FDR's definition of fascism seems to jibe with Mussolini's very well. Once corporate power becomes stronger than the power of the state, of the government, you have fascism. Does the government control the corporations NOW? Or is the government controlled?
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Trotsky saw fascism as a reaction to the people demanding more. So the left makes demands, like Medicare For All, survival checks, ending wars, ending police brutality, closing immigrant detention facilities, and fascism is the RESPONSE to those demands.
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It's chilling that Sinclair Lewis probably made this quotation in the 1930's while Hitler, Mussolini and Franco were on the rise, and yet it sounds like he's talking about the ultra-patriotism of modern Republicans. If you look at it objectively, it also describes establishment Democrats.
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This quotation about fascism strikes me as more accurate now than when Lenin said it.
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Sounds to me like Chomsky is specifically talking about establishment Democrats here. Those who have failed to represent their voters because they're trying to please their corporate donors. They are, to a person, in favor of censorship and anything that seals their own power.
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This is perhaps the most fascinating piece of information that I found, because it explains why the definition used by Mussolini and FDR got muddled along the way, and everyone became confused, with different definitions. I will forever define fascism as Mussolini and FDR did - corporatism. To be frank, this information blew my mind, and was the impetus for this email.
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I think it is beyond question that the United States is a corporate state. Most of us agree, even across party lines, that corporations have way too much power and that elected "leaders" act on behalf of their donors more than the will of the people. I've never met anyone who identified themself as a fascist, or said that corporations should run the country. But a whole lot of people seem to have forgotten what tax rates used to be like before the Carter Administration, and despite more than 40 years of evidence of the abject failure of trickle down scamanomics, still believe that the way to help people and stimulate an economy is to give money to the rich.
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So when did the United States of America become fascist? The US has been fascist since corporations had the power to make something that 90% of Americans want impossible, whether it's $3000/month checks, a Green New Deal, cannabis legalization or ending the wars we are fighting in order to get better prices on natural resources.
Some say that happened beginning in 1971, with the Powell Memorandum, some say it took until Reagan was in office, others say it wasn't cemented until Clinton took office, or when Clinton deregulated the media, some think it happened after September 11, 2001, and some think it started with Trump.
Guess what? For practical purposes, it doesn't matter. We have been blinded to the fact that the very wealthy have been fighting a class war against everybody else for a very long time. That's who the real enemy are, the wealthy. Plutocrats. They own the government and they own the media.
Asking establishment Democrats to protect you from Republicans is asking soft fascists to protect you from hard fascists. You do get slightly more crumbs, less lives will be lost, but we NEED SO MUCH MORE!
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