Fascism. When we think of the word, immediately the mind thinks of Nazi Germany, Hitler, World War 2, Mussolini, and other closely related examples. The general viewpoint on fascism is very biased. I’m going to give the simple definition of the word from the Webster dictionary.
Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition2: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control <early instances of army fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge
Now that the word has been stripped of any preconceived notions by this explanation, it can be seen for what it is. We can take this definition and apply it to a number of governments apart from World War 2 era Germany and Italy. Certainly, it applies to governments throughout history ranging from socialist, communist, monarchism, autocratic, and democratic. I’m sure I missed some in this short list. But it is the democratic form of government, more specifically, the system that is in place in the U.S, that I want to focus on and apply to the definition.
I found something online that further breaks down “fascism” into easy, simple parts. First, the government leads using fear and intimidation; second, race and distrust of foreigners is a big factor; and third, the state demands complete compliance, and fourth, oppressive leadership. I will take these three points and compare them to the present form of government in the United States.
The government leads using fear and intimidation
We now live in country that is ruled by fear. There is a lot of fear of everything everywhere. We are afraid to lose our jobs. We are afraid to lose our homes. We fear our neighbor. The news pumps out fear at a frantic pace. Fear is in the very oxygen we breathe. The government then takes this fear that is all around and uses it against us. Fear keeps the silence up and the standard behavior in place. This is why they get away with what they do like a bandit at a bank. They are building more and more prisons and people who are accused as enemies of the U.S are sent to and tortured relentlessly in facilities like Guantanamo Bay, and the government makes this legal. People are arrested without charge. The economy is crumbling and you are expected to take the financial responsibility of helping rich corporations. Police are as brutal as ever. Citizens are spied on by telecommunications companies and the president takes the power away from the people to disagree with this by law. When citizens have come together in the form of protest or other disobedience, the government crushes it with every force available, like the Sean Bell protest or the protest against the two ruling parties’ political conventions. The people’s voice is becoming weaker as the government’s voice booms with the force of an earthquake. To even speak up is becoming treasonous. Our weakness is that no one wants to throw bricks through windows and make noise as a group. Nobody wants to get shot, tortured, or disappear in some dungeon cell. This is fear.
Race and distrust of foreigners
Recently, a great controversy happened. Mexicans and other immigrants, primarily from Latin America, demanded rights equal to American citizens. Why did they want this? For many reasons, but one was to stop the many abuses occurring in the workplaces against these immigrants, such as long hours and low pay, without time off and benefits. This is referred to as migrant labor with the viewpoint being that it is only illegal immigrants who will do this type of work. For a very long time, they accepted the abuse out of the fear of being reported to the government. Without understanding these reasons, many in the American public became increasingly hostile to Latin American immigrants. This was expressed in the form of assaults, harassment, racism, and vigilante squads formed up to patrol the border and keep out the undesirables. Government police set up ambushes to catch and deport these foreigners. The government even proposed building a type of demilitarized zone guarded by armed soldiers all around the southern part of the country. Some in government justified this by inventing the lie that terrorists can cross the Mexican border into the U.S. These immigrants contribute close to a billion dollars a year into the economy, but the government refuses to give legal residency to them.
The State demands complete compliance
I would say that this relates very closely to the first point of fear. Fascism leaves no room for dissent or individualism. All the tools that the fascist government has, it uses it towards the goal of compliance. An example would be the media. The media controls our minds so much, that we take the words of the news as truth, without thinking. But it even goes farther than this. It tells us what to think, how to look, who to like, and what questions to ask. It blinds us. Major media will never question the good of the state, and as we see, things like American atrocities in the Middle East are hardly given any exposure. Their silence makes them guilty. Why does major broadcast news and periodicals make entertainment breaking and front page material while not one major media outlet was present for an event like Winter Soldier? This event was a testimonial of soldiers and marines who participated or witnessed crimes against the people of Iraq. When it comes to the fight against injustice and the defense of true rights, the media instead skillfully puts the focus on the circus of lies that is called American politics. They constantly implore us to get involve in this circus with the other clowns and put trust in the government, while injustice and the erosion of human rights continue undisturbed. The media is used as a whip by the fascist to keep the herd in place. The fascist has other whips to play with such as cruelty, murder, economics, blacklisting, and terror to use as leverage for conformity. When one whip does not work another comes out until you submit. The U.S depends on us being compliant, that is the only way an authoritarian government as ours can run smoothly.
Oppressive leadership
