Category Archives: Fascism
Will Voting for the “Lesser of Two Evils” Gradually Usher in Fascism? Yes.
As it gets closer to the US election, I wish to share my thoughts.
I saw a rather sad video of someone I admire declaring that they are going to “hold their nose” and vote for Clinton. Why? Because Trump is so very scary. This is disturbing and very sad to say the least when intelligent thoughtful people spend the best part of their year exposing the corruption of US empire, but then at the 11th hour start encouraging people to vote for the “lesser evil”.
Every day the world suffers under the hubris, warmongering and corruption of US Empire. Every. Single. Day. We will all be effected by the outcome of this US election no matter where we live in the world. In my humble opinion, it is a HUGE mistake for US citizens to continue voting for the “lesser evil”. Why? Because the “lesser evil” is just PLAIN evil. And the DNC have had this planned all along – “elevating” the worst GOP candidate (read Wikileaks’ Podesta emails) so the public will vote in fear. The DNC stole the primary from Sanders and then Sanders started promoting Clinton. Now other “progressives” are dropping their bundle and are promoting this corrupt warmonger as well.
At this point I feel anyone trying to frighten US citizens into voting against the “greater evil” – Trump – is really unfortunate to say the least. What the DNC has been trying to do by elevating frightening candidates has worked for them so far. They have a fail-safe plan they put into action every election. This is an appalling manipulation of elections and of the public. And this is not all the DNC is doing to rig this election (Soros and Diebold voting machines, corporate-owned mainstream media etc).
ALL of this simply shows contempt for the public.
Why do I take such interest in US elections despite the fact that I am not a US citizen? Because all of us everywhere around the world as I mentioned, are paying for the two party stranglehold. And what the US oligarchs get away with or demonstrate that works in the US, is often adopted by other oligarchs worldwide. The US Empire is like a test case for how to usher in fascism with little resistance. Do it gradually and no one will make too much of a fuss right? The US Empire is by far, the greatest threat on this planet, not just in terms of threatening world peace with nuclear war (threatening Russia repeatedly and creating fear around them) but in terms of climate change and our species imminent extinction as a result.
We have more than two major parties here in Australia. The two major Australian parties are almost as bad as each other. There’s very little daylight between them. We have compulsory voting here and I’m glad that we do. We also have a preferential voting system which means that our vote is not “wasted” if we vote for a third party. However, even if we did not have this system, I would still reject either major Australian party.
Remember that Abraham Lincoln was a third party choice.
As I said, I’ve been saddened and somewhat annoyed that there continues to be some “progressives” who have decided recently to “hold their nose” and vote for Clinton. It’s really a matter of a slow ride to fascism or a slightly faster one voting for these two major party candidates. And Palestinians will most definitely pay the price no matter who of the two major party candidates gets elected. I think Chris Hedges‘ advice is something that we should consider. He will vote and encourages others to vote for a third party like Stein and Baraka.
If we have learned anything from the release of the #Podesta emails, it is that the oligarchy look after their own and they think they are untouchable. And it would seem to a great extent that is true because as the years pass by their corruption increases and it goes unpunished.
The Podesta emails reveal what the oligarchy truly think when they believe no one to be watching. This is what they say to each other behind closed doors. To some this would not be a surprise, but to many it may well be. The Wikileaks release of these emails reveals the ruling class’ contempt for the public, their contempt for democracy, their contempt for the masses. It reveals that they view the world like a monopoly game, where a small few will eventually own everything. It reveals that they see the masses as just fodder for their wars, and whatever else they can use us for. So why prop them up? Why give them more airtime to continue on this dangerous path? Why threaten the world with possible nuclear war by giving sociopaths (yes both candidates) the nuclear codes?
IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS GOOD & JUST, please, if you haven’t voted yet, vote for values. Vote for a third party like Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka. Don’t fall for this dangerous and appalling manipulation any longer. If we never vote for what we want, we will never get it. The revolution will NEVER happen while people continue to fall for this manipulation. Fascism will be ushered in no matter which major party’s candidate is elected. One form may be slightly faster than the other but it’s coming and soon. And next election in four years time will be the same. The DNC will be elevating an even more scary candidate than Trump but you won’t get to see their private emails about it next time.Trump was just the rehearsal for someone who will be more cunning and who will exploit and take advantage of the angry and disenfranchised masses. It is in plain sight now. One thing we can never say is that we haven’t been told. We know that to be true, so why fall for this “lesser evil” insanity any longer?
For more information:
Jill Stein: ‘Voters Being Intimidated Into Voting for Corruption Queen or a Proto-Fascist’ (Video)
“Movement of Movements”
“The mainstream Left – or at least the people who still identify with what the corporate elite tries to passes off as a “Left” – having watched their own revolt smothered in its cradle, are now reduced to defending the Corporate State against an analogous revolt from the Right. As few are voting for corporate candidates this year, this amounts to a losing strategy. Of course Trump can’t be expected to dismantle corporate power either and will likely end up serving much just as Obama did, with some added racism and nastiness. And it’s pretty clear that media-stoked fear of him and blackout of third parties have made a Bernie-style surge for Stein unlikely. Whoever wins this election, our job as citizens will be to resist them. We are merely voting on the face of Power we will have to oppose.
I’m done discussing with Hillary supporters, especially if it involves insulting people for voting their consciences. (If you really want our votes, instead of abuse and fear-mongering, you might try , for starters convincing your candidate to release the Goldman speeches.) This election has brought out the worst in nearly everyone. Do we really have to choose between racism and plutocracy? between anti-immigrant hysteria and endless war? between blacklisting Muslims at home and bombing them abroad? Of course these choices make people angry, because they’re so deeply unfair. This is what happens when we allow “democracy” to become the selection by an elite of two candidates and a vote by us against the one we fear most.
But I also suspect it also has something to do with to the fact that, as much as our media and politicians may pretend that we’re not hurtling toward imminent and catastrophic economic, political, resource and climate collapse, we all know on some level that it is. Maybe those who know are angry at all the denial, and those in denial are angry at being confronted with truths they refuse to accept, but people are clearly angry – and their anger clearly masks fear. The reality-show politics of our money-soaked pseudo-democracy, with its money-soaked pseudo-press, are just too disconnected from the true reality we face for people not to feel uneasy.
The horrifying flood of Blue-on-Black murders, the parallel State violence against unarmed civilians in Occupied Palestine (a 13-year-old girl was just gunned down at a checkpoint on her way to school), and the many similarities between them are outrageous and unbearable. They will only end when the perpetrators face real consequences.
At the same time, the call for accountability is rising. Resistance movements are swelling and coalescing. #BlackLivesMatter now stands with #BDS. Both stand with #StandingRock, #IdleNoMore and the growing anti-pipeline and anti-fracking #ClimateJustice movements, and all kneel with Kaepernick. This is our real hope for the future of political action – not participating in rigged corporate referendums out of fear, but rising above them and all the pettiness they evoke in us, in the face of the predictable onslaught of Media silence or derision and the naked violence of the State. As these movements continue to grow into what Rivera Sun calls a “Movement of Movements,” their power of action grows.
This “election” has brought us to the limits of a politics that can be considered credible by the majority of Americans. It has focused us on frivolities and meanness at a time of unprecedented challenges. May it serve as the final proof, for those who still needed it, that it is too late to change the system through its own means – for these are not means of change, but of self-perpetuation. Just as so many young people who worked for Obama in 2008 filled the Occupy camps 3 years later, may this be the turning point for millions more. We will not vote the corporations out of our government. We need to oppose them with our bodies and beings. The system thrives on our failure of imagination; our incapacity to imagine something better and ways of making it real. But its own lack of imagination is also its weakness. The challenges we face as a race are so great, they demand true Greatness from us. Nothing less will save us.”
Peter Cohen
Neo-Liberalism is a Form of Fascism
“The time for rhetorical reservations is over. Things have to be called by their name to make it possible for a coordinated democratic reaction to be initiated, above all in the public services.
Liberalism was a doctrine derived from the philosophy of Enlightenment, at once political and economic, which aimed at imposing on the state the necessary distance for ensuring respect for liberties and the coming of democratic emancipation. It was the motor for the arrival, and the continuing progress, of Western democracies.
Neoliberalism is a form of economism in our day that strikes at every moment at every sector of our community. It is a form of extremism.
Fascism may be defined as the subordination of every part of the State to a totalitarian and nihilistic ideology.
I argue that neoliberalism is a species of fascism because the economy has brought under subjection not only the government of democratic countries but also every aspect of our thought.
The state is now at the disposal of the economy and of finance, which treat it as a subordinate and lord over it to an extent that puts the common good in jeopardy.”
– Manuela Cadelli (President of the Magistrates’ Union of Belgium)
Read full article here
We Will Discover Just How Undemocratic Our Political Systems Have Become
“Just found the text of a post I wrote on November 7, 2012 that sums up my perspective on this election. Those of us seeking systemic change are now being told that we’ve been Trumped and have to just suck it up and vote for the corporate elite’s preselected choice despite the fact that their nomination may well be the result of legal or illegal subversion of the democratic process. Can’t wait to see what the billionaires will come up with in 2020 to keep us from voting against their interests…“I did not vote yesterday, nor do I plan to again. I may make a protest vote, such as a write-in or third party, but I will no longer vote for any Democrat just because they are the only realistic alternative to a Republican.
It’s not just the candidates I refuse to support, but the entire system that produced them – and will continue to produce them, despite our passive dissatisfaction. If the system ever worked, it does no more. What Chris Hedges calls “the Corporate Coup” is a fait accompli. Policy in the US is controlled by money, not votes.
Studies show that US policy take little account of the electorate’s wishes. Some 95% of winners of Congressional elections are the ones with the most campaign contributions. “One dollar, one vote” is an understatement when, in the last $2-billion Presidential election, more than $1000 was spent per registered voter. And of course the vast majority of that money did not come from individuals, but from multinational corporations investing in policy via a vast apparatus of super-PACs, think tanks and other front organizations.
Of course, the Multinationals play both sides of the two-party system. Goldman-Sachs may have favored Obama and Exxon-Mobil Romney, but both still give about half as much to the other side, to make sure they’d have skin in the game either way. And they don’t just field, groom and support candidates and lobby legislators – they actually write the laws those legislators vote on. And today we’re seeing some of the most disturbing laws showing up, with almost identical language, in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and other countries.
But multinationals don’t just pick the candidates, write the laws and ensure their passage. They also directly control the very means by which most citizens learn about the issues they vote on – the mass media. Once again, we are expected to believe that MSNBC is better than FOX and that we are exercising our critical discretion by choosing one over the other. But when MNSBC is Comcast (the third-largest corporate lobbyist in dollars spent) and GE (which is involved in the oil and arms industries among others), how can we seriously take our news from them even as they spend millions to make government act in their interest?
To vote in such a system is to support the illusion that meaningful change is possible through the available mechanisms. It is to buy into the farce and embrace distraction from the great issues of our time. The system is broken to the point where it can no longer be fixed on its own terms. Our votes can only have meaning when the power of money is completely removed from the political process and the media is freed from control by those who already control the political system and the economy.
There are times when reform simply cannot come through the existing system; when enlightened citizens’ action, in defiance of constituted power and its entrenched mechanisms of self-perpetuation, is the only reasonable option; when instead of greasing the gears and oiling the wheels, one has to throw one’s body against them. We can no longer simply vote, donate, sign petitions, and then go back to our work and consumption as if our job as citizens were done: we have to completely rethink what it means to be a citizen.
They had votes and a press in the Soviet Union, but people recognized that these only served to perpetuate congealed power, not change it. The Ben Ali and Mubarak dictatorships did not fall through state-sanctioned citizens’ participation, but through popular action that questioned the existing social order.
We are running out of time to do even this. We are in the twilight of even feigned democracy, as the basic legal protections that once granted us free speech and protection against tyranny are being quickly eroded as the climate clock ticks ever louder. When the investment bubbles burst; when the oil, potable water and healthy soil run out; when the methane feedbacks start to kick in we will discover just how undemocratic our political systems have become, and just how strategic the corporate cartel has been in cornering every critical resource on the planet. But by then, it will be too late.” Peter Cohen
Patriarchy and Apocalyptic Capitalism have Won
If one has been following independent news over the last few years and the occasional mainstream report, it would appear at this point the oligarchy do not care at all how the masses perceive them. They know we know they are corrupt and they don’t care. The oligarchy no longer even feign interest in the masses.
The US political system is imploding. The US empire is in collapse and they are like an insatiable monster that now in its hubris intends to start wars with China and Russia and whomever else looks to be an obstacle in an attempt to control all resources. The scrabble for the most basic resources will be our future. They know it’s over for
our species (and most other species) with runaway global warming and an inevitable 6 degrees Celsius or higher on the not too distant horizon. They will exploit everything and it won’t end to its all used up.
Patriarchy has won.
Apocalyptic capitalism has won.
It’s end game now.
Their only interest at this point is who amongst them is going to control everything and what they need to do to achieve that aim. In other words, they must gain hegemony by any means necessary.
We can buckle our seat belts, but we are in a nose dive.
Read more
Excellent read: A world war has begun. Break the silence by Australian Journalist John Pilger
Chris Hedges “The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism”
The Revenge of the Lower Classes and the Rise of American Fascism
Excerpt (read full essay here) “Richard Rorty in his last book, “Achieving Our Country,” written in 1998, presciently saw where our postindustrial nation was headed.
Many writers on socioeconomic policy have warned that the old industrialized democracies are heading into a Weimar-like period, one in which populist movements are likely to overturn constitutional governments. Edward Luttwak, for example, has suggested that fascism may be the American future. The point of his book The Endangered American Dream is that members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers—themselves desperately afraid of being downsized—are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The nonsuburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking around for a strongman to vote for—someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots. A scenario like that of Sinclair Lewis’ novel It Can’t Happen Here may then be played out. For once a strongman takes office, nobody can predict what will happen. In 1932, most of the predictions made about what would happen if Hindenburg named Hitler chancellor were wildly overoptimistic.
One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. The words “nigger” and “kike” will once again be heard in the workplace. All the sadism which the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back. All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.
Fascist movements build their base not from the politically active but the politically inactive, the “losers” who feel, often correctly, they have no voice or role to play in the political establishment. The sociologist Émile Durkheim warned that the disenfranchisement of a class of people from the structures of society produced a state of “anomie”—a “condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.” Those trapped in this “anomie,” he wrote, are easy prey to propaganda and emotionally driven mass movements. Hannah Arendt, echoing Durkheim, noted that “the chief characteristic of the mass man is not brutality and backwardness, but his isolation and lack of normal social relationships.”
