Commie Bastards and Fascist Pigs

In a grand stroke of naïveté on my part, I started tooling around some liberal forums to see what kind of discussion I could get myself into.  Yes, yes, I was trying to promote my blog as well, but that’s okay (because it’s me, right?).

"Wat?"

I have to say that at the very least I was pleased to not be made fun of for my choice of words in my posts, but the atmosphere was still not very welcoming.  The article in question was about how the Republicans in Florida are trying to pull a court-packing scheme similar to FDR’s in the ‘40s.  I agreed with the liberals on this forum that it was stupid in the ‘40s and it’s stupid now, and the Republicans down there deserve whatever repudiation they receive.

We quickly diverged in thought, though, when one of them so matter-of-fact-like called the Republicans Fascists.  And it was either he, or another poster, that then went on to say that we’re living in a Fascist society.



"OMG! the things I would do to
Nancy Pelosi . . . "

 In college I had a lot of interest in Fascist, and more generally totalitarian, societies.  By no means am I any sort of expert on the subject, but I do know what Fascism is, and we have plenty examples from fairly recent history (i.e. within the last 100 years) of what Fascist societies look like.  Recalling the likes of Hitler, Franco, and Mussolini, I think it’s safe to say that America, although not perfect, is not a Fascist society.


One guy presented me with a 14-point list that described the characteristics of Fascism.  I’m not going to say his list was bullshit, because it did accurately describe some of the elements of Fascism.  His list, however, seemed to be an incredibly over-generalized description of Fascism.  This list basically made it seem that nearly every country on this planet is a Fascist regime.  For example: rampant cronyism and corruption; controlled mass media; religion and government intertwined; disregard for human rights.

Tell me, what nation on earth is not guilty of more than one of those?  Does this mean that they’re all Fascist regimes?  I seriously doubt that.  What floored me is the whole “disregard for human rights,” thing.  I mean, isn’t Obama bombing Libya right now to protect civilians from Gadhafi?

After I expressed this idea, the guy told me that those were all “exceptions,” and that most of my examples were “weak.”  And then they all informed me that it’s just Republicans that are Fascist, and that their state governments, not the entire country, are Fascist.  The one that made me laugh the hardest was the “controlled mass media,” example.  Bill Maher called Sarah Palin a cunt on television.  Did he get dragged out into the streets and shot?  And look what happened to a poor bastard blogger in Bahrain.

 

Well, if Republicans are Fascist, then Democrats are Communists.  What these fools fail to realize is that the opposing philosophies of America’s political parties are toned down versions of their extremes.  What’s worse is that they fail to realize that they’re no different than the Conservative crazies who claim that Democrats are conspiring to subvert liberty, and that Liberals are all morons who “don’t listen to logic.”



"OMG! the things I would do to
John Boehner . . . "

 My point with all this is: get a fucking grip.  We’re not Fascist, we’re not Socialist.  Politicians are not trying to subvert liberty, they’re merely trying to get reelected.  We seriously need to stop pretending that the horses we back in government are all modern day Cincinnati (that’s the genitive of Cincinatus, which in this context is meant to express plurality) and realize that they are men and women, like you and me, who are trying to do what they think is best for the country.

Yes, we should always be vigilant to totalitarian machinations.  However, do you really think that there are two huge conspiratorial groups, disguised as political parties, who are constantly trying to subvert liberty yet failing hard core to do it at every turn?  Really?