• Cethin@lemmy.zip
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    4 months ago

    Which dictionary are you reading? A key component of fascism is a dictatorship. You can argue about controlling oppositional voices or segmentation of society in the US, but a dictatorship is pretty core to fascism in any definition I’ve seen. And yeah, our voting system sucks that still doesn’t make it a dictatorship.

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I was talking about the forceful oppression of opposition. That is an element that has existed in the US for a long time.

      US has had no dictator yet but a president has much more power than a prime minister.

      If you consider fascism to be a spectrum, then US has always had these elements. Dictatorship is basically the end of said spectrum.

    • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      dictatorship was happening outside their own borders for the longest time. kind of why you guys pay so much money to keep a military almost bigger than every other in the world combined.

      inside the us the blacks have seen the boot way more. ask any awake black person if its been a democracy for them.

      or ask central, south america, africa and east asia if the repeated coups over the decades are anything less than dictatorial.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        Yeah, that’s grasping really hard. Even if we assume the it isn’t a democracy because voting was unfair, it still isn’t a dictatorship because power was being passed around to different people. Also, outside has nothing to do with the definition of a dictatorship.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          its not. look up your own history of installing brutal dictatorships in the aforementioned places.

          and of bullying the third world into neoliberal capitalism with very exploitative terms or else. it doesnt matter we have “elections” if the us is the one always calling the shots.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            4 months ago

            Dude, that is not fascism. That’s imperialism. Those are totally different things and Fascists are not the only imperialists, nor are Fascists imperialist by definition. Fascism is something specific, not just “evil” government.

            • umbrella@lemmy.ml
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              4 months ago

              imperialism and fascism are two sides of the same coin.

              fascists are the only ones to practice imperialism to nearly this extent after the industrial revolution.

              • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                4 months ago

                fascists are the only ones to practice imperialism to nearly this extent after the industrial revolution.

                How did you come to this conclusion? This is absolutely made up to make your argument seem stronger than it is.

                  • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                    4 months ago

                    Monarchies have been for most of history. I get you put in the stipulation of after the industrial revolution, but still monarchies are top dog. Yeah, Fascists did too, but I’d say the US did more, although you’re arguing that the US is fascist, but you’re arguing it because the starting point is Fascists are imperialist.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Which dictionary are you reading?

      I like Umberto Eco on this one. I’m in my 50s. We’ve checked many of these boxes throughout my life, and for some others you can point to various moments in our history, many but not all of them recent. Certainly enough to satisfy the meme.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism#Umberto_Eco

      https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        4 months ago

        Yeah, those are traits of fascism, not a definition of fascism. Anyway, yeah the US has met many of them throughout its history. So has almost every other nation. The term is useless if you just call everyone fascist. The US has not met most of them at any one particular time. You can’t just take that list and say some traits were met in this period, some others in this other period, etc. and then say they covered all the traits at some point in time so must be fascist. That’s not how that works.