MetaFilter posts tagged with fascism

Hate Wins

chuckdarwin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:40:42 -0800

The far-right, whites-only British National Party (BNP) has won two seats (Andrew Brons, Nick Griffin) in the European Parliament. According to its constitution, the BNP is "committed to stemming and reversing the tide of non-white immigration and to restoring, by legal changes, negotiation and consent the overwhelmingly white makeup of the British population that existed in Britain prior to 1948." The BNP also proposes "firm but voluntary incentives for immigrants and their descendants to return home."

High School Fascism Redux

mediocre — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 02:57:36 -0800

In 1981, ABC aired a program in daytime that, while pre-dating the After School Special format, was a moralist tale aimed at children. "The Wave" was based on the classroom experiments of Ron Jones, which at the time went largely undocumented and were primarily anecdotal. The Third Wave as he called it, fooled the children of his class into creating a fascististic movement within the school complete with symbolism and salutes. Like "The Day After" before it [previously], The Wave [the whole 45 minute feature hosted at Google Video] became a piece of oft-compulsory viewing for many high school students. Ron Jones became infamous for his experiment, often coming under fire for playing with the minds of teenagers in such potentially harmful ways. And to many, it was just as disturbing in different ways. Proving how easy it is to manipulate young people into herd mentality and fascist thinking, the movie and experiment has proven timeless. A book based on the special was written, stage productions have been mounted, various other schools have attempted to re-create the experiment with varying degrees of success. Recently, a German production based on Jones' writings and experiment, "Die Welle" was released in March of this year and follows much the same plot. Though with the added intrigue of them being German students who don't believe that anyone could fall into such thinking in this day and age, they quickly fall into line with Die Welle and their salutes and marches. To this day it remains a frightening study in the potential of mass human cruelty.

Truth will never be denied.

adamvasco — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:43:21 -0800

Don Quixote - or a superhero? Judge Baltasar Garzón has launched a criminal investigation into the fate of tens of thousands of people who vanished during the country's civil war and General Francisco Franco' s dictatorship. This is upsetting some people. The Spanish Civil War left an estimated half a million people dead. The Spanish Civil War had global resonations. Latin American (and the Philippines) were never “de-Falangized.” Franco and his fascists remained in power in Spain until 1975. The decisive influence of Latin American fascists in the decades following the war (including their intimate collaboration with elements of U.S. intelligence) is a matter of public record. The legacy of the Falange Exterior is very much with us today. This investigation is taking place with against a rising tide of fascist influence in Europe.

"I am not a violent person by nature. I do not enjoy the idea of walking up to strangers and punching them, even if they are fascists. It is just something that needs to be done."

Pope Guilty — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:39:05 -0800

Bash The Fash: Anti-fascist recollections 1984-93.

Police State, take one step forward.

Mr_Zero — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:51:35 -0800

Hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and even utility workers have been trained and recently dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Colorado and a handful of other states to hunt for "suspicious activity" — and are reporting their findings into secret government databases.

Deep in the shade

adamvasco — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:00:28 -0800

The Ergenekon Affair: - The Killer Elite that fuels unrest in Turkey. On 22 January, Turkish police arrested 33 individuals, some connected with the military, in the largest concerted action against the "deep state" , which is heavily involved in Corporate Crime. This might resonate with some US observers.

The Rapture is Not an Exit Strategy

fourcheesemac — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:59:49 -0800

“People like you are not holding up the Constitution ..." Or so said Major Freddy Welborn, Specialist Jeremy Hall's commanding officer in Tikrit. "Last month, Specialist Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, filed suit in federal court in Kansas, alleging that Specialist Hall’s right to be free from state endorsement of religion under the First Amendment had been violated and that he had faced retaliation for his views. In November, he was sent home early from Iraq because of threats from fellow soldiers." (NY Times)

Discuss, Decide and Do It

Abiezer — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:17:38 -0800

A Rage In Dalston [BBC Radio 4 documentary, 1hr, streaming RealMedia] "For four years after 1945, London and the South East witnessed vicious confrontations between the remnants of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists and Jewish ex-servicemen organised in the 43 Group." Interviewees include Vidal Sassoon, by day mild-mannered teenage hairdresser of talent, by night militant anti-fascist. Documentary maker Alan Dein was unable to get any surviving Moseleyites to talk for the programme but there's contributions from Trevor Grundy, author of Memoir of a Fascist Childhood.

Why doesn’t the IFPI dare to stand up for its own history?

mr.marx — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:47:04 -0800

What the IFPI tries to conceal about its origins in fascist Italy IFPI is the global version of the RIAA

The metafilter of extremism

symbioid — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:46:00 -0800

Suicide bombers in Valhalla "Sverige fights back! I'll see the heroes in Valhalla, inshallah." Where can you find an eclectic mix of Fascists, Libertarian Socialists, Trotskyists, National Anarchists, DPRK apologists, Dixie lovers, Christian Reconstructionists and Islamists all in one place? I apologize if this violates the rules. I know we're not keen on linking to neo-nazi type stuff. But the mix of various views here -- far left and right, and not all necessarily authoritarian, seems intriguing. How do they manage to keep it all from imploding? The civility in dialogue across all the various ideologies is amazing...

"Of course I don’t like Hitler but…"

orthogonality — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:43:55 -0800

It is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi.... Mr. B has risen beyond his real abilities.... His code is not his own; it is that of his class–no worse, no better, He fits easily into whatever pattern is successful. That is his sole measure of value–success. Nazism as a minority movement would not attract him. As a movement likely to attain power, it would.... Mr. G is a very intellectual young man who was an infant prodigy.... Mr. G will never be a Nazi,... [h]e will certainly be able, however, fully to explain and apologize for Nazism if it ever comes along.

"Who goes Nazi?" via sott.net, with added context. (Who goes neo-con?)

gharbzadegi

felix betachat — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 10:26:28 -0800

"Fascism", in its current hyphenated repackaging, gets bandied about quite a bit these days. So, it may surprise you to learn that the populist appeal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad depends in part on a Persian concept, "gharbzadegi" ("weststruckness" or "occidentosis") whose roots are located in an Iranian adaptation of Martin Heidegger's proto-fascist concept of "The Darkening of the World" by the intellectuals Ahmad Fardid and Jalal Ali Ahmad.

The Unqualified Reservations of Mencius Moldbug

blasdelf — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:59:40 -0800

Unqualified Reservations is a fascinating ongoing commentary on society and governance in postmodernity. He's currently on about the pwning of Richard Dawkins, after writing about Mediocracy and Official Journalism. It might be best to first read his earlier posts in which he defines the self-invented terminology he's fond of using, like: Formalism, The Iron Polygon, Universalism, Neocameralism, and The Rotary System. I stumbled upon this blog after another blog linked to Mencius' posts about the role of Graduate Schools in Computer Science Research, and I got drawn in! His posts are long, and the comment threads on them are exceptionally longwinded and well-reasoned as well. Be warned, you could easily lose a whole day reading through his archives, as I did. Part of what's so fascinating about it is that he often writes from the perspective of hundreds of years in the future, discussing present society as if it's major features had been distilled and anthologized for many generations already.

The gift that keeps on giving

adamvasco — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 06:25:30 -0800

The quicker you succeed the better. Declassified documents show Secretary of State Kissenger gave a green light to the Argentine Junta, whilest Rev. Christián González aka Christián von Wernich, also leant a hand, showing that The Catholic Church's involvement with fascism and the Dirty War was far from dead. The Vatican was instrumental in witholding detail. The Desaparecidos probably exceeded 12,000.

Libya

Firas — Mon, 14 May 2007 08:52:11 -0800

Libya is a desert, yes, but if you trace your fingers through the moonlit sand and listen, carefully, you may hear ancient whispers: of Apollo's love of Cyrene; of prehistoric hunters making Rock Art [1, 2, 3], back when the Sahara was wet; of Phoenicians subdued by Greeks, of Romans followed by Byzantines, all leaving ruins that Libya is famous for [Cyrene, Leptis Magna, Sabratha, et cetera]; of desert soldiers in World War II, remembered in Graves and Memorials; of the occupying Italians, who responded to Omar Mukhtar's resistance of the Fascists by rounding Libyans into concentration camps; of the camps' prisoners, one of whom wrote this famous poem: "My only illness is the torturing of our young women, with their bodies exposed ... how my speech has become subdued, the humiliation of our noble and leading men and the loss of my gazelle-like horse..."; of more culture, more memories from this land that witnessed the wrenching passion of all man's history—whispering in the very dust that made his soul.

10 Easy Steps to American Fascism

byronimation — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 11:18:36 -0800

Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps: a good read from The Guardian.

Citizen journalism is a form of fascism waiting to happen

stbalbach — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:43:21 -0800

Citizen journalism is a form of fascism waiting to happen, suggests InfoWorld columnist Ephraim Schwartz.

Passing on the right

atchafalaya — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:12:55 -0800

Lawrence Dennis: Harvard grad, soldier, fascist... with a secret.

AT&T Unity Plan FREE calling to 100 million customers.

homunculus — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:23:43 -0800

AT&T and Verizon obey FBI emergency requests, even if they're of dubious legality, and they get paid for it. But AT&T can't be sued, they say, because that would endanger national security.

Eliminationism

homunculus — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:39:07 -0800

Eliminationism in America. A ten-part series by David Neiwert. [More inside.]

Your world, delivered to the NSA

homunculus — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:59:02 -0800

AT&T Ducks Accountability. Lawsuits, Questions Follow NSA Surveillance Approval.

American Fascism

adamgreenfield — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 21:07:28 -0800

"[T]he heart of the Christian religion, all that is good and compassionate within it, has been tossed aside, ruthlessly gouged out and thrown into a heap with all the other inner organs. Only the shell, the form, remains. Christianity is of no use to Parsley, Blackwell and the others. In its name they kill it." From Michelle Goldberg's searing Salon interview with Chris Hedges, whose War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning I admired the hell out of.

Freedom to Fascism

augustweed — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:05:03 -0800

Aaron Russo releases America: Freedom to Fascism on the net!

They Shall Not Pass!

criticalbill — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:00:51 -0800

Today is the 70th anniversary of the battle of Cable Street. On Sunday October 4th 1936, Oswald Moseley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, attempted to lead a march through Stepney, at that time a predominantly Jewish area. As the fascists met at Royal Mint Street, around 300,000 people barricaded the roads of the East End, chanting "No Pasaran" and "They Shall Not Pass". When the police attempted to break through the corden at Cable Street a riot ensued. The police were repelled and Moseley and his acolytes were forced to march in the opposite direction, into the empty streets of the City. With the Spanish Civil War at its peak, Cable Street saw communists, anarchists, Jews, dockers and many other ordinary eastenders fighting the fascists together and has a mythological place in East London folklore. Celebrations will be held this Sunday.

Doublespeak and the War on Terrorism

mulligan — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:36:28 -0800

The misuse of language [pdf] has been embraced by our leadership. This heavily documented report provides tangible examples of the various redefinitions used in modern America.