Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Is Trump a Fascist?


"Is Trump a Fascist?" That's the question.

It's a diagnosis. Making a diagnosis is something that I'm used to. It`s an inductive process, a matter of pattern recognition, and if someone doesn't want to believe that Trump is a fascist, then they are not going to be persuaded. But for the rest of us, it is a matter to be looked into.

Dr Laurence Britt has studied a number of fascist regimes, and here is his list of symptoms, published in 2003.

I have marked the characteristics identified by Britt up as follows:
# = Trump ticks the box.
? = I'm not sure (if you have more knowledge than I, make a comment)
Blank = nothing so far

 1. Nationalism - flags everywhere. America First #
 2. Disdain for Human Rights. Torture OK #
 3. Enemy or scapegoat(s) #
 4. Militarisation # - desire for parades
 5. Sexism, male dominant #
 6. Media control #?
 7. Obsession with National Security - (Terrorism is the threat)  #
 8. Use of religion #
 9. Corporate power #
 10. Labour suppressed ?
 11. Disdain for intellectuals and arts ?#
 12. Obsession with Crime and punishment; police state ?
 13. Cronyism and corruption #
 14. Fraudulent elections

So Trump scores 10/14 already.
Conclusion: he is well on his way to being the first Fascist President of the USA.
This is bad news, but the good news is that whereas in the 1930s they didnt know about WWII, now in 2017 we do, so we will all be out to stop Trump in his tracks.

Plucky John Bercow has made a start, we must support him.
Demonstrations outside Esso stations, and boycott of Esso, will help.
Violence will not help (see 3 and 7 above).
Persuade corporations that they should not advertise in Breitbart.com.

What else can we do?

2 comments:

DocRichard said...

Trump's war against a free media continues; he's demanding Equal Time on satire shows that dig at him https://twitter.com/i/moments/916662603807641600

DocRichard said...

Trump kept a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf beside his bed https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-adolf-hitler-books-bedside-cabinet-ex-wife-ivana-trump-vanity-fair-1990-a7639041.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true