Its not so bad…
Not much to add here, as the article is quite fun! If not a little prophetic. Though the ten step process is in the article, I’ll highlight some of the more… uh… engaging ones.
1 Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
Hmm… Done and done!
2 Create a gulag
Once you have got everyone scared, the next step is to create a prison system outside the rule of law (as Bush put it, he wanted the American detention centre at Guantánamo Bay to be situated in legal “outer space”) – where torture takes place.
8 Control the press
The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high: Josh Wolf (no relation), a blogger in San Francisco, has been put in jail for a year for refusing to turn over video of an anti-war demonstration; Homeland Security brought a criminal complaint against reporter Greg Palast, claiming he threatened “critical infrastructure” when he and a TV producer were filming victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Palast had written a bestseller critical of the Bush administration.
It’s worked before, it can work again. Unless the people do something.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
J/P=?
Ed. please delete this comment when article is corrected.
What happened to steps 3 -7? Article says step 1, step 2, step 8.
nah, too easy
Deleted upon request!
Mister Justin and Ed. — this appears to be a bug (?) in the latest Firefox browser, some html at the end of your article messes up all following articles and comments links. I’m using the latest version of FireFox, Win XP-SP2 fully updated, but IE6 and IE7 don’t have the same problems. Just thought I’d let you know. Oh, and forget about the step 8 post in the comment (2) above, please delete that comment and this comment as well, my bad.
05:03 CDT Wed. 04.25.10 (just so I can tell how often this blog is edited) Posted with IE6.
2, Please read the article. I just highlighted a couple of fun points.
5, Fixed that for you. Damn hanging HTML!
If Bush had the speaking ability of the president before him, we would be there… Just watch some propaganda films from the Nazi party in my ethics course… I was amazed at the parallels tactic wise to what Hitler is doing and what Bush and his administration have been using
Blah blah blah, America is evil, blah blah blah, republicans are fascists, blah blah blah.
Can’t someone change this record already? It’s been skipping for 6+ years.
As long as willing followers are as unquestioning as Troll #8, there’s no problem finding Brown Shirts. Only they will be red-white-and-blue, of course.
8,
People have been trying. Unfortunately, not ENOUGH people have succeeded.
“Brown Shirt”?
I’m not sure why this would come as a surprise. A couple of years ago I read the American oligarchy had indicated ‘democracy’ was an interesting experiment but it was over because it just didn’t work.
Apparently the few and the wealthy decided all the rest of us had way, way, way too much of their money (and power) and now they want their money (and power) back.
Enter, stage right, Mr. Bush.
Excellent Points – Obviously the correct actions in WWII would have been to ignore domesticate threats in the USA, pull out of Europe and let Fascism win.
>>Excellent Points – Obviously the correct actions in WWII would
>>have been to ignore domesticate threats in the USA, pull out of
>>Europe and let Fascism win.
>>
>>Comment by ZeOverMind — 4/25/2007 @ 5:07 am
Huh?
In any case, I recommend the full article — print it out and pass it around.
13 – ZeOverMind – Duh!
Your attempt at irony is retarded.
The whole point is that during WWII we fought fascism, but now we are moving towards it on our own.
What the right wing wants is exactly what the US fought against during WWII and the cold war.
Some examples of things that we despised during WWII that the US right wing now embraces:
– Legalized torture.
– Detention without recourse.
– Generalized government spying.
– Mass misinformation.
– Secret detention facilities.
– Blind adherence to ‘the leader’ by those that surround him.
– Dissent being basis for treason.
– Ethnic separation.
– the list goes on and on and on.
Having served eight years in the US military, I find it disheartening that the issues that we fought against are the very issues that our current government proposes and regularly implements.
Right wingers… look at yourself closely in the mirror… the reflection that you see is that of a traitor to the American cause.
Frightening!
This is one of the reasons why I haven’t visited the US in the last 3 years. I still have a bunch of friends there, but do not have the heart to tell them that I’m just scared shitless of flying in again with the (10 digit) fingerprinting at the border, biometric passport, restrictions on carry-ons, executive powers, …
🙁
F.
They forgot one step, disarm the public. Maybe we need to elect a Democrat to do that step. They came close after Columbine, and VT was a dress rehearsal for 2009.
#16.
Awake – you don’t understand neocons. Its BECAUSE of your service that they have utter contempt for you. You see neocons let others do the hard work – while they rob the treasury.
Scratch a neocon you get a coward everytime.
#18 – Oh for Christ’s sake…. If by “came close” you actually mean “not within a millon miles”.
Your stupid guns are safe. They ain’t going anywhere. Not that they are useful to you. If the big bad government wants to attack you, you will never stand up to their firepower anyway.
You don’t have to worry about me advocating gun prohibition, but I will say you bulletheads have the same relationship with guns that babies have with pacifiers.
Dissent being basis for treason
Really? And how many people have been tried for, let alone charged with, “treason”?
#20 Yeah a few thousand of those Iraqis armed with 30 year old ak47’s are no match for the superior firepower of the US army armed with the best weapons money can buy… oh wait… nevermind…..
I know this is a gross oversimplification of the perception of my fellow Americans, but I believe that when in comes to the possibility of a fascist America:
1) One third of Americans are completely aware that the powers that be are in the process of destroying America for their own greedy purposes.
2) Another third of Americans are in complete denial that anything sinister is happening here other than the loss of lives from the terrorist attacks and the war in the Middle East.
3) And the last third of Americans have no clue about anything that is going on here or in the rest of the world anyway, and probably could not care less.
23. I like you Ken, keep it up.
21 – Frank IBC –
Really? And how many people have been tried for, let alone charged with, “treason”?
Where have you been for the last couple of years? Have you been ‘awake’ at all, or just sitting in a corner playing with yourself?
The president, vice-president, and most upper level staff members of the administration have repeatedly and forcefully equated dissent with their policies to treason, by aiding and abetting the enemy. Just offering a differing perspective is tantamount to treason in their view, and they have said so clearly, forcefully and repeatedly.
There may have not been any arrests for this reason (and I say may because we don’t know given the current disregard for habeas-corpus), but be assured that given an excuse, the current administration would quickly take steps to arrest dissenters for “anti-american activities”.
Do I feel comfortable writing these words? No… I feel like a chinese dissenter, afraid that there will be consequences. Is that how we want to live?
To claim that charges of treason just because our views differ are not being made by the Bush Administration is unbelievable… wake up!
So to condense a rather long winded post into one word, your answer is “none”.
#23 – You are absolutely right.
That is a gross oversimplification.
And its stupid. To say “the powers that be” are in the process of anything is to say absolutely nothing. Who are they? How are they doing it? Why are they doing it? Where? Why? (and why needs to be answered with something less ambiguous that “their greed”) What evidence do you have? What are you prepared to do about it.
These tin foil hat ramblings are meaningless and obscure real issues.
Generalized statements like all politicians are corrupt are bullshit. I need to know that Senator X or Governor Y took A money from party B and failed to bla bla details bla bla.
Dude… as one liberal to another… Stop making us look bad. Quite with these generalized, unfocused, loonbat, bipolar screeds about how “they” want to enslave us and sell our body parts to rich Chinese diabetics… There is plenty of real, bona fide, documented corruption (especially from the Bush administration) to be angry about… AND there are plenty of politicians, not just Democrats, but Republicans too, who are fed up with it and want to do what is right for the American people they represent.
Trent Lott is gone. His ilk are dwindling fast. There is plenty to do. Yes, there are corporate interests and lobbyists with too much influence. Yes, we need campaign finance reform with teeth. Yes, we should impeach Bush. But we do it by need spreading X-Files inspired Chicken Little stories, buckling down, and doing the work within the system. The only way anyone can fail is to create a self-fulfiling prophesy by proclaiming we are all already doomed.
There is nothing sinister happening in the Dr. Evil sense of the word. It’s just run of the mill corruption on a big budget. We’ll never stamp out corruption, but in the long run we can beat it more than it beats us, and the only price we need to pay is to give a shit about it in the first place.
Awake writes:
Right wingers… look at yourself closely in the mirror… the reflection that you see is that of a traitor to the American cause.
I guess the irony escapes him.
#26 – Frank, you as pedantic as ever… Read the goddamn article. Never mind… I’ll read it for you.
Dissent equals treason
Cast dissent as “treason” and criticism as “espionage’. Every closing society does this, just as it elaborates laws that increasingly criminalise certain kinds of speech and expand the definition of “spy” and “traitor”. When Bill Keller, the publisher of the New York Times, ran the Lichtblau/Risen stories, Bush called the Times’ leaking of classified information “disgraceful”, while Republicans in Congress called for Keller to be charged with treason, and rightwing commentators and news outlets kept up the “treason” drumbeat. Some commentators, as Conason noted, reminded readers smugly that one penalty for violating the Espionage Act is execution.
There is nothing in here about arresting anybody. But there is documented instances of the word traitor being used to describe dissent. From The White House to the Senate to Fox Spews to this blog (not by this blog’s staff that I know of), dissent is being “cast as treason”.
To deny it is to be a liar.
OFTLO –
Please see my #28.
29. As per your re: 27. I think it was a bit harsh, we all generalize at times, sometimes its good just to lay down the talking points. Having said that I think YOU would be someone suited for politics. No that I agree with everything you say, I am not a liberal (I dont like or use labels), but I think you have a good analytical mind and communictions skills, grasp of the issue, and above all, you seem honest. Which is the only real quality I demand in a representative. I think you are wasting your talent if you dont.