[protest-ro] Fascismul american, Controlul mass-media
Yesssss! Nou articol beton in presa independenta americana despre incercarile fasciste ale Administratiei Bush de a controla mass-media Press Impostor At the White House, don't duck the real questions http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/eguckert23e_20050223.htm February 23, 2005 How is it that an administration that screened thousands of people for attendance at Bush campaign rallies repeatedly let a fake reporter into the sanctorum of the White House pressroom under a false name? Who was running that background check? How could a president who declares that national security is his prime concern be so ill served for nearly two years by his own security detail? What is the public to make of the fact that legitimate protesters are kept far away from President George W. Bush while an illegitimate "journalist" who's really working for a Republican propaganda mill is repeatedly allowed into the White House pressroom and regularly called upon by the president and the president's press secretary to ask questions? Is it possible that the administration's formidable public relations machine was well aware that reporter "Jeff Gannon" of the Talon News Web site was really James Guckert, and that Talon and the Web site GOPUSA have the same owner and often the same pro-Republican content? Is it possible that an administration that is so careful about scripting events and managing information approved of Guckert being planted in the pressroom to ask softball questions and even to keep an eye on the real reporters working there? Isn't that fair to ask, considering this is the same administration that used its taxpayer-funded, $250-million public relations apparatus to pay columnists to say nice things about its programs? Once Guckert was exposed, shouldn't the administration, for the sake of security and integrity, have run identity checks on the other members of the White House press corps? Are there any pseudo-reporters planted there from Democratic organizations to ask hard questions? Based on the Guckert case, can any self-styled journalist from an obscure Web site or blog expect to obtain a daily pass to attend White House press briefings? Given the proliferation of same, is the White House prepared for a stampede of applications? Will all identities be verified? Will reporters from GOP-friendly media receive preferred seating? Is anyone in the Bush administration asking these questions? Or interested in answering them? Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/4F6XtA/_WnJAA/E2hLAA/DXOolB/TM ~-> Sageata Albastra e cea mai mare tzeapa a transportului public! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/protest-ro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [protest-ro] Fascismul american, Controlul mass-media
Bjola, nu esti doar deranjat la cap, esti si tzaran prost! Ori nu stii engleza suficient de bine, ori ai impresia ca restul lumii nu cunoashte limba asta cat sa-si dea seama ca batzi campii! Si, prapaditule, chiar nu te-ai abtinut sa nu cenzurezi doua paragrafe din articol (articol si asa la limita paranoiei), nu se simtzea bine bolsevicul din tine daca nu ajusta nitzel realitatea la convingerile lui ideologice! Deci pe scurt, faptul ca DHS angajeaza temporar reporteri someri pentru un exercitiu de PR si comunicare DE UZ INTERN e o forma de fascism? Somerii n-au voie sa se mai angajeze, in conceptia ta? Ar trebui eliminati fizic sau bagati la puscarie cum facea statul comunist roman, pentru parazitism social? Eu zic c-ar trebui sa faci reclamatie la farmacie, iar ti-au vandut aia calmante expirate! > The posting, which has since been taken off the site, sought > applicants who can write copy for an online news service "reporting > events within the exercise for an audience of exercise participants." > "You must NOT be currently employed by a real news organization and > will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring you from > writing about this in the future," the job posting stated. >The reporters will be expected to start "around March 14." The job would last for three to four weeks. Journalists will >receive "competitive pay rates," according to the job ad. Si paragrafele taiate la cenzura (tot nu-mi vine sa cred cat de imbecil poti sa fii): "Defense reporters, for example, often observe war games with the understanding they won't write about them afterward to develop sources or better understand their beat." "The firm Ogilvy Public Relations is helping DHS hire the reporters. Zachary Twigg of Ogilvy said the posting was taken off the site because a number of applicants responded." http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/022305/homelan d.html Mai incearca din nou sa dezinformezi public, ti-am zic ca rad de ma prapadesc cand te dai in vileag ca un mascarici bolsevic ce esti! - Original Message - From: cbjola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 5:49 PM Subject: [protest-ro] Fascismul american, Controlul mass-media > > > O noua fila in incercarile fasciste ale Administratiei Bush a a > control mass-media: acum angajeaza jurnalisti care "sa stie sa taca" > pt propaganda. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.2.0 - Release Date: 21.02.2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Give the gift of life to a sick child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/lGEjbB/6WnJAA/E2hLAA/DXOolB/TM ~-> Sageata Albastra e cea mai mare tzeapa a transportului public! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/protest-ro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[protest-ro] Fascismul american, Controlul mass-media
O noua fila in incercarile fasciste ale Administratiei Bush a a control mass-media: acum angajeaza jurnalisti care "sa stie sa taca" pt propaganda. Wanted: Journalists who can keep quiet The Hill The Bush administration is hiring more reporters. Only this time, it wants them to keep quiet. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week placed a help-wanted listing on journalismjobs.com, an employment website. After the furor over federal payments to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, the administration is emphasizing that its new journalism job is different. The posting, which has since been taken off the site, sought applicants who can write copy for an online news service "reporting events within the exercise for an audience of exercise participants." The ad follows the disclosure that two other federal agencies had hired conservative commentators Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher to back administration proposals. Those contracts brought rebukes from media ethicists who said they blurred the line between journalism and propaganda. "You must NOT be currently employed by a real news organization and will be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement barring you from writing about this in the future," the job posting stated. "We want them to act like reporters and to push the story forward," Short said. The exercise would help public-relations officials better respond to any real terrorist attack, he said. In January, USA Today reported that the Education Department paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education program. Tribune Media Services dropped distribution of Williams's weekly column in response. Subsequently, it was discovered that the Department of Health and Human Services paid Gallagher, a syndicated columnist, $21,500 to help develop materials related to the president's marriage initiative. Bush later said that federal agencies should not employ journalists to advocate his administration's policies. Tom Rosenstiel, who directs the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Pew-funded group that helps critiques media coverage, said that it isn't unusual for journalists to interact, on a voluntary basis, with the entities they cover. But paying reporters is trickier territory because it raises potential future conflicts even if the reporter doesn't now cover the governmental entity writing the check, Rosenstiel said. "There is a whole industry called public relations staffed with people who used to be journalists" who could do the work, he said. The reporters will be expected to start "around March 14." The job would last for three to four weeks. Journalists will receive "competitive pay rates," according to the job ad. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/O.5XsA/8WnJAA/E2hLAA/DXOolB/TM ~-> Sageata Albastra e cea mai mare tzeapa a transportului public! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/protest-ro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [protest-ro] Fascismul american: controlul mass-media
Bjola, nu ma pot abtine sa nu rad cand citesc ce nazdravanii iti mai elimina telectul, si sari de la una la alta ca prostituatele la batranetze din pat in pat. Acum o luna parca Bush furase (a doua oara, adica - LOL) alegerile. Acuma, daca recurgeti la impeachment nu inseamna implicit ca achiesati la rezultatul scrutinului? Si care e problema ta daca unii sau altii mananca in USA rahat? Esti contribuabil american, tzarane, sa vociferezi ca atunci cand chiar ai acest drept? Si cand mananci rahat leftist, mananci pe bani publici, din bani privatzi sau o faci ca si altzii pe gratis, din pasiune? Ce-i amuzant acuma ca finalmente puteti si voi, scotocind site-urile cu curve masculine, ca puteti imbini utilul (calomnia si delirul politic cu program) cu placutul (mai vezi si tu o buca fina, o chestie acolo). Hai diazepam! valachus - Original Message - From: cbjola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005 6:27 PM Subject: [protest-ro] Fascismul american: controlul mass-media > > > Scandalul despre legaturile dintre Casa Alba si un male prostitute > (tariful respectivului era de $200 pe ora si $1200 pe week-end; ia > vedeti Schiau si Valachus ca stiu ca va curg balele dupa asa ceva) > sunt acum peste tot in mainstream media. > > Treaba creste ca un bulgare de zapada de la zi la zi. De ce? Pt ca > GannonGate reprezinta inca un element din operatiunea de natura > fascista prin care Bush a incercat sa puna mass-media cu botul pe > labe. Mai exact exista dovezi clare acum ca oamenii lui au platit cel > putin 5 jurnalisti cu sume intre $20.000 si $240.000 DIN BANI PUBLICI > (adica ai lui US tax-payer) ca sa manance rahat! > > Ce fel de rahat? Ca cel mancat pe lista asta de Schiau-nazistu' si > Valachus-rasistus-libidinosus sau Bouleanu turnatoru'-securist: -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 14.02.2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/mGEjbB/5WnJAA/E2hLAA/DXOolB/TM ~-> Sageata Albastra e cea mai mare tzeapa a transportului public! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/protest-ro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[protest-ro] Fascismul american: controlul mass-media
Scandalul despre legaturile dintre Casa Alba si un male prostitute (tariful respectivului era de $200 pe ora si $1200 pe week-end; ia vedeti Schiau si Valachus ca stiu ca va curg balele dupa asa ceva) sunt acum peste tot in mainstream media. Treaba creste ca un bulgare de zapada de la zi la zi. De ce? Pt ca GannonGate reprezinta inca un element din operatiunea de natura fascista prin care Bush a incercat sa puna mass-media cu botul pe labe. Mai exact exista dovezi clare acum ca oamenii lui au platit cel putin 5 jurnalisti cu sume intre $20.000 si $240.000 DIN BANI PUBLICI (adica ai lui US tax-payer) ca sa manance rahat! Ce fel de rahat? Ca cel mancat pe lista asta de Schiau-nazistu' si Valachus-rasistus-libidinosus sau Bouleanu turnatoru'-securist: ca "razboiul e sfant ca soarele de pe cer", ca cei care il critica pe Bush sunt "tradatori", ca ONU e de vina pt coruptia scandaloasa in care sunt amestecati amici de-ai lui Bush si jdemii de firme americane in Iraq (9 miliarde de dolari disparuti pana acum fara acte in Iraq in juma de an!!!) si alte tampenii. Deosebirea e ca cei trei cavaleri ai Apocalipsei Fasciste (Schiau, Bouleanu', valachus) mananca rahat pe lista pe de-a moaca. Asa sunt ei prosti. Nu trebuie sa-i platesti, ci doar sa le vanturi pe la nas cateva cuvinte cheie si gata logoreea. Altii insa sunt mai smecheri. Repet, cel putin 5 jurnalisti americani au descoperiti pana acum cum ca au fost platiti cu bani PUBLICI (adica ai lui US tax-payer) de Bush ca sa manance rahat. Gannon, male prostitute cu pricina, e a 6 "cartita" din retea si numaratoarea abia a inceput. Toate firele duc la Karl Rove, mana dreapta a lui Bush. Un lucru e sigur: daca Rove pica, va pica si Bush, adica va mirosi a impeachment cat casa! Detalii despre incercarile fasciste ale Administratiei Bush de a controla media americana vezi mai jos: The mole, the US media and a White House coup Sunday February 20, 2005 The Observer For two years Jeff Gannon cut an unobtrusive figure at White House press conferences. The shaven-headed, craggily handsome man worked for an obscure news agency called Talon News, known for its conservative sympathies. He was often the subject of jokes by colleagues on weightier news organisations. No one is laughing now, because Gannon was far from being a harmless distraction. He was writing under a false name and working for a Republican front organisation. Suddenly, his 'softball' questions to White House officials looked less like eccentricities and more like plotting by an administration which has frequently displayed a dark mastery of the arts of press control. When it emerged that Gannon was also linked to gay prostitution websites and might be a gay prostitute himself, the scandal as to how he was allowed daily access to the White House grew even murkier. The American media is now being forced to confront the possibility that Gannon, whose real name is James Guckert, was simply a Republican plant, used by officials, including President George W Bush, to ask easy questions in difficult press conferences. 'The idea of having a mole in the White House press corp is amazing, but that's what it looks like,' said Jack Lule, a journalism professor at Lehigh University. But the Gannon affair, which has shocked much of America's political establishment, is just the latest scandal in the media establishment. Newspapers including the New York Times and USA Today have been hit by plagiarism and forgery scandals. Other papers and television stations have been consumed with a soul-searching inquest into how they were misled about non-existent Iraqi weapons programmes. Added to that is growing evidence of a White House campaign to bypass or control the media in its everyday presentation of government policy , which included paying one journalist hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote its policies. Last week a federal watchdog warned the Bush administration that any video news releases must state that the government is the source. Twice in two years, government departments have been accused of distributing fake news packages, using actors as journalists. On the internet, the mainstream media is derided and scorned. One question is dominating US newsrooms and television studios: ignored, scandalised and now corrupted, just what is America's mainstream media for anymore? The extent of the Bush White House's command and control of the press corps is often revealed in the seemingly innocuous White House pool reports. These are dispatches dutifully filed by a correspondent assigned to travel with Bush and contain little but lists of endless meetings, meals eaten and clothes worn. But no detail is too small to be ignored by Bush's ever-watchful press handlers. One report, on 13 August 2004, contained a remark from Bush that it was a 'good question' as to who to support if Iraq's soccer team played the United States in the Olympics. Officials scurried to 'correct' it. 'To clear up any possible misc
[protest-ro] Fascismul american din perspectiva conservatoare...
Y...sss! Conservatorii incep sa recunoasca incet-incet ceea ce era vizibil de 4 ani. Ca fascismul american a luat amploare! Atentie: Nu Michael Moore il compara pe Bush cu Hitler, ci oamenii lui Bush insusi au inceput sa traga semnalul de alarma. Articolul a fost publicat intr-una din cele mai prestigioase reviste ale dreptei americane, the American Conservative. Asa ca apelul meu pt sleahta de pupicuristi ai lui Bush (Schiau- Jigodia Nazista, Bouleanu' turnatoru' securist, Valachus per Rasistus Libidinosus) e simplu: cumparati-va repede 100 suluri de hartie igienica si stergeti-va vartos la gura dupa fiecare mesaj postat pe lista! February 14, 2005 Issue Copyright © 2005 The American Conservative http://www.amconmag.com/2005_02_14/article.html Hunger for Dictatorship: War to export democracy may wreck our own. by Scott McConnell Students of history inevitably think in terms of periods: the New Deal, McCarthyism, "the Sixties" (1964-1973), the NEP, the purge trialsall have their dates. Weimar, whose cultural excesses made effective propaganda for the Nazis, now seems like the antechamber to Nazism, though surely no Weimar figures perceived their time that way as they were living it. We may pretend to know what lies ahead, feigning certainty to score polemical points, but we never do. Nonetheless, there are foreshadowings well worth noting. The last weeks of 2004 saw several explicit warnings from the antiwar Right about the coming of an American fascism. Paul Craig Roberts in these pages wrote of the "brownshirting" of American conservatisma word that might not have surprised had it come from Michael Moore or Michael Lerner. But from a Hoover Institution senior fellow, former assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, and one-time Wall Street Journal editor, it was striking. Several weeks later, Justin Raimondo, editor of the popular Antiwar.com website, wrote a column headlined, "Today's Conservatives are Fascists." Pointing to the justification of torture by conservative legal theorists, widespread support for a militaristic foreign policy, and a retrospective backing of Japanese internment during World War II, Raimondo raised the prospect of "fascism with a democratic face." His fellow libertarian, Mises Institute president Lew Rockwell, wrote a year-end piece called "The Reality of Red State Fascism," which claimed that "the most significant socio-political shift in our time has gone almost completely unremarked, and even unnoticed. It is the dramatic shift of the red-state bourgeoisie from leave-us-alone libertarianism, manifested in the Congressional elections of 1994, to almost totalitarian statist nationalism. Whereas the conservative middle class once cheered the circumscribing of the federal government, it now celebrates power and adores the central state, particularly its military wing." I would argue that Rockwellwho makes the most systematic argument of the threeoverstates the libertarian component of the 1994 Republican victory, which could just as readily be credited to heartland rejection of the '60s cultural liberalism that came into office with the Clintons. And it is difficult to imagine any scenario, after 9/11, that would not lead to some expansion of federal power. The United States was suddenly at war, mobilizing to strike at a Taliban government on the other side of the world. The emergence of terrorism as the central security issue had to lead, at the very least, to increased domestic surveillanceof Muslim immigrants especially. War is the health of the state, as the libertarians helpfully remind us, but it doesn't mean that war leads to fascism. But Rockwell (and Roberts and Raimondo) is correct in drawing attention to a mood among some conservatives that is at least latently fascist. Rockwell describes a populist Right website that originally rallied for the impeachment of Bill Clinton as "hate-filled ... advocating nuclear holocaust and mass bloodshed for more than a year now." One of the biggest right-wing talk-radio hosts regularly calls for the mass destruction of Arab cities. Letters that come to this magazine from the pro-war Right leave no doubt that their writers would welcome the jailing of dissidents. And of course it's not just us. When USA Today founder Al Neuharth wrote a column suggesting that American troops be brought home sooner rather than later, he was blown away by letters comparing him to Tokyo Rose and demanding that he be tried as a traitor. That mood, Rockwell notes, dwarfs anything that existed during the Cold War. "It celebrates the shedding of blood, and exhibits a maniacal love of the state. The new ideology of the red-state bourgeoisie seems to actually believe that the US is God marching on earthnot just godlike, but really serving as a proxy for God himself." The warnings from these three writers would have been significant even if they had not been complemented by what for me was the most striking str
Re: [protest-ro] Fascismul American?
Ai iesit din sevraj doar cat sa mai faci copy-paste la delirul altui camarad de-al tau? Ma asteptam totusi sa ai curaj sa raspunzi la intrebarea cu "scuturile umane", dar deh, drogurile ieftine fac ravagii maxime. Condoleantze, pe tema asta, o sa-ti simtim lipsa cand o sa te faci varza complet, eu unul m-am amuzat la maxim de bazaconiile pe care le emiteai! Oricum, pana atunci, pot sa-ti sugerez ca posibila terapie paliativa sa faci si tu ca pretenii tai "insurgentii" din Irak, sa-ti descarci nervii cu papushele de plastic: cu niste figurine cu Bush, Rice si Rumsfeld ai putea sa te joci de-a procesul de la Nurnberg sau de-a confesiunile date la NKVD saptamani de-a randul! - Original Message - From: cbjola <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2005 2:07 AM Subject: [protest-ro] Fascismul American? > > > Domnu' Schiau: ia saliveaza un pic peste articolul asta! Este sau nu > adevarat ca Bush-Impostorul reprezinta fatza fascismului american? > Stiu... chestia asta nu te face decat sa juisezi! Vestea proasta pt > tine e ca nu aveti nici o sansa! America adevarata incepe incet-incet > sa se trezeasca din cosmarul asta odios si va ia deja vartos la palme > si scuipati. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.4 - Release Date: 01.02.2005 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/4F6XtA/_WnJAA/E2hLAA/DXOolB/TM ~-> Sageata Albastra e cea mai mare tzeapa a transportului public! Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/protest-ro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[protest-ro] Fascismul American?
Domnu' Schiau: ia saliveaza un pic peste articolul asta! Este sau nu adevarat ca Bush-Impostorul reprezinta fatza fascismului american? Stiu... chestia asta nu te face decat sa juisezi! Vestea proasta pt tine e ca nu aveti nici o sansa! America adevarata incepe incet-incet sa se trezeasca din cosmarul asta odios si va ia deja vartos la palme si scuipati. American Nascent Fascism: Are We in Stage One? As we ponder the realities of the recent election and attempt to make sense of all the implications of the results, one can't help but wonder about the true goals and objectives of those who drive the Bush Administration's agenda. Candidly, I'm worried and have been struggling with trying to reconcile everything that has happened. I'd like to offer the following for consideration as I believe we've reached a point in our political evolution, both as a nation and as an international neighbor, that demands real clinical scrutiny. My gut tells me that the country I carried in my heart (thank you, Bruce) no longer exists, that the core founding ideals no longer resonate for a large percentage of our population. That so many people can overlook a bungled war effort, a tanking economy, and a health care crisis of supernova proportions in order to cast a vote based on religious and wholly emotional values is staggering. Clearly the neoconservative Republicans are at the top of their game. Their skillful and successful use of Orwellian language, lies, and smear techniques indicate that we have seen only the beginning of what they have in store. That said, Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor of Social Sciences emeritus at Columbia, has written extensively about fascism in ways that reclaim the term from the hyperbolic misuse we've come to know, ridicule, and reject. On careful examination, however, and with a more scholarly definition in mind, there may be cause for concern as we move forward as a nation. First, yes, the days of raging Nazi stridence and Wagnerian theatrics are relics of the past. We're too smart for that particular brand as the lessons of Orwell and Hitler are firmly implanted in the contemporary democratic consciousness. But because we have these outsized examples as reference points, incipient fascism is not terribly easy to diagnose as each society has constantly shifting values, paradigms, and emotions. Since movements, by their nature, have a somewhat discreet quality with each exhibiting its own particular identity, it is helpful to look at Paxton's "mobilizing passions," which identify in broadest terms the foundational appeals found in nascent fascism: 1. The primacy of the group, toward which one has duties superior to every right, whether universal or individual. 2. The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment which justifies any action against the group's enemies, internal as well as external. 3. Dread of the group's decadence under the corrosive effect of individualistic and cosmopolitan liberalism. 4. Closer integration of the community within a brotherhood (fascio) whose unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary. 5. An enhanced sense of identity and belonging, in which the grandeur of the group reinforces individual self-esteem. 6. Authority of natural leaders (always male) throughout society, culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's destiny. 7. The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian struggle. "The Five Stages of Fascism,"The Journal of Modern History, March 1998 Even the most cursory reading of these points should sound an alarm bell in anyone paying close attention to our own political and social climate. Indeed, Paxton continues: ...each national variant of fascism draws its legitimacy, as we shall see, not from some universal scripture but from what it considers the most authentic elements of its own community identity. Religion, for example, would certainly play a much larger role in an authentic fascism in the United States than in the first European fascisms The larger question, of course, is whether fascism is possible in contemporary America? Paxton offers this rather cautionary observation: Fascism can appear wherever democracy is sufficiently implanted to have aroused disillusion. That suggests its spatial and temporal limits: no authentic fascism before the emergence of a massively enfranchised and politically active citizenry. In order to give birth to fascism, a society must have known political liberty -- for better or for worse. Social scientists point historically to the KKK as the quintessential fascist movement in the U.S. (one that Hitler admired tremendously), but, fortunately, there seems to be little resemblance between the Klan and our currently political climate. Still, though, when we consider the foundational elements listed above, we sh
