Letters to the Editor
chimpygo
Published Letters: 201 Editor's Choice: 2
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@RWatkins: why the Obama/Hitler ananology is piss poor
[Read the article: What Pennsylvania tells us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]<9>Also Ole Obama do you have a hand solute that we could start practicing so that we could use it during our rallies? You are so magnetic, so inspiring and you can hold a crowd like only one person in the last 100 years could but that was back in Germany.
-- RWatkins
Well, Hitler was a failed artist and Obama a sucessfull writer. Creative types, I guess you could say.
More to the point, I suspect, is that Obama, like Hitler, possesses eloquence and charisma and can captivate crowds. I, too, think we should be wary of the "cult of personality," but it's common sense that Hitler and Obama sharing this trait doesnt't make them alike when it comes to character, worldview, political philosophy, or proclivity for genocide.
Hitler was a fascist, an authorian dictator. He believed in a master race (which looked, oddly, almost exactly opposite of him: tall, blond, blue-eyed...) . Obama believes in the Enlightenment principles our Founders set immortalized but failed to live up to completely. Human dignity, government by the people, all that sort of thing.
Also, Obama is a Christian. (I'm agnostic, and am most certainly for freedom of and freedom from religion!) And it seem like he's the good sort, like his religion helps him battle his own human pride, like he sees it as a way of boosting empathy and being inclusive.
As for the whole anti-Christ vibe: I don't buy into this (Old Scrath as Evil anthropomorphized makes it easy to blame our behavior on an outside source), but if you do, take out the description you have and lay it next to Bush's bio...
But back to Hilter and Obmama—how to tell the difference? Here are some characteristics of fascism noted by scholars:
Fascism Anyone?
The 14 characteristics of Fascism
by Dr. Lawrence Britt
Free Inquiry magazine, Spring 2003
Dr. Britt, a political scientist, studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). He found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. ]
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism -- Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights -- Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to 'look the other way' or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause -- The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military -- Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism -- The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and antigay legislation and national policy.
6. Controlled Mass Media -- Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or through sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security -- Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -- Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected -- The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed -- Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -- Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -- Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses, and even forego civil liberties, in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption -- Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions, and who use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections -- Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against (or even the assassination of) opposition candidates, the use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and the manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
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@chimpygo
[Read the article: What Pennsylvania tells us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You need a proofreader! Also, here is the citation for the source you posted:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/14_Characteristics_Fascism.html
A simple web search will bring up all kinds of lists, with all varied numbers of characteristics...
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@tom payne
[Read the article: What Pennsylvania tells us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We subscribe to the same Common Sense
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Sense_(pamphlet)