Economics, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Fascism In America

10 Comments

As described by Lileks:

As for the NRA logo, it’s a reminder of the happy days of FDR’s attempts to revive the economy by pouring a bowl of alphabet soup over its face. The NRA, among other things, was intended to prevent the depredations of competition, and “allowed industry heads to collectively set minimum prices,” as this rather scant wikipedia entry notes. (The same page relates the story of the tailor who was arrested for charging 35 cents to press a suit; the NRA rules specified the price at 40 cents. So he was arrested. Consider that the next time someone complains that liberty and civil rights have been eliminated in the last 7 years.)

10 thoughts on “Fascism In America”

  1. For a moment I thought someone was being totally clueless about the National Rifle Association, not the National Recovery Administration.

  4. Steve:

    Whether FDR was a fascist or not is completely irrelevant to the question of whether Bush is.

  5. What? Comparing an apple to an orange is completely irrelevant to the question of whether the apple is an orange? ^_^

  6. “Fletcher Christian wrote:
    Steve:

    Whether FDR was a fascist or not is completely irrelevant to the question of whether Bush is.”

    Or whether the Earth is flat. There is about as much evidence for it as there is on the allegance of Bush to some 20th century Italian political movement or a chimera therof.

    You, FC, often make me wonder if you are a bloodthirsty Stalinist with your casual disregared for human life.

    I don’t recall Bush ever being mentioned in the original article. I guess those who are of a subnormal IQ first attempt to divert attention from it by a lame attempt to change the subject.

  7. Mike, I was replying to this:

    “Steve wrote:
    …but GWB is a jack booted thug. Uh huh.”

    OK, maybe the term “fascist” was too loosely applied. However, that term is usually (and possibly it shouldn’t be) used as semantically equal to “jackbooted thug” and even that is not to be taken literally – I very much doubt that either Mr. Bush has ever actually worn jackboots. Not in public, anyway.

    The title of the original article, followed by its content and references, was clearly meant to imply that FDR was a fascist.

    As for your implication that I have a disregard for human life – guilty as charged. When it’s enemy human life. Not that I can see what that has to do with either the original article, or Steve’s reply to it, or my reply to him.

    About fascism and America; the current American government is not fascist. It’s corporatocratic, and has been for quite some time. Government bought and paid for.

    Incidentally, corporatism is usually regarded as an integral part of some types of fascism – sound familiar? (The Internet is wonderful, isn’t it? I spent a few minutes reading about fascism.)

  8. Wow Fletcher and you just wrote every Stalinist’s and Marxist-Leninist’s favorite definition of fascism. Of course it’s only their favorite because they never seem to have the slightest understanding of how their own preferred ideologies fit that abridged definition perfectly (it’s all “state capitalist” economies with slightly different choices of wrapping paper).

  9. Mr. Hermit:

    The “spectrum” of political systems, assuming it’s linear (and it isn’t) is not a straight line – it’s a circle, and Stalinism and Nazism are two sides of the same coin, which should be labelled “authoritarianism”.

    Having said that, sometimes command economies are necessary. Such as when fighting a major war, or in a more local sense when recovering from a major disaster. For example, Britain’s economy during World War II (and during the recovery from it) was more centrally planned than that of Germany – which is probably one of the reasons why Germany lost. I haven’t really studied the matter, but I would bet that there was much expropriation of private property in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, too.

    The test of a society is whether it dismantles that apparatus when the need for it disappears. Up to a few years ago, Britain passed that test. The USSR did not. And now the USSR is part of history.

    It is arguable that the Depression was a crisis of that sort of magnitude, and that FDR was right to tightly control the economy. At least arguable.

  10. Reading this thread again from the start makes it obvious that at least three of us including me misunderstood at least one previous post –sorry ^_^

Comments are closed.