How would we know if we were living in a Fascist country?

Would we even know? If you’re a white citizen?

Hmm.. having people blindly follow the president, who continues to hold rallies after election and wants a military parade.

Continued vilification of suspect minorities, on whom the entire country's problems are blamed.

Doing harm to these communities by using courts to undermine their rights or deporting them.

Oh honey, you missed all the previous signs already. Bush, jr. starting a war based on baseless WMD hysteria. FOX News propaganda, THANKS OBAMA! (= You are a disgrace!), Proud to be a Deplorable, KKK members having a valid point of view that needs to be covered on News Media, Socialist Liberals, Planned Parenthood sells baby parts, loose women having abortions and killing innocent babies, gays demean the sanctity of marriage, It's ok for the police to shoot black people first and ask questions later (if the officer failed to kill his target), etc.

I think it's more of a military Dictatorship! An unelected President was put into power (via an aggressive foreign coup) to appease and work for the top1% elites!

The military will take care of it if the people try to physically overthrow him! In turn, he showers the military with bogus contracts worth 100's upon 100's of Billions of dollars!

And he appeases the uneducated with vulgar, grandiose displays of patriotism - sound familiar??

We’re already there. [quote]Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties.[12] Such a state is led by a strong leader—such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the governing fascist party—to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society.[12] Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature and views political violence, war and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation.[13][14][15][16] Fascists advocate a mixed economy, with the principal goal of achieving autarky through protectionist and interventionist economic policies.[17]

[quote]How would we know if we were living in a Fascist country?

If the name of our president includes any variation of "trump".

Don't worry, OP. History will know.

Freedom is a myth. We aren’t as free as we believe.

R5, what is "autarky?" Is it some kind of freedom turkey?

We're still able to talk to each other on websites like this and left-leaning political sites. When they find a reason to shut down our free speech we're truly fucked. And they WILL find a reason.

As your question demonstrates, OP, some people don't ever recognize that they're living in a Fascist country.

When they deny us cakes!

OP, later this evening:

These responses make me depressed.

[quote] We're still able to talk to each other on websites like this and left-leaning political sites. When they find a reason to shut down our free speech we're truly fucked. And they WILL find a reason.

The end of net neutrality will take care of your free speech.

Ridiculing and undermining the free press is one of the main traits of a Fascist regime in the making - Hitler did it during the 30s. Vilifying minority groups to appeal to the most base instincts of the masses is another. All pretty familiar in the USA today. If people wonder how the Germans blindly followed the Nazis, they only have to look at what's happening in America now. Human beings are endlessly stupid. It's depressing.

R9, I had to look it up, but it’s a real term. It means a state of self-suffiency, i.e., something that is impossible with a modern economy premised on trade with other countries.

Autarky is a protectionist form of economics that basically says “Fuck you, got mine” to the rest of world while throwing up middle fingers. Basically, it’s “Make America Great Again”.

Wasn’t there an NYT piece about how you know you’re living in a fascist state or moving towards one, and the female journalist rightly pointed out that the US had many of the signs (Putin’s Russia has nearly all of them)?

[Quote]I’m sure it’s all scary enough.

I find myself afraid of how powerful all this is.

You'll know when the ruling party of your supposed democracy works in consort with a hostile foreign government to hijack and steal a Presidential election and then the mid-terms.

[quote] How would we know if we were living in a Fascist country?

If you will ever find the answer to that question you should not stop there and also find the answer to: How do we find out if water is wet?

I think we’re (US) on the fence. Could go either way.

Oh shut it you old black lesbian racial preoccupation troll! I'm really close to naming your ass if you don't scoot back to Lipstick Alley, Dlisted and Female First!

Trump is considered a shoo-in for his third term.

[quote] “Papers, please...”

Are we heading to a time where we get asked this when in any public space?

Are your papers in order? Come with me, please. Right now.

Fascism is okay because it's in the Bible.

You didn’t present your papers, R27. BLOCKED!

Who started the Papers Please meme?

The sun on the meadow is summery warm

The stag in the forest runs free

But gathered together to greet the storm

Tomorrow belongs to me

Roy Cohn, R29.

R30, my Nephew is Trumpian, and that song reminds me of him in his earnestness. I think the early Hitler Youth were Street fighters, though. Tough guys who were anti-communist, anti-Democratic, anti-everything.

My papers are in order, btw.

Have you not been to an airport lately?

We're so used to being in a Police state now we think its normal.

We're the recycled 1933 Germany!

You can smell the evil.

Its everywhere.

R33, I did fly recently. I did feel over-analyzed. The guy at US immigration or whatever it was, border control, spent a lot of time flirting with the two chicks ahead of me. At my turn, he did ask intrusive questions despite my lily white US passport, grey hair, and eldergayness.

The guy in London did the same. He finally said, “hmm, I guess there are a lot of things in London you can see as a single man”. It was like he never encountered a single flyer before, WTF?

I don’t know the alternative, but perhaps the men at border control, and all these authority figures, including flight attendants, need to be divested of power, keep the job, but with less ability to jail you for carrying a nail clipper.

It's already here, OP.

Definition of Fascism:

Session using his twisted intpretation of the Bible to support his lies, was blasphemy.

OP - based upon this thread clearly very few people read history, so I doubt they would know.

Well R38, educate us!

Trump’s approach to governing seems to fit the Fascist mold as described in Wikipedia, R36. Be mindful that every fascist state has its own unique manifestation. None are exactly identical. But Trump’s vision is clearly Fascist and it has yet to fully grow to its fullest Trump-advocated extent.

Fascism is coporate ownership of the state. Coporate doesn't mean business, it means blocks of political power. In the old days, the Catholic Church in Italy or trade unions were such blocks.

Each block of power is a piece of power in the fascist government.

With Nazis, all this and white surpremacy.

Think your Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, peron, putin.

We have dismantled the federal government so we have the pyramid shape

Think your private education business, your privatized healthcare in (both Obamacare and VA), think private oil and gas companies, your evangelicals, your cooperations. Sprinkle that white surpremacy and the new Dominionist religious overlay.

They have packed the courts, 33 state legislatures and 32 governorships.

Our values of equality, inclusion, and secularism are under attack. These are values most segments have had to fight body and soul to claim.

So fuck these trump apologists.

Thanks for letting me rant.