Skip Navigation
America is in danger of Fascism
  • Umberto Eco's Ur Fascism definition I think is pretty good. Often times, the "dictionary definition" isn't the best definition to use, especially when it comes to topics like political ideologies, which tends to be a bit more complex and nuanced than what can be encompassed in a simple colloquial dictionary definition.

    Imma post the ur fascism aspects here.

    1."The cult of tradition", characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.

    2."The rejection of modernism", which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement, as many fascist regimes cite their industrial potency as proof of the vitality of their system.

    3."The cult of action for action's sake", which dictates that action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.

    4."Disagreement is treason" – fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.

    5."Fear of difference", which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.

    6."Appeal to a frustrated middle class", fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.

    7."Obsession with a plot" and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society. Eco also cites Pat Robertson's book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.

    8.Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak". On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.

    9."Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy" because "life is permanent warfare" – there must always be an enemy to fight. Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to not build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.

    10."Contempt for the weak", which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate leader, who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.

    10."Everybody is educated to become a hero", which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, "[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death."

    11."Machismo", which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold "both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality".

    12."Selective populism" – the people, conceived monolithically, have a common will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he alone dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of "no longer represent[ing] the voice of the people".

    13."Newspeak" – fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.

    Edit: numbered

  • Stay Mad, Tankies
  • I don't think it's realistic or pragmatic to expect a perfect direct democracy system. Trying to get as close to one as feasibly possible can be a goal though, and once we're at that point, try to continually and slowly improve that direct democracy system until it's even closer and closer and closer, ad infinitum.

  • Locked
    I tried to explain ADHD math to someone and they didn't understand at all
  • I think the reason "new math" gets flack, is because it's a new way of teaching math, and alot of teachers aren't as good at teaching in that way yet. Still, kids should be taught that it can be a way one does calculations. Another thing I think should be incorporated into early childhood education is the use of an abacus, the Japanese do this and it supposedly helps greatly with mental math.

  • First Presidential Debate Megapost!
  • Ok, I guess I'll have to make an edit of this then.

    This a consequence of Democrat incompetence and inability to quickly adapt. Shit, I think that it's part of Democrat culture to not take internal criticism of their own dimwittedness, slowpoken, numskull-ass, knuckleheadery. Some within the party are openly talking about replacing Biden this close to the election in a panic. If he does get replaced, I fucking hope they pull some miracle out their ass. Like imagine Biden voluntarily drops out and gives his nomination to Bernie. Alas, no one likes letting go of power, so this will remain a pipedream.

  • First Presidential Debate Megapost!
  • This a consequence of Democrat incompetence and inability to quickly adapt. Shit, I think that it's part of Democrat culture to not take internal criticism of their own retardation. Some within the party are openly talking about replacing Biden this close to the election in a panic. If he does get replaced, I fucking hope they pull some miracle out their ass. Like imagine Biden voluntarily drops out and gives his nomination to Bernie.

  • Pyongyang Says It Will Send Support Troops to Ukraine Within a Month
  • My thought is maybe either food or arms or research for arms production/nukes from the Russians.

    Edit Addendum: the article says as much actually lol. This is what I get for just trying to get an idea of NK actions from the title.

  • To those of you with nothing to hide: One day you might have. Because you don’t make the rules.
  • They may know everything about you right now. But they don't know about your future self, how you can change, how you may be an entirely different person in as little as a year. Data is useful, but it is more useful the more updated and recent it is.

  • Anon meets his gf's parents
  • Starts talking about his own custom 1911 "First of all, the feeding ramp is polished to a mirror sheen. It's not going to have any feeding problems. The slide's been replaced with a reinforced version, and it meshes perfectly with the frame. The frame itself has been iron-welded and scraped down multiple times for maximum precision. The front strap part of the frame has been checkered to make it dig into the hand. That prevents any slipping. The sight system's original too. It's a 3-dot type. It's got an enlarged front sight, giving it superior target sighting capability. The regular hammer's been replaced with a ring hammer. That enhances the cocking control and increases the hammer-down speed. They also reworked the grip safety to accommodate the ring hammer. It looks like they eliminated it altogether. This is a tool for pros. The thumb safety and slide stop are extended for precise handling. The base of the trigger guard is whittled down so you can use a high grip, and the trigger itself is a long type for easy finger access. The trigger pull is about 3.5 pounds. that's about a pound and a half lighter than normal. The magazine well has been widened to make it easier to put in a new magazine. The magazine catch button has been filed down low to make it harder to hit it by mistake. The mainspring housing has been changed to a flat type to increase grip, and it's even been fitted with stepping so that it won't slip from the recoil when firing. On top of that, they added cocking serrations to the top part of the slide. That lets you load and eject cartridges faster in an emergency. Whoever did this is a professional, no question. This thing could shoot a one-hole at 25 yards in a machine rest."

  • New Study: At Least 15% of All Reddit Content is Corporate Trolls Trying to Manipulate Public Opinion
  • Is it a possibility that shill accounts are using sports subreddits to obfuscate the fact that they are still accounts? Like "Hey there fellow citizens, I'm totally a normal poster and a red blooded American who really likes sports!".

  • New Study: At Least 15% of All Reddit Content is Corporate Trolls Trying to Manipulate Public Opinion
  • I mean you can see it happening here. How many cyber armies do you think are starting to pop up on Lemmy, from the US, from China, from Russia. How many corporate astroturfers do you think are coming on here, apple dicksuckers, etc. shit, mainstream media is trying to dip it's toes into federated spaces.

    Edit: a word, added an -ing

    Addendum: Do you guys think that defederation campaigns can be weaponized? Isolate and destroy type stuff? Creating bubbles that can be easily analyzed and manipulated?

  • Stonehenge sprayed with paint by environmental protesters
  • Hmmm, I would keep an open mind though. It's not like these oil companies are dumb. They know that their reputation is bad. Slip a few million into the pockets of their enemies and "leak" information that they "the big baddies" are funding these seemingly unlikeable people, and that would likely slowly damage their reputation beyond repair. Although that may just be some light conspiracism on my part.

    Edit Addendum: I do think that whatever actions that just stop oil has done are ultimately harmless to whatever object they """""vandalize""""". Their actions are very good at getting public attention on climate change, and maybe even boosting donations to less radical climate activist groups.

  • Stonehenge sprayed with paint by environmental protesters
  • Idk man, sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Like wasn't there reporting about the US recently in which the military was spreading antivax misinformation in the Philippines and other countries. Russia and China has their own cyber armies too. It's not too much of a stretch that large conglomerates and corpos may have their own private propaganda wings either.

  • Political Memes @lemmy.world Gigasser @lemmy.world
    Surprised this hasn't been posted here
    35
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)GI
    Gigasser @lemmy.world
    Posts 1
    Comments 120