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Please try to be less of a lunatic, or at least more conscious of your own lunacy.
Of all the madness in this podcast, the part I most enjoy is invocation of fascism. It's utterly ridiculous on many levels, but I'll cover the two most critical:
1) The GOP is currently the proud owner of a super-minority in the Senate, a minority in the House and has lost control of the White House. It's especially fitting that they managed to officially attain super-minority status by losing a seat to a comedian. This is the political party that you're worried is going to march you off to a death camp? Never mind the fact that your characterization of them is cartoonish hyperbole. Even if you were right and they wanted to kill you, they lack anywhere near the political capital required to do so.
But hey, maybe you're onto something... It was crushing inflation and poverty that Hitler rode into power. Maybe you've realized that Obama's policies will fertilize our political landscape for just such a situation. And here I thought you had confidence in Obama...
2) Even if we assume that your jackbooted carricature of the American right is correct, they're still not fascists. Now, I know... You're a simpleton-who-wishes-he-wasn't, and like all of your ilk, you've replaced the word "bad" with the word "fascist" and the words "bad politician" with "Hitler" because you think this makes you look like your prattling is founded in real historical understanding and research.
It's so ridiculous, there's a wiki page for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum
So, no, the Republicans are not fascists, they're not hinting at being fascists. The word you're looking for is "theocrats."
This is not a good word. In fact Iran is a theocracy, and I've been told that they're a very, very scary bunch of evil folks. So it's not a good word. But then, it lacks the punch that "fascist" has with the buzzword-centric crowd you appear to run with.
Anyway, in closing, and speaking of buzzwords, watching you and Rush Limbaugh bandy "astro-turf" around, in a pitiful "realness competition," is one of the most humiliating things I've had to endure in American political discussion. Are we seriously going to argue over whose grassroots are more capable of genuine photosynthesis? Really?
You're an idiot cheerleader. While that in no way discredits the political views you espouse, it does discredit you personally, along with your crazy, crazy eyes.
Seriously, you look (and act) like some sort of malfunctioning Keith Olbermann cloning program. You guys should have a love child, and then in 2044, he could run for President as the candiate of the Ultra-Communist++ Party. Just be sure to get a good quality photocopy of his birth certificate.
Jack: I came away from James's podcast with the impression that we have more to fear from a Pinochet sort of character than a new Hitler. From hindsight it looks almost as if the American ruling class had authorized the Chilean coup as an experiment and a practice run in case it had to support a similar course of action against the U.S. government some day.
We aren't quite "there yet", but we were well on our way with Bush and accelerating further under Obama. Your definition by Paxton(?) describes the progressive movement very nicely. A Liberal Democracy is a quite suitable framework (despite the modern day leftist hijacking of the name "Liberal").
Oh my God, you are so deluded and obnoxious. Mostly because just about every detail you read about the "fascist movement" describes the motives, actions, intentions, morality, and ethics of the hard left who, today, issue your talking points and marching orders. No longer by way of discreet agents and propaganda by outside sources but from the mainstream of our own media, academia, government, and corporate sector. This is a prime example of the next step. You project, in the studious language of the intelligentsia, detailed description of what you are doing. The mindset, the tactics, the intentions, and end goals of every way the leftists think, behave, mobilize, and attack are rushed out onstage en masse in order to beat the "regular people" to the punch. Many of us were neither educated - nor brainwashed - in the university so that by the time we do the research and put together the language to describe what we are realistically and honestly observing in your behavior, you have already done it. And very well. Then, at least to many, you win. After all, what is left for us in the way of trying to express the message now but to sound like, "No I'm not. But you are!" or "I know you are but what am I?" The uncultured nature of many responses would end up having that childish tinge to it. And I admit it. I hear some of the less intelligent on the right. (That's if even many are hip to this game you play. Most aren't) But many conservatives don't care what you & the elites say anyway. They either couldn't be bothered or pay no attention. They don't see that through these culture wars America has been stolen. And you people have the nerve to insert the key words: America; patriotism; democracy; independence. And you claim it as your own.
We don't have to fear a Pinochet. This country is incredibly poorly disposed for a military coup. That's not saying it can't happen, but it's far less likely here than virtually anywhere else on earth. Plus, even Pinochet needed external help from a more powerful nation to carry off his coup.
It's just not reasonable to suggest something like that is going to occur. The only reason the word "fascism" is even being mentioned is for the visceral effect it has on the coffe shop intelligentsia.
Naomi Wolf tried to pull this line of BS a while back, and while she's no brighter than Dr. J, she's at least better compensated for her drivel. So, I guess what I'm saying, is that if you're not getting paid to be an idiot, why do it?
Another reason I object to the characterization of the Republicans as "fascists," is because the Democrats show a far greater tendency in this direction that the GOP. I don't think the Democrats are going to take us to Fascism either, but if anybody is, they're the ones. Their penchant for state controlled industries alone makes them far more "fascist" than the Republicans.
It's funny that Dr. J would accuse anybody of fascism when he himself is clearly a rhetorical brownshirt, just waiting for marching orders. Look no further than the Daily Kos for explicit battle plans, strategic and tactical... The American left dominates political thugging to a huge degree.
If you don't believe that, just notice what Dr. J is doing with his podcast. As I mentioned before, the Republicans are very, very far from power right now. Despite this, Dr. J is still going after the right, still looking for ways to malign and discredit them. This is the behavior of a thug... An attack dog who is useless for any other purpose but attack.
The fact is, the Democrats have control. Obamacare can't get the support it needs from Democrats. The Blue Dogs aren't behind it. The votes aren't there. Some angry Hannity listener in a Sheraton ballroom isn't making that happen, division amongst the Democrats is.
If Dr. J was really interested in change, he'd be talking about what Democrats should be doing, and how they can all get on the same page to do it. They don't need any more seats. They don't need to win the battle of ideas. They just need to decide what they can agree on, and do it.
But Dr. J is still out there, headhunting for likely conservative victims to lambast. Unfortunately, he's convinced himself that his stupid buzzwords, his contempt for half of America, his twisting and revising history, are all for the greater good.
So, as long as we're talking Fascists, ask yourself this: Do you think the Nazis thought they were evil?
Hint: Nope. They were pretty convinced they were working for the greater good.
Hint 2: It's not any one political ideology we need to fear. It's zealots. And if you want to know what a zealot looks like, peer deeply into the eyes of Dr. J.
As a non-american, I can say you are absolutely correct in your assessment. I'd even go further - there might be a genetic 'tribal' component to this - some people might have a 'fascism gene', that once served a use in mobilizing tribal militancy when other tribes threatened 'us" on resources, territory or hunting rights. I can see a genetic feedback mechanism. especially with the more impressionable of society, where perceived or real outside threats, spurred on by natural cycles of disease or famine, come home to roost.
This is more obvious in any more pluriform society such as in Europe. We have the benefits of being insulated from the radical colonialist "start all new" mentality that has twisted american perspectives. In harsher terms, 'why was anyone in the US surprised by 911' ? It looked so obvious from Europe - bound to happen sooner or later. People on Oprah had different ideas and proceeded to think it was a sign of the Apocalypse (tm).
Another dynamic at work here is disempowerment, and this is a scary idea - what if a percentage of the population considers itself 'entitled' because of race or cultural legacy - but finds itself underqualified - in harsh terms - 'less smart'. They'll find, without fully understanding why, they lose out on societal control by those other people, who they will be finding to 'cheat'. The response is what we see - dimwitted school yard bully tactics to 'rectify the situation' and 'grab back control of the school' from the 'lying and cheating and teachers favorite nerds' by pounding them to a bloody pulp.
This is a situation the US can't win - and these people have a lot of guns. And what is worse, it has proven ridiculously easy for the corporate sector to shovel their sinister oligarchic agenda down the feedhole of these people. These are in effect the people willing to don the brownshits and kill and maim to teach the other side a lesson. And as someone in Europe with a somewhat more multipolar perspective - I recognize this process in the US unfolding as clearly as I recognize a the telltale anxious sniffing and snortling of a hollywood celebrity or wall street banker as a coke habit.
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