As Shane rightly points out, fascism, by definition, involves direct ACTION to repress opposition and resistance...not words and thoughts. Gee, the Fundies are saying sociopathological things. Surprised? If they start to attack the town meetings and break them up, we've got to reexamine it. They're not because, of course, they don't have to do so to persuade enough people to make it worth their while...
It's not an "analysis" but just the usual liberal whining about fascism. This is done, in part, to create the kind of desperation that justifies their lesser-evilism. On one level, it's just the flip side of the hysteria whipped up on the looney Right. It's top-down and manipulative. It's also an excuse for their failure to accomplish anything. I mean the Democrats have supermajorities in Congress and the White House. We have wars, torture, no prosecutions of war criminals, massive giveaways to Big Business, etc., etc. We should all be upset, but--you see--the argument is that we have to all stick together because of that threat of immanent fascism.... Generally speaking, it's an option of last resort. The American capitalist class doesn't need it. It has television and fairly good means of persuasion to get their way. While we can cite specific instances over the run of American history, this is certainly not the main way the ruling class prefers to do things. ML ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
