4 ms·
I don't think this is entirely true. The fascist† tendencies of those in charge created poverty and crime, but these tendencies are more the natural state of ma
by snagglegaggle 7y ago
I don't think this is entirely true. The fascist† tendencies of those in charge created poverty and crime, but these tendencies are more the natural state of man than any personal moral failing.‡ In the early US it was pretty rare for law enforcement to actually do anything, because somebody had to pay for it. This was entirely intentional. Cash bail was a minimal check on getting somebody to show up but not having to spend the money to hold them. A more serious crime might be tried in a matter of days, and even then many crimes did not end in a prison sentence as that cost money. Unless you were a cattle rustler, pirate, or murderer you were probably coming back because the law was minimal, usually made sense, and the punishments likewise.
As government has grown there is more money to fund the police force, legal system, and penitentiaries. Cash bail has moved from a cost minimization mechanism to a revenue source. The larger component to this, I think, is the ease with which someone may eventually be caught; in the early US you could simply go somewhere else.
Now, the government is omniscient and all encompassing, and the power to destroy your life is available to any drooling policeman or prosecutor in any state. You can no longer escape a crooked local government by moving. States work together to enforce their smallest and most objectionable laws and any violation can severely restrict your ability to live your life within the country.
† I think evaluating a lot of societal structures for fascist elements makes sense, the main concept being authoritarianism and suppression. Something does not need to be entirely fascist to have fascist elements.
‡ Though this should not be interpreted as accepting people should not try to improve.
- chrisdhoover 7y agoFascist is word losing its meaning. Its use should be limited to WW2 in my opinion. Replacing the word with authoritarian in your post would allow for the inclusion of other types of oppressive regimes.
- Kye 7y agoFascist has long been a synonym for authoritarian. I don't know why so many people suddenly take issue with it. Terms for social and political movements often come to refer to sets of behaviors associated with those movements.
- viridian 7y agoFascism is a well defined political ideology that doesn't just boil down to authority = good, though. It's like if people equated having a strong head of state with monarchism. In doing so you throw away 95% of the ideology, and use it as a synonym for a much simpler idea.
- JohnFen 7y ago> Fascist has long been a synonym for authoritarian. I don't know why so many people suddenly take issue with it. "Fascist" means something much more specific than just "authoritarian". Far from suddenly taking issue with the misuse of the term, I have always chafed at its misuse. That said, I don't agree with chrisdhoover that "fascist" should only be used in a WWII context. Real fascism existed long before WWII, and still exists today.
- crankylinuxuser 7y agoI disagree. In my city of Bloomington, IN, we have a city run farmers market with known and admitted members of Identify Evropa (now American Identity Movement). Digging into what they want mirrors a "white ethnostate" with strong Nazi tendencies. When the call theselves "volkmom" and talk of lebensraum, the idea of fascism isn't some 80 year old quaint idea. Now, the city cannot remove her, as she has been accused of nothing illegal. And it's a government run market. But last week, was a protest that lead to the arrest (but not detained) of 5 protesters. That ended up in Newsweek. Where I'm sitting, it's right there and up front.
- Kye 7y agoThis is an example of the generic-ified form being useful. They're not a WW2-era party that's time traveled to 2019, but they tick all the boxes. The person I replied to suggested limiting the term to discussion of WW2. I suggested that terms like this always go generic because the ideas never die with the movement. New movements tend to take on the language of movements that inspire them, or people use those terms on them because they seem to (or do) share many of the same attributes. For example: people who call anyone who suggests a better social safety net socialist, communist, Marxist, or more recently: bolshevik. Where are we in disagreement? Your example is one I would use to support my own point.
- watwut 7y agoThe ideology did not appeared during WWII and did not disappeared after it.
- mirimir 7y agoInteresting rant about that: https://www.reddit.com/r/BreadTube/comments/al0abm/libertarianism_is_just_nonauthoritarian_fascism/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BreadTube/comments/al0abm/libertari...
- prepend 7y agoThat’s a funny video...”Thing is just not bad fascism”