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Fascism: It's what all the cool kids are doing these days
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/12/13/1458845/-Fascism-It-s-what-all-the-cool-kids-are-doing-these-daysIt’s pretty amazing. No matter what insane bat guano dribbles from the lips of the current GOP presidential frontrunner (who shall be referred to only as “the hairball” for the rest of this diary), it seems his popularity with the electorate remains unaffected and only grows and grows. Stopping the advance of the hairball is almost like trying to stop the tides of the ocean with a backhoe.
But then again, that’s been true of charismatic authoritarian fascist movements for generations—be they led by the likes of Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Jim Jones, Saddam Hussein, or Charles Manson. Or even a high school history teacher from Palo Alto who just wants to try out a class experiment to show how easily his students will fall in line and begin to bully and brutalize their fellow students if simply given the right direction and incentive....
Those who refused to join “The Wave” soon found themselves being harassed, threatened, and even brutalized. Those inside the group who began to question and doubt felt the worst brunt of this. It wasn’t hard for friends to quickly turn each other, to very easily resort to what had been unthinkable just days before.
Eventually Mr. Jones put an end to things by calling all members of “The Wave” to a huge rally where they would be introduced to their national leader and be given direction on the next phase of their movement. At the rally, Jones revealed that their national leader was Adolf Hitler and that there was no movement, that it was all a hoax to teach them just how they could be led to turn on each other with little more than a few slogans and a salute to unite them.
But then again, that’s been true of charismatic authoritarian fascist movements for generations—be they led by the likes of Stalin, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Jim Jones, Saddam Hussein, or Charles Manson. Or even a high school history teacher from Palo Alto who just wants to try out a class experiment to show how easily his students will fall in line and begin to bully and brutalize their fellow students if simply given the right direction and incentive....
Those who refused to join “The Wave” soon found themselves being harassed, threatened, and even brutalized. Those inside the group who began to question and doubt felt the worst brunt of this. It wasn’t hard for friends to quickly turn each other, to very easily resort to what had been unthinkable just days before.
Eventually Mr. Jones put an end to things by calling all members of “The Wave” to a huge rally where they would be introduced to their national leader and be given direction on the next phase of their movement. At the rally, Jones revealed that their national leader was Adolf Hitler and that there was no movement, that it was all a hoax to teach them just how they could be led to turn on each other with little more than a few slogans and a salute to unite them.
