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It's very strange to me how one day 15 or 20 years ago, everything bad in the world was suddenly fascist. Before that time, there was at least this pervasive as
by NoMoreNicksLeft 4y ago
It's very strange to me how one day 15 or 20 years ago, everything bad in the world was suddenly fascist. Before that time, there was at least this pervasive assumption that something could be bad or undesirable while not wearing jackboots.
And then a switch flipped.
In every government which abuses its people, arresting dissidents was the first resort of the dictators and autocrats.
- Retric 4y agoIt’s much older than that, and an outgrowth of both propaganda and the degree to which those governments really did pioneer various methods of social control. This may have simply been timing. The widespread adoption of radio and movies suddenly made it a lot easier to influence society. Beyond that they really just took things much further, it’s hard to find direct parallels to the scale and influence on society of say the Hitler Youth in the 1800’s or before. History is full of dictators and political purges, but before this they focused on those with actual power.