Tag: Fascism

America Needs an Uprising!

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

The house is burning down. The structures of civil society are being torn apart. Beneficial international relations, helping stability and peace, are being trashed. Economic stability and sanity are being savaged. American democracy is being destroyed. Cruelty, hatred and ignorance have been unleashed.

All the tools at our disposal are required — in this case, referring to the non-violent ones at least: lawsuits, petitions, letters and calls to and meetings with Representatives and Senators, mass rallies and demonstrations, strikes, boycotts, non-cooperation, civil disobedience and resistance in all its forms — and any other coordinated actions we can dream up.

David Brooks, the principled small-c conservative New York Times columnist, and (perhaps now former)  Republican has said it better than I can.

See: What’s Happening is Not Normal. America Needs an Uprising That Is Not Normal.

(Link will take you to the NY Times. There is a paywall, but anyone can read several articles free per month.)

Thank you. PSC

Are There No Limits to What Americans Will Tolerate?

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

Are There No Limits to What Americans Will Tolerate?

     I found myself asking this question on a morning last week when the president announced that he was doubling his tariffs (to 50%) on Canadian steel and aluminum, as the markets that Americans hold so precious roiled, and while this unhinged leader, borrowing a line from the Putin rhetorical play-book, vowed to make the “artificial line” between Canada and the U.S. “disappear.”

     I asked myself: how can Americans standby and watch – nay, support – this man systematically trashing decades, or really two centuries of friendship, cooperation, mutual prosperity and support? How can everyday Americans watch dumbly as their leader assaults the best friend they have ever had? Would an invasion that some Canadians are anticipating, (1) an out-and-out attempt at the military takeover of Canada, be the limit? It might be, but I’m not entirely convinced.

     I again asked myself if there is a limit as his minions were abroad, “negotiating” a deal, on behalf of Ukraine, which would require the country to give up territory to a despotic aggressor, and would require them to pay tribute, in the form of minerals, to the U.S. This “deal” can only be described as a shakedown or a protection racket. I continue to ask myself this as the president and his administration attack hard-won minority rights, the free press, and the intellectual freedom of venerable institutions of higher learning. I ask myself as Americans look on as a highly intelligent psychopath is given free reign to tear down administrative institutions and programs that have served the country and the world well for generations. I ask myself as I watch the Environmental Protection Agency and its hard-won improvements and protections are gutted in a single day by its appointed anti-environmental leader.

     Is there a limit to what the American citizenry will tolerate?

     Sorry to say: so far, it appears not.

     Not even the sudden and catastrophic cancellation of over eighty-percent of long-standing beneficial U.S. aid programs has caused much of a stir: nor has the dismantling of the Education Department. It puts me in mind of Germany. As the eminent historian, Richard J. Evans put it: “there were many Germans who were not fanatical Nazis but supported Nazism because it put into practice a sufficient range of their desires and aspirations for them to discount the other aspects.”(2)

     This saddens me deeply. It frightens me, too. And it angers me even more.

     Of course, I realize there is a substantial percentage of people who oppose all this: good people, good Americans, who support what is moral, what is good, what is useful, and what is right. Perhaps they will prevail. But if they are going to do so, they must stand up and be counted soon. There are certainly a number who don’t recognize what the situation is. And it is true that many simply don’t know what to do. This is, after all, an unprecedented situation in the history of the American Democracy.

     The cavalry, in the form of Congress, is not coming to save the day; the slim majorities (that is all it takes) in both the House and the Senate are sycophants of the rogue president and are doing his bidding – the Trumpist poster boy for that being Lindsey Graham, formerly known as The Honourable Lindsey Graham. Nor is it likely that the Supreme Court, having already granted the president broad immunity, will come to the rescue. And so, it appears that it is up to us: We the People.

     There are some positive signs. Good organizations like The American Civil Liberties Union, VoteVets and National Resources Defense Council are standing up, organizing petitions, and suing. Lower courts, at least in part, are acting for what is just. And the people are starting to take to the streets – this latter, as my friend Dr. Dave has commented on previous posts here, looks like what it will take. (3) Perhaps – just perhaps! – we can establish some limits ourselves, and restore decency.

To the Ramparts, then.

 

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1. And the inevitable guerilla warfare that would follow, that some (at least the younger) people are imagining. 

2. Quoted in: Acherson, Neal. “Ordinary Germans.” The New York Review of Books, March 27, 2025, pp. 6 – 10.

3. Last Saturday, our small group of demonstrators on the street corner in the tiny village of Salem, NY, had grown to over 130 people.

The Faces of Fascism

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

We all have a picture, a mental representation, of what fascism looks like, based on experience and images from the twentieth century.

A common representation would be this: Adolf Hitler being greeting and saluted by a loyal and admiring crowd.

But there are other possible faces and looks of fascism. For example, a face could be as bland and benign-looking as this:

This is the billionaire founder of a gigantic online retailer, who owns the venerable Washington Post, long known for its investigative reporting and vigorous defence of democracy. This man instructed his editorial staff to write only articles favourable to free markets, and that opposing viewpoints “will be left to be published by others.” (1) Of course, in a good newspaper, articles favourable to free markets are desirable, but along with articles that are critical of same or aspects of same. A free, unfettered, professional press is, as we all know, one of the pillars of democratic society. Is this a face of fascism? Do monkeys eat bananas? It surely looks like it: one of the first things fascists do is to take control of the press, cloaking their efforts in apparent blandness.

Or consider this as potentially a face of fascism:

This is another billionaire industrialist who in this case has attained authority to dismantle long-standing institutions and service programs of democratic government after donating enormous amounts of money to an autocratic president during his election campaign. This billionaire has been indiscriminately cutting programs beneficial to people and the country and engaging in mass impersonal firings of staff. He was brandishing the chain saw, of course, to symbolize what he was doing to public services. Could this be a face of fascism? One of the things fascists commonly do is to brandish symbols of powerful masculinity, especially phallic ones, for psychological reasons. This guy certainly does that.

Consider another:

In this case, during a diplomatic meeting in the White House, the two highest officials in the land initiated a shouting match, berating and attempting to bully a courageous democratic statesman who was trying to elicit aid in his country’s fight against a totalitarian enemy. The disgusting ambush and bullying session was the culmination of a meeting in which the two officials, acting in a way similar to Mafia “Dons,” had offered unguaranteed “protection” in exchange for tribute payments in the form of valuable minerals. The two acting in the fascistic manner are on the right wearing blue suits, and the statesman is on the left wearing a sweater emblematic of his beloved and threatened country. Psychologically speaking, fascist types, with their psychopathic character structure, commonly bully and attempt to overpower others in an obvious effort to compensate for their underlying weakness and inadequacy along with doubts about the size of their genitalia.

And so, one can see from this that face of fascism is variable.  Fascism can take many forms that are not always obvious. It may be right in front of our eyes, but we fail to recognize it.

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1. Reilly, Liam. “Jeff Bezos announces ‘significant shift’ coming to the Washington Post. A key editor is leaving because of it.” CNN Business, 26 Feb. 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/ media/washington-post-opinion-jeff-bezos-david-shipley/index.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2025.

2. Liptak, Kevin et al. “Trump and Vance erupt at Zelensky in tense Oval Office meeting.” CNN Politics, 28 Feb. 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics/trump-zelensky-vance-oval- office/index.html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2025.