Just got this email from a good pen-pal friend. Politics has rarely entered our sphere of conversation, so I was surprised at both the depth and serious tone (we tend to be jackasses together) of his letter. Here’s what he wrote:
Now, I disagree with many of my friend’s assertions, as I would go out on a limb and say it’s the wealthy fomenting class warfare, and there’s nothing new under the sun regarding most of his other claims (government mandating purchases, investments serving political purposes, etc.)
Can anyone comment on the thrust of his letter? I’d like to return a thoughtful response, and unfortunately don’t have the brain power and knowledge of the collective SDMB.
Oh Good Lord. “Obviously the fascist analogy isn’t perfect. Unlike Obama, fascists abhorred class warfare”. Yeah, this is a rational analysis.
I haven’t the time to unpick everything wrong with this but ultimately the writer is starting with the assumptions he is presuming to demonstrate, using fairly dubious definitions of things like “fascism”, “socialism” and so forth and then cherrypicking selected bits out of them in support of the conclusions. It shows no understanding of basic political or economic theory while selecting random passages that various people said or wrote over the past century in a muddled morass of misunderstood arguments. By this methodology you’d have a better chance of showing that Paul Ryan is a Stalinist than of connecting Obama to fascism.
Frankly the mere fact that the letter starts “Dear Mr Socialist” suggests to me that returning a “thoughtful response” will achieve nothing at all, but good luck to you.
Unless your last name is actually “Socialist”, in which case never mind.
Simplicio – Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll have to get on him, the plagiarizing bastard! I should’ve used the Google too. :smack:
Gyrate - Well no, my name isn’t ‘Mr. Socialist’, funnily enough. I’m sure he meant no harm by it, as it’s in response to my own snarky comment directed toward him (his older doggie was stealing toys from a new pup, and I mentioned socialism was back in vogue, doncha know?)
Has the “In 2016 Obama will refuse to step down” lunacy started yet? I swear my Tea Party friend still believes in his heart of hearts that Hillary Clinton is biding her time plotting a coup d’etat.
I’m sure if we put our minds together we can come up with a few subtle differences between the US right now and Italy in the 1930s.
I was seeing claims of “Now Obama will have himself made President for Life” literally right after the election.
While I get the joke, I understand that they really didn’t run on time; it was just a piece of propaganda that Americans swallowed whole. Americans have a historical tendency to believe claims that ruthlessness is more efficient*; the fascists of the time knew this and tailored their America-targeted propaganda to fit.
*A modern example; just look how many Americans just take it as a given that torture is the most effective method of interrogation; even many who oppose it think doing so is a matter of putting morality above practicality.
Obama’s detractors have shrieked “SOCIALISM!” and “SOCIALIST!” so much that the terms have begun to lose their sting; average people look at Obama’s policies and think: if *this *is socialism, I guess socialism isn’t all that bad.
“Fascism” still has some potential as a magic spell-word, but who knows. Call Obama a “fascist” enough times and young people may wonder why fascism was once such a big deal.
Sure they are. They just don’t have a cadre of the disloyal resist-their-policies-at-all-costs opposition out on a mission to find a historically distasteful name to call them.
