Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (930013)	4/23/2016 7:43:20 PM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1588288

Been channeling Palin, I see. You are making two totally different claims here. The first claim is that fascism requires a strong central government to come into existence. This has no basis in reality. Take pre-fascist Italy. No rational person can claim that the Italy of that day had a strong central government. Or even one with a central government with growing power. The whole reason why Mussolini came to power was because there was little in the way of a strong central government. The further you got from Rome, the less power that was exerted. That is why the Mafia grew up in the south, it filled that power vacuum. Crime was a problem and government just did not work for most people. Hence the promise of "making sure the trains would run on time". In a country with strong, central control crime is usually not a problem and services are usually provided as promised. You abandon that idea by the end of your post to claim that a fascist leader, by exerting power, is the government exerting power and hence greater central control. This isn't even wrong. You are just restating a part of the definition of fascism like it is some sort of revelation. Yes, under fascism the leader is the government. And the leader tends to wield a lot of personal power. But this has absolutely zero to do with your original thesis that a high level of central control is required for a fascist government to come to power. In fact, countries with strong, centralized control are usually immune to fascism, although other forms of totalitarianism might be present. But, while fascist governments are authoritarian, not all authoritarian governments are fascist. Again, you don't seem to understand what fascism is, other than it is "bad". Same with socialism. Or communism, for that matter. Now I suppose you will run to your groups where y'all group think responses to getting your head handed to you. With any luck, y'all actually educate yourselves. History shows that is a vain hope, but... Understanding exactly what fascism is is important right now. The United States has flirted with fascism in the past. Donald Trump is leveraging this in his campaign. The idea that the US is weak both nationally and especially internationally and needs a strong leader to correct that is an important fascist trope. Just read Mussolini's and Hitler's speeches before they came to power. That shines through. The idea that, if elected, he will use his authority to do all kinds of things that go against our Constitution, laws and centuries of jurisprudence is also something his fascist predecessors did. Now not all of his campaign is based on fascist precepts. But neither was Hitler's. Ideological purity is not a fascist requirement for the leader. Not like it is for his followers...