Look, I can only spend so many hours a day saving the world. If you want to nitpick NAZI’s and Fascists, I may fall behind in the fight. I’m only human here. (Well, in my mind anyway) 
Yep. That’s how they get you. Alternatively, yep, that’s what they want you to think.
I disagree. John Mace is not a fascist, and saying “awww, this is no big deal” is what John Mace is famous for. Q.E.D.
Quoted on TPM:
Of course, as TPM memo points out, this response dodges all of the substantive issues: the regs, the uniform wearing, etc.
Personally, it seems like regardless, we should err on the side of not having uniforms at political rallies, even if we think that “awards” are loopholes. People can recieve awards without wearing uniforms that give politicians great pictures of themselves with soldiers standing in front of a giant “Republican Party” banner. The military shouldn’t allow itself to become dragged into politics, regardless of anyone claiming that this or that is a loophole.
Yes, this is a clear indication that the US is on the path of fascism.
-XT
I’ve been wondering. Why is it considered poor form to refer to someone’s argument with “Well yeah, that’s what the NAZI’s thought”, but perfectly acceptable to refer to a country’s policies as Fascist? There is a difference in definition, but these days they’re synonymous. And those that use the words know it.
So why is it acceptable to refer to something as Fascist without argument, but mention NAZI and there’s no end to the shitstorm about disingenuous?
Just wondering.
I never saw the movie, but I read the book. God, that was a terrible book.
Never read the book. I saw the movie in two different history classes in two different high schools in the same school year. It’s not great, especially the acting, but it was chilling, knowing it really happened, and in Palo Alto, where I work.
Why did you find it chilling?
In the event that my question wasn’t complete enough, I mean, what’s chilling about it? We’ve seen fascism happen in real life…we’ve seen Nazi Germany, Italy under Mussolini, Spain under Franco, Argentina under Peron, Chile under Pinochet, not to mention a bunch of other people, so it should be obvious that it can be done, unless the people of Palo Alto are different than the Germans, Italians, Spanish, Argentians, or Chileans. So, I don’t think it’s chilling that you could get high school sophomores to participate in the beginnings some sort of pseudo-fascist movement, especially when you’re being told to do it by a person in a position of authority, like a teacher.
And, btw, here’s a website that you might be interested in, talking about Ron Jones and The Wave. He did the research, which suggests that Jones, in his essay, sort of exaggerated and fictionalized what really happened.
Please, also note that I don’t agree with almost anything that person says on his website (the guy likes pot way too much, doesn’t think there were gas chambers at Auschwitz, is pretty much a white supremicist, and believes in “transhumanity”. Needless to say, I think that’s all rubbish), but in the case of “The Wave” story, he has found excerpts from the high school newspaper describing the events, and so I think they, being original sources, can be considered accurate
I have posted on numerous occasions to quell absurd claims that the U.S. is “becoming Fascist,” so I am hardly an apologist for that belief nor accepting of that sort of fuzzy thinking. However, I can see a clear distinction between the broader category of Fascism and the subset we know as Nazism. Under Fascism, we see authoriarian regimes. They are hardly places of freedom and light, but they generally places where the economy is sufficient to provide a living for the general population and where renouncing certain forms of opposition will (provided one has not been a leader of those opposition parties) get the government off one’s back (at the cost of watching the government suppress others).
On the other hand, the specific variety of Fascism that was employed by the Nazis led directly to a war that nearly destroyed Europe and led to the deaths of over 12,000,000 people who were neither combatants nor even collateral damage–most of them by direct actions of that government or its allies.
The evil that is asociated with the Nazis is orders of magnitude greater than that associated with the various other Fascist regimes.
They do? Who knows that? Not me. Perhaps it was my year in Sicily where pro-Mussolini graffiti was painted on the pillboxes, but when I think Fascism, I think Italy. There are any number of other examples, some cited by Captain Amazing above, also Romania, Hungary, the rump Czechoslovak state, etc. There were distinct differences between prototypical facism and the Nazi state (which certainly did have fascist elements). The extermination thing, for one. Many of the WWII fascist states attempted to protect their populations from the final solution.
If you believe they are synonymous, I’d suggest doing some reading.
After those replies by Captain Amazing, tomndebb and Frank, I do picture **duffer ** as Dr. Evil. 
[sub]Link with flash and audio:
http://www.killerclips.com/clip.php?id=79&qid=747[/sub]
Most appropriate, since Fascism started in Italy as an offshoot/alternative to Syndicalism and Communism. Mussolni wasn’t just the dictator: he was in large part the originator (although in all fairness other theoreticians were involved).
**Reviving a couple week old thread. **
The DoD has reiterated the regs regarding partisan events and wearing of uniforms (For the pdf averse, the link in short says “don’t do it”) They cannot attend partisan events in uniform even if honorees. They can be in uniform if at a national level political event as a colorguard, and that’s about it. Reserves are forbidden as well. The document addresses a lot of the points brought up on this thread.
Here’s Mr. Jones own story about the wave. http://www.toddstrasser.com/html/thewave2.htm.The website Captain Amazing linked to is full of some pretty strange ideas, including holocaust denial, but it’s probably correct in saying Mr. Jones exaggerated parts of his story.