Boiled down to its basic form, Fascism is simply a lazy man’s Socialism. (Some might argue a “Smart” man’s Socialism as it recognizes the inability of Labor to effectively run business.)
It is everything Socialism is, except the private ownership of Industry “is allowed” or tolerated…
So long as the Industry in question cooperates with the Government.
If said Industry fails to cooperate with the Government, the Government will step in and control that Industry.
Control comes in a number of forms.
There is the outright seizing of that Industry or Company. (The Classic Socialist paradigm. As demonstrated with General Motor’s.)
There is the implementation of new regulations placed upon that Industry or Company with penalties ranging from fiscal to penal.
There is Banning of Industry, or Industry practices effectively putting that entity out of business. (There are also trade policies which can be manipulated in ways designed to harm the business model of the offending Company or Industry.)
That’s it folks. That’s the only difference. (The Socialists in 30’s Germany added a “Nationalization” component… but paired it with Global Expansionism, and Divine Right, thus making it meaningless in modifying the definition of Fascism and rendering it a difference without a distinction between it and Socialism.
I bring this up, because the cooperation between the Phone Companies and Government fits the description.
The Government demanded the records from the phone companies and in return gave them immunity from your suits. The Scheme is an old one. Some thugs come into your bar and trash it… the next day a guy shows up and says he’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again, as long as you pay him a monthly fee. The Mob has operated this way for years.
There are many examples, but the collection of Innocent American Citizen’s phone records, e-mail, etc. is happening right now…
makeaneffort 
June 13th, 2013 at 8:22 pm
Reblogged this on leftunityglasgow.
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June 13th, 2013 at 8:17 am
WHy do you think Fascist has a more negative connotation than Socialist?
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June 13th, 2013 at 8:49 am
It seems to me that Fascism has a more negative connotation than Socialism because we are more aware of the atrocities committed by the NAZI’s (A clue to where I’m headed is why we call them “NAZI’s” and not “National Socialists”).
During the 30’s there were many, many Socialists in the U.S. In fact, the Revolution in Russia was being watched with admiration by many of our leaders as well as the “Elitists” among the population… it was positioned as the Enlightened Governing Theory of the Future. The support for it was overt. Our Presidents were embracing the idea…
But then came along Another World War… And, attaching Mass Genocide to the “Enlightened Governing Theory of the Future” could not be allowed by those who subscribed to it… yet they could not avoid the realities of Hitler’s Germany, particularly post WWII, when pictures and returning Soldiers presented the truth first hand.
Russia on the other hand was still hiding securely behind “The Iron Curtain” and incontrivertable evidence would not be forthcoming anytime soon. Nor was there a desire to seek that truth when the Allies had required the assistance of the Communists in order to defeat a Formidable Enemy. (Churchill Hated Hitler AND Stalin… Patton wanted to run his tanks all the way to Moscow, which was one of the reason he was relieved of duty… So not everybody was on board with the Socialist ideal. But the people who mattered were.)
One of the problems, or barriers to understanding the relationship between Socialism, Communism and Fascism is their seemingly unbearable hatred directed towards one another. They have a long history of killing each other, and this creates the idea in the American mind that they are very different. (We tend to look at things like we look at our sports.) That idea is beneficial to those who continue to support Statist ideas, so the entire subject is either ignored, or that specific idea is fostered, in our education systems.
(What we must understand is that Statist’s will always hate each other because it is a non-stop battle for who gets TO control when they have it… versus their hatred directed at Capitalists, which is strictly a battle FOR control in the first place.)
In the end Fascism has been positioned as “completely different”, and evil, by Socialists because it hits a little too close to home. The Evil of Socialism as it manifested itself in Fascism cannot be denied… And the True Believers are not interested in discussions such as the one you and I are having right now being had all over our country and in classrooms full of attentive children near you.
It helps that for decades the press has been made-up largely of Elitists who find the idea that you are too stupid to make your own decisions a logical, and appealing, concept which demands a “ruling class” to make sure things go right. It also helps that there seems to be a growing number of Americans who are willing, even excited, to give up there rights in order to have that ruling class provide for them. It is my belief they subscribe to the idea of “being kept” because it also absolves them of the inherent responsibility which is inseparable from those rights.
There is a fantastic book… one of my top 10… “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl & another by called “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg, when combined they go a long way to explain in greater detail not just the history but the mindset of those players I’ve glossed over. Both are easy to read. But I would start with Frankl because it is brilliant and short. Jonah does a very good job with the history and saves a non-history geek from having to read a stack of books.
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June 13th, 2013 at 9:29 am
Well, thank you so much for your in-depth reply. I am difinitely going to look for those books today. I’ll admit, I have a hard time recalling my history lessons, but it always confused me when it seemed we were being taught about the atrocities of Hitler, Stalin and to some degree Mao on one hand, but then I’d read about how our government would support those with (what seemed to me at the time) similar ideologies in Central America, South America, Cambodia…
As far as the Nazi’s, one way I keep them separate in my mind is that Hitlers Nazi ideas seemed to be shrouded more in mysticism. So I see it as more of a cult. Not that there is any academic support for this – My history is fuzzy. But it appears there are constant contradictions in what “we” support and what we call evil. And I still don’t quite understand the difference between a revolution led by farmers and one led by factory workers – it all seems the same to me, but I guess there is a real deference, right?
On the bright side – I am not so sure we have to worry about those “attentive” children having their brains formed by our education system – apparently all the kids today have ADD, ADHD, autism and a variety of other isms that prohibit them from becoming highly functioning, well informed members of a global society. Ahhhh-but maybe that is the goal… I think there could be a conspiracy going on here and I think Monsanto is behind it!
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June 13th, 2013 at 9:41 am
No conspiracies. Kids are kids and they are the same as they always have been.
The confusion you feel regarding our support of those we “should” be disagreeing with comes from a couple of places.
The first place is a policy of destabilization which is designed to keep certain countries unable to organize and create a threat to the U.S. and that countries neighbors. You’ll find the CIA heavily invested in this strategy.
The second is that many of our elected officials agree with those we “should” not be agreeing with. We have plenty of Statists in our Government. We talk about that a lot here.
I’m not sure why you would find a difference between Farmers and Factory workers revolting. Labor is Labor. Don’t know where to go with that.
The trick to maintaining a solid foundation is to understand the ideology behind those you mentioned and recognize the atrocities are the typical outcome of those Social Utopian ideals.
The atrocities are how the disease presents… it is not the disease.
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June 13th, 2013 at 9:56 am
YOu know – it just never occurred to me that our government would want to ensure the placement of evil doers in order to uphold our position of power. In all this time, I just never really looked at it like that. I feel so stupid now. What a wicked game.
As far as the farmers and factory workers thing – that just comes from a long ago discussion on comparing and contrasting communism from the Maoist perspective vs Stalin. I guess there wasn’t really a point there, I just thought it seemed a waste of time to try to break it down into differences when it seemed exactly the same thing to me.
I think the real problem comes from human nature – all of these ideas are not bad (with the exception of Naziism) and when taken apart might appear to be good, unfortunately ideas become twisted by greedy, power hungry elitists.
How familiar are you with Lee Kwan Yew? Sorry – a little off topic I guess.
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June 13th, 2013 at 10:00 am
Not at all Familiar with Lee Kwan Yew… but I will be by the end of the day. Give me a few hours to catch up.
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June 13th, 2013 at 10:02 am
The argument you would receive from those is power is that we keep evil-doers in place in order to protect our Freedom. Which, if you ask me, makes it even more insidious when our freedoms are being stripped away by those who are supposedly protecting them.
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June 13th, 2013 at 10:05 am
I thought we were supposed to be spreading democracy and freedom all over the world.
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June 13th, 2013 at 10:20 am
Great debate, right?
I fall on the side of being a “Beacon on a Hill”. Tall fences and Wide gates… Ultimate Freedom for those inside, please come join us… legally.
I’m not much of an expansionist, however, I would support throwing money, and support, to those who wish to replicate our design. Don’t see any of those out there right now, but I’m open to be corrected.
Although… Mexico has nice beaches and It would make a terrific 51st State. Rolling tanks out of Ft. Hood would only take a few days… and solve a couple of problems.
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June 13th, 2013 at 11:28 am
I like that Beacon on a hill and tall fences with wide gates. Ever think of running for office?
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June 13th, 2013 at 11:34 am
I’m the last person you would want in office… and, the second I opened my mouth I would make everybody hate me. Better to keep me sequestered in a little corner of the electronic universe. I only hope I entertain a few analysts at the NSA.
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June 13th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Now how did I know you would reply with that?
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June 13th, 2013 at 4:21 pm
Well, I am surprised – Library had “A Conflict of Visions’ and “Liberal Fascism” on the shelf, ‘Mans Search for Meaning’ was checked out- oh well, it will take me awhile to get through these two, hard for me to just sit and read.
I LOVE the library – must be the socialist in me.
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June 13th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
While I like your humor… check out John Dewey of Dewey Decimal fame. There may be more truth in your words than you know.
Don’t forget about Frankl… even if you despise the other tomes, his you’ll keep on your shelf.
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June 13th, 2013 at 5:59 pm
Oh i won’t forget. I did however manage to pick up “The Third Wave’ another book I started or thumbed through in middle school, but never really went back to.
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June 13th, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Wow… I haven’t heard that title in a very long time. He was right of course. In the past we’ve talked about the fact that the United States is not a Democracy for good reason. We’re a Democratic Republic by design. But we have wandered dangerously close to Democracy as of the last 100 years. Lenin write prolifically on Democratic Socialism… might be worth a cursory look. Most of the Communist Websites, CPA, etc., have archives…
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June 12th, 2013 at 11:41 am
Yet, I have confidence that they will always fail
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June 12th, 2013 at 11:48 am
i’m a bit more cynical. i would say we have to make them fail by voting them out. however, there are growing numbers of us who WANT THEM IN!
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June 12th, 2013 at 2:10 pm
David, I can’t wait for the likes of Peter King and Dianne Feinstein to be out of office but I think people who are involved in this mess all should be named and shamed and that is what the lawsuits will do
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January 15th, 2017 at 11:41 pm
Did they? I know… a ghost from the past…
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