Wednesday, July 3, 2024
I have a few suggestions. Or as Johnathan Swift would say, “Modest proposals.”
But first we must define our terms and here is where Mussolini, Angelou, the duck and the snake come in.
First Mussolini, who coined the term Fascist, he said it was the combining of companies and government,
or corporations and politics, as far as I’m concerned the terms are the same.
Maya Angelou said, “when a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
The duck – remember the old argument, “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck”? No? Well, the answer is “It must be a duck.” (Boy, do I have to explain everything to you?” Don’t answer that – it’s rhetorical. That means … nevermind. No, it doesn’t mean nevermind it means forget it. Forget what? OMG.)
The snake – this parable is apparently Trump’s favorite. It’s the story of a snake that convinces someone to pick him up and carry him down the mountain (See the snake had been sunning himself but now the sun was going down and it was getting cold.) That someone at first said no because he’s a snake (Yes, the snake is a snake. The “he” refers to the snake. OMG.) But the snake says, “I won’t bite you. Please take me off this moutain or I might die from the cold.” The kid (I guess it’s a kid who is the ‘someone’.) finally relents because who’s ever seen a talking snake? (Cut to the talking frog kiss becomes a prince? No. Okay.) They get to the bottom of the mountain and the snake bites the kid. As the kid lies dying (of course it’s a poisonous snake!) The kid asks, “Snake, why did you bite me?” and the snake replies, “You knew who I was and what I was before you picked me up.” Tah-Dah! (This is called a moral.) And a sub-moral (???) is “don’t pick up snakes.”
The parable of the snake is one of Donald Trump’s favorites. (How do I know? I read it on the internet.)
So if Fascism is the marriage of politics and corporations and if you see someone in our political structure that is bending over backwards to help corporations by their political manuevering then that person is a fascist. And if you see soeone trying to influence a politician by using their corporate or wealth to influence (ie “buying them off”) that person is also a fascist. A fascist coud be a politician or a rich corporate f*ck.
So if my terms are acceptable (Men in Black – the bug) then let’s look at various people on both the political and the corporate side of things and see if they are fascists.
I think another simple way to determine this is to ask yourself if the person in question is at all interested in helping you (not you specifically but people like you – okay?)
Here’s a simple set of questions from the corporate side of fascism:
1. Are you a rich f*ck?
a. Have you ever done anything to help others?
(If no – you’re a fascist. If yes then probably not.”)
For example ask yourself this, “Do you think Elon Musk gives a sh*t about you?”
What about Mark Cuban?
(Answers: No and Yes) Cuban has helped a lot of people become rich. He still could be a fascist but there is evidence to say he is not because he seems to care about others. Musk? Do you think Musk cares about you?)
Let’s look at the political side of fascism.
A. Do you live your political life to please the people or corporations?
(No examples here. Not necessary.)
So if we apply these questions and terms to various people we can drop the facade that there are “conservatives” in our political system. They are faciists. They probably would prefer to be called conservative, because it doesn’t sound as bad. To me conservative means you want to “conserve.” Conserve what? Conserve what you have be it food, water, money, gas – whatever. So, are these people whom we call conservative conserving anything? Maybe their money in that they work hard to not pay taxes and in the case of Trump he conserves his money by not paying anyone unless he has a gun to his head. That’s not conservative in my mind that’s fraud but lets not quibble.
The people who advocate conserving land and water are riddiculed by these “conservatives.”
Applying Maya’s principle of believing someone the first time when you see them for who they are ask yourself, “what are they?”
We are doing ourselves a diservice by calling the Supreme Court justices who side with corporations most of the time “conservative.” They are not. They aren’t conserving anything. Not our rights, our resources, our way of life – nothing. In fact, one could argue they are recklessly spending our democracy. Giving away our rights, our freedoms, and our way of life to help a few who want to rule over us.
They are fascists.
So let’s call them what they are.
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