Liberal Fascism

I dont understand why Disaster Economics (Capitalism run amoc in the after math of a natural or man-made disaster, like war, is called neo-liberalism in south america and Neo-Conservatism in The United States. Is that a hemisphere thing? Its the same thing.??

I like cheese.

We like Da Moon!

Bob, I’m pretty sure that fascism resides on neither the left or the right. It resides on the up or the down, as it were. The classic political right does not have an authoritarian element, the classic political left does not have an anarchic element.Fascism is of neither and thus is used to deride both sides.In this country right now, both sides have cases. The right represents the militaristic, powerful executive aspects. The left represents the government involvement in the economy aspect. Both sides believe the other represents the limitation of civil liberties aspect (the left with PATRIOT and illegal surveillance, the right with perceived slights to the second and tenth amendments and limitations on free speech with campaign finance reform).While I agree with most of what you say in your column, I can’t agree with you when you say that fascism is an aspect of the right.

In Liberalism, the government exists for the good of the people.In Fascism, the people exist for the good of the government.

Fascism is a right wing aspect. If wingnuts were reasonable, average, intelligent individuals, a reading of the 14 points of fascism would explain it all to them.

I suppose Obama can simultaneously be a socialist and a fascist in the same way a guy named Sam who isn’t a plumber can be “Joe the Plumber.”

Mike: I believe you’re thinking of Authoritarianism. Fascism is a philosophy that is both authoritarian and right-wing. A corresponding combination with left wing would be Stalinism, which is a more apt description of what the wingnuts think they’re fighting.

Mike wrote:>>>While I agree with most of what you say in your column, I can’t agree with you when you say that fascism is an aspect of the right.The far right-hand corner:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European-political-spectrum.png

Fascists don’t go to other countries and apologize for the actions of their own country, since rabidly insane nationalism is a requirement of fascism.

Bob – what happened to the comment moderation at HuffPo? Or does that only apply to Scarborough?

The Moon Rules #1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PfsJCIl9yA

Bob,Don’t forget to post some of the emails your post generated!We can always use a laugh.

The characteristics and differences between various political ideologies should be taught as part of any political science class in high school. I guess everyone is too worried about students having passing SAT scores to concern themselves with whether or not our high school graduates have actually learned anything.And perhaps then they would also learn that the moon is made out of feta, which is a white cheese, not green. Silly wingnuts.

Bob,Love to read your stuff, but loathe HuffPo. It has become nothing more than a glamour/gossip rag.They allow all types of comments, yet censor important issues backed by facts that, uhm, some of us have written.The level of discourse over there is just not worth the time.

apart from being against everything under the sun, what else do the tea baggers represent?

BrokenArrowSame here. In fact I think that the HuffPo has gone to the right.

Just and fyi – The wackos over at Becks 912 web site are making yet more threats. They say things like this:BobRiveraUSMC59p• 14 minutes agoAn idiot calling other people idiots, it’s just classic, nice one. Do you know what happened last time we tried to escape a Tyrant? Please, come to your senses,,,,,, or paint a red star on your forehead, that way, it will be easy to target you worthless people. Do you even know that the 10th Amendment says? What about treasonous activities by the current President?This guy goes on to say he doesn’t make threats, only promises.Puerile name calling is one thing, but this…Tell me if I’m wrong.

James:Spot on. I want to know the ideas they have to fix the problems. I also would like some intellectual honesty from individuals (I know better than to expect it from a movement.)As far as what they represent, I have seen nothing specific or cohesive.

HuffPo is a tabloid and the comment sections makes me nuts every time I forget why I never go there and venture back. Bob is one of the only reasons to visit the site at all.

The left wing equivalent to Fascism is Anarchism. You can not be a Liberal Fascist, no more than you can be a Conservative Anarchists…education is an amazing thing. These guys fail at life, per usual.

Imaginista and I agree. However, Huffpo has cleaned up a bit, but yeah, it still resembles a rag of trendoid jibber-jabber for the most part with loaded headlines that usually have nothing to do with the actual articles and other such phenomena. Bob Cesca is one of the better contributors there, though, often calling out hypocritical bullshit with precision.It’s exactly why I visit here, of course.As for the far-right loonies. I’ve always believed that Bush stealing the election in 2000 appeased these malcontents for a spell, and that if ANY Democrat – black, female, or “French” – won a presidential election, there would be a renaissance of right-wing anti-establishment terrorism. See, for years during the Bush Administration, the right was always attempting to deviate from their coddling the real terrorists here in America. These buzzards are the cream of the crop regarding domestic terrorism, but of course, they looked for a sect of “minorities” to be the face of it all, even if they did not actually live here in the U.S. That’s why they continue to say “Bush kept us safe.” In a sense, he and his crew of miscreants did.Now, no one is safe from the bemoaning of the far-right wackadoos. They believe themselves hardasses because they bare the modern-day paranoid delusional survivalist mentality. These fuckers are bottled-up cowards unable to cope with reality, plain and simple.We can all make promises, threats, or whatever they think makes them sound intimidating. I’ve stared some of these Neo-Nazi/survivalist dorks square in the face. They are some of the most insecure dimwits you’ll ever meet. They steep themselves in bullshit theories which they spout off as soon as they’re confronted by authority. They attempt to goad folks into dorky arguments with them. I had one of them refer to me as an “Uncle Tom” at one point, so I gave him a pop quiz on the contents of the actual novel, and the fucker eventually admits that he’s never read the damned book. He called me a “sambo,” to boot. The idiot was doing this because I was employed by the state I live in at that point in my life, so I was supposedly a “slave,” according to this teenaged societal genius. I informed him that his mother didn’t want him back in her home because she was tired of holes being punched in her walls, and he calls her a “tool” or some other such nonsense. The boy then throws a damned temper tantrum because he’s not allowed to call to one of his little Nazi friends on the outside who’d gotten hit by a car or something. When the entire incident was exposed, we come to find out that his friend was abusing his sister, and she banged up Nazi knees with the fender of her car. See, these are the types that show up to the silly Republicon rallies. Dorks whose lives revolve around their communities and such. When they attempt to think outside that environment of theirs, they’re quickly overwhelmed, so they settle for the con-servative conmen to tell them what’s going on in the world. Some of thes folks are seriously misanthropic imbeciles that take nothing but their own mood swings seriously.I tell you, this one boy I spoke of tried to play like he was a perpetually lost soul oozing fascist machismo, but really, he was a scared kid that eventually bowed to peer pressure fostered by a bunch of thugs in and around his neighborhood. These “wingnut” idiots you read on Speck’s and Vannity’s dopey forums are of the same caliber of nitwit. They’re a bunch of shitkickers. The thing is more than a few of these aimless fools really are trained by our military, that at this point, never truly considers the mental health of these individuals before they train them. Another kid (about 25) bragged that he got trained to shoot since he was five, and how he wanted to join the military. He spoke as if it was just the most masculine thing any individual could do. I informed him that I was trained to shoot, and had no intentions on EVER joining the military, and this moron sought to get into a bitchy dick-measuring contest about which guns we were trained in, and whether I was some kind of pacifist. See, this is the type of insecure dork you’re reading in those forums. They are a dime a dozen, and I’ve witnessed more than a few giving up the act, and others delving deeper into their wanna-be bigot delusions.

Guys, the spectrum does not just go from left to right. Anarchism is not to the left of liberalism, it is a more extreme version of libertarianism.

In regard to the Huffblows comments: I’m glad to see many are in agreement. It is on the red/orange meme level according to Ken Wilbur.I prefer this blog, and Crooks and Liars. Oh, and Kos, of Kos.

Mike,Appreciate your tenancity, but the political spectrum stuff is basic social studies learnin’.Poltical SpectrumIt makes sense to try to muddy the waters to argue a point or to validate your own beliefs, but I don’t think many folks here are going to bite on your claims (I could be wrong, of course).Anarchism could appear on either side since it is really a state of “no defined government”.