Tag Archives: Fascism

Again, #45 Blows a Gasket About the Pulitzer

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Warning. What follows has political content that may offend some readers.

The former president, that is #45, has been busy venting gas about how his demand that the Pulitzer Prize board withdraw two 2018 prizes has been denied. One, to the Washington Post for investigative reporting and the other to The New York Times for public service . This pathetic man, the anointed savior of evangelical MAGA Republicans and the Lord High Magistrate of what is right for the MAGA way of life, openly and strenuously defecates on anyone who annoys or contradicts him. You might think that such a man of demonstrated low ethical and moral character would be immediately dismissed by conservative Americans. You know, the people who feel that they are the keepers of what’s good and right about America. As we all know, this hasn’t happened. He is still believed by a great many to be the right guy to “drain the swamp” in Washington, DC. It seems that no disgrace can bump him off this pedestal or repel his followers.

I describe myself as a pragmatic liberal. I accept the reality and value to a fair extent of capitalist markets and the need to reasonably control the reach of government. However I do believe in the value of a united America where citizens can trust that large scale and international issues can be handled by the federal government.

What a shame it is that the US is burdened with #45 and his MAGA cultists in a time of serious global tension posed by two authoritarian regimes aiming to knock us down more than a few notches. They assault the country daily with attacks over the internet. China’s respect for American intellectual property is and has always been nil. Since the 1970’s, China has been sending students and scientists to the US for an education in science and engineering. They returned to their country to help build the technological powerhouse that they now are. It has successfully rallied it’s population with many years of scornful propaganda against the US and liberal democracy. So far, China has been successful in it’s plan to economically dominate much of Africa and it’s mineral resources. It is flexing it’s muscles in the South China Sea and aggressively menacing Taiwan as it applies economic pressure on Australia to accept it’s dominating presence in the region.

Russia, as the free world knows, has invaded Ukraine on laughably fictitious grounds and is pummeling the country to rubble with constant artillery fire. Russia is fighting a war of extermination as it wantonly rapes and murders innocent civilians. The homicidal Putin has dug himself in with a wall around himself that seems impregnable to an internal rebellion. He is a psychopath with nuclear weapons and an army who is bent on shaping his part of the world into the Mother Russia he imagines it once was.

All of this and more is happening in the world around us. The world order that the US has come to structure itself around is coming apart. All the while, America is preoccupied with a circular firing squad of squabbling over religious and political abstractions. Our two-party system limps along with one party rotting to the bone. The American Republican party has morphed into a 2-headed monster thanks to #45 and his unrelenting incitement of the lunatic fringe and those left behind by technological and economic progress.

The American experiment with fascism is accelerating as ultraconservatives buckle their seatbelts in political positions ranging from school boards and county representatives to state houses and the US congress. America’s vast political middle ground trends towards lazy disinterest with a long record of low voter turnout. The ultra-right knows and relies on the laziness of the left and center.

Ultraconservative evangelical preachers have been on the airwaves for decades pushing their twisted theory of the universe. Their rhetorical skills are considerable. The brick and mortar preachers are now teaching followers that the end is near and #45 has been sent by God to smooth the way for the prophesied apocalypse set to begin in Israel.

Somebody once said, “when fascism comes to America, it will be draped in a flag and carrying a cross.” It’s beginning to look that way.

On the Slow Progression to Fascism

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Caution. Political sentiment expressed below. Brittle folk may want to shuffle on by.

I’ve been trying and failing badly to keep my political thoughts out of this blog. I’m a left-of-center atheist white male scientist affiliated with neither political party. But things are happening in the USA. Bad things. I have come to believe they are indicators of a darker, non-democratic future. A slide away from democracy is a far too important a problem to leave to “others”.

For generations scientists have come to believe that the scientific establishment is and should remain a kind of a neutral cultural subset in the manner of Switzerland. But right now there are people aiming and succeeding to take power in the USA in order to dismantle and restructure what has been a fruitful civilization to satisfy their evangelical iron age religious urgings and their desire for some kind of ultraconservative Shangri-La where corporations rule and every teacher is a qualified sniper. While I exaggerate a little, progress is nonetheless being made.

Scientists can bring their quantitative analysis skills, their powers of persuasion and ability to find and use sources of credible information to the table. The ability to synthesize solutions to problems is another important skill that needs to be out and about. Scientists need to come out into the open a bit more.

A blog that I have long frequented but have never shared publicly is the Daily Kos. It is a popular progressive site consisting of staff writers and many guest contributors. Just as even I have to admit that occasionally a Republican writer has produced some valuable analysis and insight into things, I’ll propose the same about a progressive writer. That writer today is Thomas Hartman who is a progressive talk show host and NY Times best selling author. Recently he posted an article titled “What Would an American Fascist State Look Like?”.

I won’t waste time and bandwidth on a review of the piece, but briefly he articulates very clearly what it might look like to be in a state that is sliding into fascism and cites examples of common strong-man behavior. Now is not the time to begin to worry about a transition to a fascist state. The time to begin was 2016. We’re already behind.

As I stand here looking right then left, I see one political party that has made its intentions known regarding its determined path towards a Christo-fascist state. The other dithers and self-immolates into a dumpster fire with no strong leaders, lazy voters and ambitious ideals far too early for the present culture.