"Did he just call us fags?"

[JCAll]

Apparently Josh Hawley got a "Lock Her Up" chant going for Claire McCaskill tonight. As if I needed more reason to believe that that clown stands for nothing.

[jetengine]

"Did he just call us fags?"

Looking at the twitter they actually thought that he meant he was fatigued.