18 May 2012

Can't Happen Here

I guess the best description for this piece, which is several years old, would be something like:

"Whew, I'm glad we don't have to worry about this here in the good ol' US of A."

From the Spring 2003 edition of Free Inquiry Magazine:

Laurence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes.  He found fourteen defining characteristics:
  • Powerful and continuing nationalism
  • Disdain for human rights
  • Identification of enemies/scapegoats
  • Supremacy of the military
  • Controlled mass media
  • Obsession with national security
  • Intertwining of religion and government
  • Corporate power is protected
  • Labor power is suppressed
  • Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
  • Obsession with crime and punishment
  • Rampant cronyism and corruption
  • Fraudulent elections
  • Rampant sexism

I'd like to very clear that any association between the points listed above and the priorities, principles and actions of the modern Republican Party and its Tea Party, libertarian and Christian fundamentalist allies is purely in the eye of the beholder.


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