From the State of Exhaustion, But Still Able to Tell the Difference Between Lies and Mass Murder
Watching the frazologies, or how the common misuse of the word "fascist" (discussed here before) reveals people who think that a Bush Administration lie about the outing of a CIA agent is equivalent to the murder of six million Jews, as well as the murders of countless others.
Tiny Little Dots reports on a White House press briefing in which the media reports that White House press secretary Scott McClellan said, "That's accurate," in response to a question about Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. The White House, however, maintains the McClellan answered, "I don't think that's accurate." (Also see Wonkette.
Certainly a cause for concern, and certainly disturbing, but is it equivalent to the murder of millions in gas chambers? I don't think so, but some Tiny Little Dots commenters do:
That’s what happens when you let the NeoCon FASCIST disciples of LeoStauss the German/American Nazi run your political party. It becomes a NAZI party!
Nobody contorlled the media like this, other than Hitler.
The Stalinists in the politboro used to revise history in a similar manner.
The Bushistas are not Nazis: they are fascists, of course, but calling them Nazis diminishes the American Exceptionalism which inspires TRUE USer fascism. That said, some of the troops in Iraq, especially around Fallujah, have behaved in ways that would have made the SS proud, pal...
OK, perhaps it's inappropriate for someone who regularly uses the terms "Communists" and "baby seal clubbers" to denigrate others for gross (in every sense of the word) exaggeration.
But at least I can tell the difference between reality and blogging.
Let's look at the definition of fascism:
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator,
Which is why all of Arnold's propositions passed on Tuesday - oh wait, they didn't.
stringent socioeconomic controls,
Note the difference between government controlling business and business controlling government. There are tons of allegations that Bush and Cheney are doing the bidding of Halliburton or whoever, but I don't hear anyone claiming that Halliburton et al are being forced to adopt the business policies of Bush and Cheney. Claiming the Bush/Cheney are fascist because of their business policies is like claiming that Shi Tao invaded the Chinese prison system.
suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship,
No, the fact that only a small minority of Fox News anchors are left of center does not count as "censorship."
and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
Two words: guest worker.
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