Re: The greatest Mystery to me is Republicans

Okay, part two, on two Number 5 in the fascism list:

>>>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
anti-gay legislation and national policy.
>>>

ROFLMAO.

First, this describes Castro's Cuba far better than it
describes the US, now or at any other time. Does the man who made this
list decry fascism in Cuba? North Korea? How about Iran, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia?

Second, can anybody say Condaleeza Rice? Karen Hughes? I mean,
for God's sake, the man's secretary of state is female and so is his
chief political adviser.

Third, the period of time during which Bush has been in office has
seen the largest and most radical GROWTH in the rights of gay people
and the acceptance of homosexuality in this culture, ever. In almost
any culture, ever. Somehow, evil fascist Bush hasn't been able to
suppress Queer Eye, or 10 Great Things About Being Gay, or Will and
Grace.

And trust me, if this really was a fascist country, those things
would not be able to air publicly. Castro sends homosexuals to jail
for being homosexuals. Iran executes them. Queer Eye airs in neither
place.

<<<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 sympathetic media spokespeople and executives.
Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
<<<

Again, nothing that anybody who knows anything at all about
history, or about the present state of the world, could possibly think
applies here in any way.

First, we have the freeest media on the planet. Unlike most of
Europe, our television and radio is not restricted to just a few
government-owned outlets. Anybody who wants to start a magazine or a
newspaper or an Internet blog can do it on the cheap, and even
television and radio aren't as restricted in ownership as they used to
be.

Second, unlike most of Europe, we do NOT censor books and
magazines. But you cannot buy a whole list of literature in Germany
and France (like, for instance, Mein Kampf), and American companies
like Amazon have been forced to sign agreements with those governments
promising not to ship the forbidden volumes to those governments'
citizens.

Third, "sympathetic media spokespeople and executives" does NOT
constitute "censorship" in any way. And in this country, there are not
only sympathetic ones, but UNsympathetic ones, which is the essence of
the marketplace of ideas.

As to the list of links under the heading:

a) the reason there is a restriction on handing out the names of
CIA agents is that that exposure can get them killed, and it's not
fascism to insist that we track down who did that. Journalists do not
have the right to refuse to testify in these cases anywhere in the EU,
either, that I know of, and in England the penalties for having
revealed the information would be a whole lot harsher than anything
visited on Judith Miller. See the Official Secrets Act.

b) in a typically misleading headline, we get "Bush's war on
information: US editors forbidden to publish certain foreign writers"

Follow the link and you find a story almost a year old about a
Treasury Department reinterpretation of a 1917 law. The
reinterpretation was immediately challenged in court and (looking
around the web a little more) an injunction obtained so that nobody has
to toe anybody's line before the lawsuit wends its way, and even
administration attorneys are saying they think it will be found
unConstitutional.

Now, compare this to what goes on in North Korea, or Iran--no
court cases, no injunctions, no media hue and cry about what jerks the
government is being. Just jail, and sometimes death.

c) most of the rest of these concern various actions by the Bush
administration THAT WERE OVERTURNED IN COURT. Again, the opposite of
fascism. Governments overreach their power all the time. What counts
is what we do about it, and we seem to be doing just find.

Now, my absolute favorite:

>>>>7.) Obsession with National Security
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses
>>>

The reason this is my favorite is that it comes accompanied by a
picture of the color-coded terror alert charge.

Fear? Really? We've been making fun of that chart since the day
it came out. Most Americans aren't fearful when they see those
alerts--assuming they pay attention to them at all, they're mostly
amused or exasperated.

But maybe that's because this writer doesn't see his fellow
citizens, he sees "the masses" who are obviously motivated by mindless
emotion manipulated by sinister forces in the government.

Bull manure. Americans are not mindless, and they're not afraid.
They're certainly not made fearful by those silly alerts.

<<<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.

Does the person who wrote this know ANYTHING AT ALL about
history? Or current events?

First, up until the second half of the 20th century, ALL BUT ONE
of the countries on this planet had religious establishments. Every
one. They could be loose establishments (as in Holland), or multiple
ones (as in Switzerland) or strict ones (as in Iran today), but they
were there.

You know who the exception was? Us. The United States is the
world's first secular state.

Second, the separation of church and state is actually much
stricter now than it was for all but about two dozen years soon after
WWII. One of the headlines under this header was about Jerry Falwell
violating federal law by telling his parishioners how to vote. But in
the election that saw Thomas Jefferson defeat John Adams, the churches
were filled with Sunday-morning sermons declaring that Jefferson was
an atheist and no good Christian could vote for him, and that wasn't
against any law.

Third, establishing a "right wing Christian college" isn't a sign of
fascism, it's a sign of the opposite--it means that in the US, as in
very few other countries, people who dissent from the prevailing
"official" view can found their own institutions. And the official
view, in higher education, is distinctly NOT Republican.

Okay, part three coming up.

Jane Haddam
http://www.janehaddam.com

.

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