Fascism 1: Islamofascism? Oh, please…

Turning language on it's head is a trait of the Bush regime. What Orwell wrote about in his 1984, where a totalitarian state rewrites history to serve it, is the modus operandi of our current government. From a bumbling attempt to edit Wikipedia to excise a term-limits promise, to claiming no-one knew the levees could break following Katrina, to replacing Osama with Saddam with the enemy of the day (the 5 Minute Hate?), to the 'we never said 9/11 and Saddam' line, this administration has made mendacity mundane.

Take their favorite hateline du jour - "Islamofascism." This word has come up in the world, having struggled up from the jingoism ghetto of LGF and third-rate shock jocks (like Mr. Corked Bat, Rush Limbaugh, of Feminazi fame) to the very lips of the frontman-in-chief.

This is stupid, and clever, and stupid in turn. It's stupid, because fascism is a European and Western political philosophy, drawing it's roots from the Romans. It is clever, because most people don't think about fascism, having a very simple equation, to wit: Fascism = Hitler and the Nazis = Very Bad. So they don't really know much about it. It's a rebranding of the term to mean Muslims.

The stupid-in-turn part is (and this is where we get all Orwellian) that this government, the Bush regime and their lackeys in Congress and on the judicial bench, are closer to fascism than they want us to realize.

This is why they always freak out so much whenever someone on the left calls them Nazis. The MoveOn.org ads that compared Bush to Hitler are the prime example.

So with the government ACTING fascist, they need to deflect the term. Voila! Islamofascism!

Let's take a look at what leftist Italian author and professor Umberto Eco has to say.

Fascism is: A fuzzy totalitarianism characterized by selective populism, contempt for the weak, fear of difference, obsession with plots, and a cult of tradition

If you're not with us, you're a traitor. NASCAR is a sacrement, the poor are crap, gays are evil, there's a liberal media plot/Jewish banking plot/homosexual agenda/war on Christmas. The best times were the good old times. Sound familiar?

This week, we'll be taking a more in-depth look on the subject of fascism; what it is, what it isn't, and what we should do about it.

For your homework, check out the extended Eco: Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt
Part 1 – Islamofascism? Oh, please…
Part 2 – Trust an Italian to know about fascists. (Eco 1)
Part 3 – Fascism cleans the sheets and takes out the trash… (Eco 2)
Part 4 – Fear the Gnomes of Zurich! (Eco 3)
Part 5 - An army boot stamping on an inhuman face -- for as long as we can get away with it (Eco 4)
Part 6 - Real Men Say Our Leader is DoublePlus Good! (Eco 5 and last)