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Paul Buchheit reports via AlterNet
While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society".
This is one example of the distorted thinking leading to the demise of a once-vibrant American society. There are other signs of decay:
- A House Bill Would View Corporate Crimes as "Honest Mistakes"
- Almost 2/3 of American Families Couldn't Afford a Single Pill of a Life-Saving Drug
- Violent Crime Down; Prison Population Doubles
- One in Four Americans Suffer Mental Illness; Mental Health Facilities Cut by 90 Percent
- The Unpaid Taxes of 500 Companies Could Pay for a Job for Every Unemployed American ...for two years ...at the nation's median salary of $36,000 ...for all 8 million unemployed.
Citizens for Tax Justice reports that Fortune 500 companies are holding over $2 trillion in profits offshore to avoid taxes that would amount to over $600 billion. Our society desperately needs infrastructure repair, but 8 million potential jobs are being held hostage beyond our borders.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:47PM
The thing is that fascism is an ideology. You can be shitty and militaristic and violent without actively subscribing to fascism. You could certainly make the case that fascist ideologies is embedded in places of power rather than the citizenry or national identity, but I'd still be curious to where exactly you think that is.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday December 08 2015, @03:56PM
You've lost me. Who is the self-declared fascist here?
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:00PM
Self-description isn't (strictly) important. Believing in the core elements of the ideology is. I want to know who you think the fascist believers are.
(Score: 5, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:43PM
The biggest fascists in the USA are in government, the military and in the boardrooms of the biggest (admittedly multinational) banks and businesses. They are all so closely intertwined that it's hard to pick them apart, to be honest.
I'm sure if you asked any of them they would describe themselves as definitely not fascist, but the fact is:
1 - They believe in government run by business, for business, to the extent that democracy has been effectively reduced to accountability theatre.
2 - They believe that war is just another way to make a profit.
3 - They believe that the population made to support their agenda via propaganda, using a combination of fear, fantasy and mental hackery (aka advertising) to make common people believe black is white and thereby fight against their own best interests.
4 - They promote the belief that the USA is the unrivalled, indisputable, eternal champion of everything. All others are ipso facto inferior.
5 - They promote the belief / attitude that "our way is the only way", or if you prefer, "with us or against us".
6 - They believe that no punishment is too harsh for those that don't fit into their worldview.
Is that fascism? Maybe not by the book, but it's pretty bloody close.
The real irony is that what the USA is supposed to stand for, and what most Americans believe it actually does stand for, is the exact opposite of what it currently is.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:55PM
I can tacitly accept that interpretation as valid.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by TobascoKid on Tuesday December 08 2015, @06:21PM
2 - They believe that war is just another way to make a profit.
Just another way to make a profit? Opening a restaurant is just another way to make a profit. War is second only to banking as a way to make a profit (third is the reconstruction business after a place has been rubbleized).
(Score: 4, Funny) by MrGuy on Tuesday December 08 2015, @04:24PM
Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism. At least it's an ethos.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 08 2015, @09:26PM
Actually no, fascism isn't an ideology, it is a societal model or form of governance based on absolute alignment of the populace behind the leadership and brutal suppression of any dissent. For practical reasons it has to be based on some form ideology (racist, socialist, whatever) but AFAIK it's inventors in the roman empire had no such thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Non Sequor on Wednesday December 09 2015, @01:20AM
Actually no, fascism isn't an ideology, it is a societal model or form of governance based on absolute alignment of the populace behind the leadership and brutal suppression of any dissent. For practical reasons it has to be based on some form ideology (racist, socialist, whatever) but AFAIK it's inventors in the roman empire had no such thing.
This is the most accurate characterization of fascism that I've seen in an online discussion. If you look at Germany, Italy, and (don't forget) Spain in the 30s, plus movements other places that didn't get a foothold, the common theme of the fascist movements was that they believed that the world needed their particular strain of thought to seize control. To them, brutality was just a sign of strength and will, which they viewed as needed to advance [INSERT GOAL HERE].
Fascism is what you get when people abandon the idea that they need to, in some manner, manage the level of disagreement over public policy.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.