Friends, as the U.S. and European establishment frets about the victory of the "far-right" in Italy (and, yes, Meloni's party is "far righter" than most of its critics), it pays to remind ourselves how empty much of this criticism is, and how little Giorgia Meloni resembles a "fascist". I include for you Wikipedia's defintion of fascism, which apparently no leftist has ever read.
https://thefederalist.com/2022/09/26/is-italys-next-prime-minister-giorgia-meloni-a-fascist-hardly/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
In other news, Congress is shoveling yet more money in Ukraine's direction. The amounts that Ukraine has received from the West as a whole are staggering, and underline the fact that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is indeed a proxy war between Russia and the West, which naturally raises the stakes for Putin considerably.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foreign_aid_to_Ukraine_during_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War
Finally, what's a young black actor to do when he notices that his white co-stars have more Twitter followers than he does? Cry "Racism!", naturally! That's the only reason I can think of why anything bad, or, in this case, slightly less good, would ever happen to a black person. Case closed.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Without alot of editing one could plausibly title the Wikipedia definition you cited as one of marxism in practice, as the author suggested. You can usually bollox up a self righteous leftist by challenging them to briefly define the particular "ism" they are using as an automatic condemnation upon accusation. If they condescend to try, often it points directly to them. They see no need to define such terms. The terms , coming from them ,are by definition unassailable. They would not admit a humiliating obligation to provide rational, ordered explanations to those as insolent as to challenge them and their sages. Convenient that!
ReplyDeleteTrue, Jack -- no leftist would be constrained, even for a second, by a consideration as trivial as the definition of the very slurs he was himself deploying. Their only regret, I suspect, is that their hyperbolic insults still don't convey the full force of their contempt...
ReplyDeleteFascism and Marxism may be similar in their practical effects and methods of implementation, but the foundations of the ideologies could not be more distinct. I have sympathy for nationalism. I have none for radical egalitarianism, which, given its inconsistency with human nature, is merely a backdoor that leads inevitably to tyranny.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: The practical consequences of fascism and marxism are equally monstrous and wrong headed. After the world has experienced appalling sociopathic injustice at their hands, how can any creditable person yet advocate them? To dismiss such anathema and suggest that it be given another chance is subhuman.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: But that said, your comment about their ideological difference is true . I one could use a swweeping term to unite them eg. modern technology enabled demonstrated tyrannies
ReplyDeleteJack, I'd say the common thread is authoritarianism, verging on totalitarianism, assisted by the modern "genius" for propaganda, surveillance, and byzantine bureaucracy. Only in the last century would the state have had the capacity to oppress us so comprehensively. Fascism and Marxism give it a plausible excuse.
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