America's complacent descent into fascism

Commonsense dictates that if you take a pile of dog poop, place it on a silver serving tray, cover it in Bearnaise Sauce, and garnish it with parsley, it is still dog poop.

So why is it so difficult for some people to understand that when you create a political system where racism, venality, mendacity, hypocrisy, and sociopathy are considered to be virtues that you end up with some of the most despicable human beings who ever walked the earth controlling your local, state, and federal governments?

When Donald Trump was voted out of office in 2020, millions uttered a collective sigh of relief, comforted by the fact that America's brief dalliance with fascism had mercifully come to an end.

But this has not been the case. Besides Trump himself waiting in the wings, there is no shortage of wannabe Fuhrers seeking to wear the fascist crown. And, even more disturbingly, there appears to be millions of Americans perfectly willing to subject their governments, their nation, and their freedoms to the whims of these prospective Fuhrers.

In two recent Pravda.Ru articles, Tyranny Disguised As Patriotism  and When Tyranny Masquerades As Law And Order, I discussed how fascists often conceal their true motives underneath garments of "patriotism” and/or "law and order.”

As I said in the latter article, "Tyrants are rarely satiated by denying their "subjects' one or two freedoms. They demand total subservience and control.”

This verity has been exposed yet again by another fascist tactic: Seeking to dictate what people are allowed to learn.

In the State of Idaho, lawmakers "fast-tracked” legislation that bans the teaching of "critical race theory,” even at the university level. In doing so these fascist politicians resurrected the ubiquitous bogeymen they incessantly exploit whenever they what to control what people think and believe: That this theory is just a covert way of "indoctrinating” students into socialism, communism, and Marxism.

Ironically, the evidence that no such indoctrination is occurring stared these fascist lawmakers right in the face, as students came out to protest the passage of this bill, thus proving they have the capacity to think and decide for themselves.

It would seem that Americans would be frightened by these overt attacks on some of the most fundamental freedoms in the United States Constitution, especially since these laws not only allow the government to compel people and entities to utter speech they might otherwise disagree with, they also hide the destruction of these freedoms behind vague definitions of what "critical race theory” is, what "rioting” is, or what "patriotism” is, essentially letting the fascists pick and choose who these draconian laws are enforced against.

For example, some of the new "anti-rioting” laws I discussed in my Law and Order article enhance criminal penalties for vandalizing or destroying "monuments.” Although this sounds laudable in theory, in reality the only "monuments” that will be zealously protected are those that celebrate white supremacy, slavery, and the genocide of Native-Americans, while attacks against monuments to civil rights icons, police violence victims (like George Floyd), or groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM) will be routinely minimized or ignored. In addition, the vague definition of "rioting” these laws utilize will initially only apply to those struggling against racial, economic, and social injustice, and not the actions of Trumpian-style insurrectionists, whom these fascist lawmakers currently feast upon for votes.

This is why there are millions of Americans who find nothing disturbing by these fascist assaults on freedom and democracy, because they are not the ones being targeted.

To them I say, your smugness of today might be obliterated tomorrow.

For example, how many of those incited by Trump and others of his ilk to storm the Capitol Building, because Trump's pathetic ego could not fathom that he lost an election, trusted in Fuhrer Donald to pardon them for crimes committed in devotion to him.

But reality taught them something different.

In 1940, as the rumblings of America's Cold War against the Soviet Union were beginning in earnest, the United States Congress passed the Smith Act-a blatantly unconstitutional law that made it illegal to advocate for the overthrow of the United States government by force or violence.

At the time, the American Communist Party was divided between those who supported Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, and those who supported his assassinated rival, Leon Trotsky.

A year later, Adolf Hitler broke an agreement with Stalin and launched an attack on the Soviet Union in "Operation Barbarossa,” thus making Stalin an ally of the United States.

The result was, to the Stalinist communists' delight, that Smith act prosecutions were primarily directed against their Trotskyite rivals.

But when World War Two ended, the Cold War truly began, and suddenly many of the same people who were praising the Smith Act just a few years before were now lamenting that it was being used against them.

If history has taught one immutable lesson, it is that while fascists demand that their followers be zealously loyal to them, they are only loyal to themselves.

So do not be surprised if you wake up one morning to discover that your freedoms are no more. And then understand that you will have nobody to blame for this but yourselves, because in your desire to allow fascists to deny freedom to those you oppose, you failed to realize these draconian and unconstitutional laws they rely upon in their lust for power can also be applied to you.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

And if the American fascists continue to have their way, that silence will soon be mandatory.