RE: Assassins, Blame Games, and American Politics
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The Republicans and Democrats are both technically kinds of fascists in America.
Economically, fascism is state control of the economy with nominal private ownership of the means of production. The left calls it a "mixed economy," and the right calls things like the 10% takeover of Intel "capitalism," but neither are laissez-faire respect for private property and voluntary exchange. Both want intervention, just from different angles.
Politically, fascism means arbitrary laws enforced with brutal violence and demonizing the opposition as the reactionary element destabilizing society. January 6th, 2020 has to be an insurrection. The George Floyd protesters are all mindless rioters. COVID dissent is practically terrorism. Opposition to ICE is tantamount to treason. It never ends.
Xenophobia and violence against dissenters are two of the ways the public responds to those pressures as they take sides, not so much integral to fascist systems as an unavoidable consequence of allegiance to totalitarianism.
Yeah... it never ends...
When putting these groups together, can it ever end?
Not when there is a centralized power structure. Disputes over who should wield such power magnifies differences of opinions and drives wedges between people who could otherwise get along despite their disagreements. Spike Cohen recently pointed out that even where two candidates agree on 99.5% of issues, they must compete on that last 0.5% disagreement, and male that small fraction an outsized issue, leading to ever-escalating rivalry for the electorate.
Politics in other words... that competition and division that turns free speech and good intentions into evil things.