Fascism in the USA and Strategies to Fight It

[@Walter-vi3vh]

Excellent program. Gabriel’s analysts on the collaboration between the United Snakes corporate structure & Nazism was a valuable political/historical lesson. Sister Claudia was a beautiful example of the revolutionary avenging women formation.

[@timtebone1843]

yeah but corporate american was worse for specific reasons, before. And addressing it this way is not productive

[@warrennelson5190]

The kind of media we need more of, thanks and keep up the struggle.

[@clinteastwood5299]

Excellent Brian as always 💯 Great guests💯

[@abolishnato]

Brian is always on point

[@hisbigal]

Not al of the immigrants were voluntary. Immigration has also been used as a tool of capitalism.

[@williams.1980]

There are two things I want to connect here. One is what Claudia mentioned about how we need to identify and analyze and understand how we are being molded ideologically. This is not a minor factor. Sometimes it is minor, but that minor element is multiplied hundreds of millions of times and repeated and repackaged millions of times ad nauseum. For instance how headlines and breaking news is stylized and perverted. I wanted to connect this with what Brian was talking about when he was talking about how the authoritarian regime change modus operandi is coming from something that calls itself a liberal democracy yet it inflicts something more like a fascist police state on its subject. These definitions about who is a democracy and who isn't and who is committing human rights violations and who isn't usually originates from the deep state of the US, the CIA's, the think tanks, the State Dept. etc. Even if it is made up, where it is coming from makes it almost sacred. And then the process, the ritual, the culture of constantly maintaining its sacredness, constantly reifying it in the media and the discourse becomes the main element. The narrative becomes something to build sacredness on. So it can manufacture itself out of nothing in a way. These are the same elements that manage the public discourse from the top down. Censoring, and planting completely fictional narratives. Constantly twisting and managing culture wars and narratives from around the world. One of the biggest narratives and fictional story lines it is constantly curating is the story about how economics works, how business works, how finance works, how the government works, where jobs come from, how insurance works, how the treasury works. And also how sacred it is.

[@mackone8035]

The poisoning of disourse and culture is primarily, though not exclusively, a cosequence of modern authoritarian rule. Periods of tumult provide opportunities to create antidotes.

[@tusker2418]

Oh finally!! Gabriel Rockhill finally made an appearance on BT news!!

[@fortedrummer3026]

Thank you, thank you, thank you, BreakThrough News, for this discussion! I am trying to wrap my head around all of these existential issues as I begin to learn about socialism, in the interest of protecting and advancing humankind, wondering about how it is possible to begin to build solidarity within the entire working class (ideally, across the entire globe) from the ground up.

[@patrickgallagher1161]

Hey dude

[@geraldgreen6794]

If you dare to struggle you dare to win! Rest in Power Fred Hampton!!

[@stephencunningham6557]

MLK and Malcolm X wanted to coalesce all the working classes. They could stand these two fighting purely for black rights but that wish for coaslescence meant they had to be liquidated.

[@sinekonata]

He told WW2 almost as a communist would have. Thank you for spelling the truth.

[@hawkpb]

Great explanation! Loved the discussion on the end on winning workers over to a socialist view.

[@GUILLOTINE_GANG]

Hedge's book American Facsists is a great read for anyone looking to examine the religious aspect of this rising phenomenon, even though Hedges is a damned Keynsian.

[@mackone8035]

He somehow passes for crypto Marxist.

[@2CheKapone]

Fascism, as defined by Mussolini, is the mergence of corporate and state power. According to that definition, the US has been fascist at least since the 1960s, and has remained so whether it is a democrat or a republican presiding over the Empire. Communists should therefore first and foremost be fighting to overthrow the US government and the white ruling class that controls it. The right wing populist militias are certainly no allies of ours, but it is an objective fact that the US government is the one murdering black people every 24 hours via the police; it is the US government locking up and deporting undocumented workers from the third world; it is the US government that has adopted mass surveillance over all citizens and people around the world; it is the US government that implements economic policies which enrich the corporations and impoverish working people; it is the US government that is occupying indigenous land and confining native americans in concentration camps - not right wing populists.

[@NickGreiner1988]

Mergence of corporate and state power? You mean like Pfizer and any government that's put mandates in place for Pfizer's product?

[@SunnyCharlieFan]

Great program

[@williamgills4581]

In a sense, the US "Embassy" in Washington is the Organization of American States (OAS, or OEA), and the US Ambassador there is the Uruguayan, Luis Almagro.

[@jon_nomad]

It's a bit too late. Fascism is very much engrained in every facet of American society.

[@mackone8035]

We"re not dead yet. That's the only thing that's too late.

[@SimonAshworthWood]

@@mackone8035 exactly! Where there’s life, there’s hope. Effective military commanders have known this for thousands of years, hence their focus on keeping up the morale of their troops, regardless of circumstances. When the Roman Republic was defeated on multiple battles by Hannibal Barca and his army with tens of thousands of troops in Rome’s citizen army massacred, Hannibal expected the Romans to surrender, as was standard practice in ancient warfare. However, the Romans refused to surrender. They simply raised more armies and tried new strategies. By continuing their commitment to win no matter what, the Romans eventually won that war! The same was true of the people of fascist-occupied countries in WW2. Many of them (especially communists) continued fighting as partisans, as guerrillas, until, with help from other countries (mainly the USSR, which was almost conquered, but went on to defeat 90% of the nazi war machine), the occupied countries eventually defeated fascism. Similar in many US wars starting with Cuba and Vietnam, but also Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Afghanistan, much of Iraq, much of Syria, Eastern Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan, etc., all of which have thwarted US war aims and regime change goals.

[@mackone8035]

As militarized as Roman society was they suffered many embarassing defeats in battles. During the latter stages of the empire they became a bit more concilatory as their resources began drying up.

[@shotsniper009]

At this point the best we can hope for in a realistic way is outright collapse. If i'm being honest I don't mind anymore, let it burn.

[@jon_nomad]

@@shotsniper009 I feel the same way too. Sometimes, it is just better and less problematic to just tear it all down and rebuilt a new government. Constant renovations just don't cut it anymore.

[@TheSonicfrog]

Lots of deep analysis ... agreed the correct framing is socialism versus fascism ... but it's not clear that it is possible to build a united front from below given the delusions of heavily propagandized working class folks. Part of the problem is the deeply held anti-socialist ideology of individualism held by many Americans. Given the decay and co-option of community institutions, where exactly can groups be approached and mobilized during a pandemic? And given the failed track record of politics, I'm pretty sure pushing political solutions is not going to excite very many folks. I also believe that faux left organizations in the U.S. - who are themselves splintered by infighting - won't help building a united front from below, but will in fact oppose it. Anyway, keep up the good work.

[@SunnyCharlieFan]

We need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. The media is out of control and unethical at times.

[@williamgills4581]

Philip Agee was never CIA station chief in Venezuela. He was a CIA operator in Ecuador, Uruguay and Mexico, as anyone who has read his great book should know.

[@fightignorance3598]

Thanks for the analysis! But Will the capitalist class in the US ever want to be ruled and sidelined by or co-exist with the working class out of their volition? If they will, the French Revolution wouldn’t have occurred. As you have rightly pointed out: the Americans are only choosing the lesser evil in every election because both republicans and democrats won’t ever let the working class ‘exist’ or come close to raising its head. So I think the real question to ask before laying any of your strategy is : could you co- exist with someone or another groups who don’t want you to exist in the first place and whose legitimacy and power to desolate the working class is enshrined in the system from day 1?

[@sirjamesgray]

if we want to defeat fascism we need to take socialist messages to ex-Trump-supporters down with the oligarchs! down with the elites! everyone unite!

[@mackone8035]

Well since Trumpists viciously attack anyone to the left of Mussolini I'm not sure they would be very receptive.

[@moodist1er]

If you think trump is more fascist than Hillary or Biden it's probably because you subscribe to an identity that was cultivated for you and can't see anything outside of the small echo chamber you're trapped in.

[@mackone8035]

But enough about me. How about you? Eat any good books lately?

[@GazB85]

@@moodist1er Trump is domestically more fascist than those two.

[@moodist1er]

@@GazB85 Trump didn't create the three strikes you're out law, or stop and frisk. He didn't inflate private profit prisons. He didn't bail bankers out, or enslave the population to insurance companies. He didn't start the border concentration camps that hold immigrants children captive. How was Trump more fascist than any Democrat president? Because he said things?

[@ThorusCrusius]

It’s not just Trump - Just as in Germany, fascism in the USA is sitting in every single government body

[@noheroespublishing1907]

I'm going to make a suggestion, I think it would be wise, if a platform would do this, so here goes, you guys should start trying to get other KZbin socialists as occasional commentators on your program; so as to elevate both their prominence and your own; even having joint education pieces. Channels like Caleb Maupin, Jason Unruh, Hakim, Yogopnik, Second Thought, Fellow Traveler, Balkan Odyssey, Luna Oi, Finnish Bolshevik, Bad Empanada, Richard Wolff, Paul Cockshott, Politsturn International, ect, even see if you can get the Gravel Institute to do some animations for you. A centralized news forum that both educates, provides different international Marxist prospectives, highlights these people and raises awareness of how widespread these people are, and providing a Left alternative is Liberal and Social Democratic outlets.

[@LeninCat1917]

i hope i never have to see maupin or empanada on this show. Might as well just invite vaush at that point

[@noheroespublishing1907]

@@LeninCat1917 When we speak of a United Front, it's like a family reunion, we don't have to like each other, agree entirely, or even want to see or hear from the other, but, personal taste sacrifices are a marginal cost.

[@LeninCat1917]

@@noheroespublishing1907 I agree as long as it pertains to those dedicated to MLism.I don't think we should be united with liberals and ultras. "There can be no unity, federal or other, with liberal-labour politicians, with disruptors of the working-class movement, with those who defy the will of the majority. There can and must be unity among all consistent Marxists, among all those who stand for the entire Marxist body and for the uncurtailed slogans, independently of the liquidators and apart from them. Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers’ cause needs is the unity of Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism. And we must ask everyone who talks about unity: unity with whom? With the liquidators? If so, we have nothing to do with each other." -Lenin

[@SimonAshworthWood]

@@LeninCat1917 Vaush and Bad Empanada are often pro-capitalist and pro-imperialist. Caleb Maupin is a true socialist, an anti-imperialist. Can you say specifics of why you dislike socialism and anti-imperialism on a socialist KZbin program?

[@mackone8035]

I don't think unity precludes dissent as long as its constructive dissent. But yeah, these boards are kind of a poor forum for such discussions. I think of them as signposts as you said.

[@keyzeyusuf1880]

Thanks God

[@selu3980]

I like this guy but I truly miss Eugene and Rania's regular programs. Please bring them back.

[@Bisquick]

I think another aspect of this very bread and circus (minus the bread) political theater is a majority of the 92 federal charges used against Trump in Georgia were made using RICO, which although perhaps warranted will clearly never actually lead to prosecution and thus legitimizes the broad scope that RICO conspiracy charges entail, thus simultaneously legitimizing the law currently _also_ being used in Georgia against protesters and activists standing against the so-called "Cop City" project. Reminded of Marx's 18th Brumaire, _During the June days all classes and parties had united in the party of Order against the proletarian class as the party of anarchy, of socialism, of communism. They had “saved” society from “the enemies of society.” They had given out the watchwords of the old society, “property, family, religion, order,” to their army as passwords and had proclaimed to the counterrevolutionary crusaders: “In this sign thou shalt conquer!” From that moment, as soon as one of the numerous parties which gathered under this sign against the June insurgents seeks to hold the revolutionary battlefield in its own class interest, it goes down before the cry: “property, family, religion, order.” Society is saved just as often as the circle of its rulers contracts, as a more exclusive interest is maintained against a wider one. Every demand of the simplest bourgeois financial reform, of the most ordinary liberalism, of the most formal republicanism, of the most shallow democracy, is simultaneously castigated as an “attempt on society” and stigmatized as “socialism.” And finally the high priests of “religion and order” themselves are driven with kicks from their Pythian tripods, hauled out of their beds in the darkness of night, put in prison vans, thrown into dungeons or sent into exile; their temple is razed to the ground, their mouths are sealed, their pens broken, their law torn to pieces in the name of religion, of property, of the family, of order. Bourgeois fanatics for order are shot down on their balconies by mobs of drunken soldiers, their domestic sanctuaries profaned, their houses bombarded for amusement - in the name of property, of the family, of religion, and of order. Finally, the scum of bourgeois society forms the holy phalanx of order and the hero Crapulinski_ [a character from Heine’s poem “The Two Knights,” a dissolute aristocrat.] _installs himself in the Tuileries as the “savior of society.”_

[@markmahan38]

Does it matter what foreign policy applied in the Gobal South. That give power and rule to fascist? Especially in light of the FACT it was done by so called representative Democracy, in the US. If these people will accept the most violent and thuggish fascists. Then it to reason that the US ruling class are thuggish fascists. Hawaii taken because the Dole company founder asked the US to send in troops to take over the island kingdom. Of which the US said yes and sent US military and mercenaries to accomplish this. Where currently the indigenous are being sent to become homeless and without political representation. And that is not enough for these fascist criminals. They then send thugs to run these people out of the camps they build.

[@mackone8035]

A fascist aesthetic is a driving force of colonialism. But there is always push back.

[@lukesmith720]

Sounds like Leon Trotsky’s novel about how to fight Fascism

[@injusticeanywherethreatens4810]

Free Palestine. Free the Proletariat!

[@moodist1er]

Fascism is used to describe authoritarianism and nationalism but those things already have names. Fascism comes from the word fasces, and fascio. A fasces is an ax wrapped in a bundle of uniform sticks called a fascio. The ax represents rule through violent authority and the bundle represents the people's consent. The fascio is made uniform because it's shaped by the ax. Fascism is a system of indoctrination. The indoctrination that leads people to accept ideas like nationalism, racism, or a two party political system ran by corporate puppets and war criminals as the only options you have to choose from to participate in our pseudo democracy. Corporate media can win lawsuits that allow them to lie to their viewers because they consider themselves entertainment companies but are still allowed to deliver their propagandic lies as "news". Fascism isn't a form of government, it's a system of indoctrination that manufactures consent by manipulating the public perception of reality.

[@mackone8035]

That's nice but don't you think we should wait for the video to actually be posted before commenting on it?

[@moodist1er]

@@mackone8035 not when you disagree with the definition of fascism and the video is about fascism. It's turning into a buzzword and that hides the ideas being discussed, like white supremacists, neoliberalism, colonialism, genocide.

[@madworldisrael7584]

The US was never a democracy to begin with, it was and currently is a Feudalism/Plutocracy, where Nobilities = Oligarchs, stop lying.

[@moodist1er]

@@madworldisrael7584 who said democracy? Calm down, dood

[@GUILLOTINE_GANG]

@@madworldisrael7584 your not wrong, but you are definitely not on topic.

[@angelcalero6464]

Still saying the greatest democracy in the world? Come on Brian

[@selu3980]

He was saying that is what Dems say, not his opinion.

[@cart172]

He was being sarcastic. Immediately afterwards, he literally talks about how there's nothing democratic about the USA's political system.

[@angelcalero6464]

@@cart172 Thank you. Someone else brought that to my attention. Thank you anyway.

[@ninasladic5900]

Dobro jedan a gdje je drugi na spisku

[@klauskinski5969]

you can literally answer the question in 1 minute. better economic conditions. see, done.

[@sirjamesgray]

yep.

[@mikehughes8023]

True. But that doesn’t benefit the 2%. Only us avg joes.

[@Justin_Watson23]

I agree with this 100%. It's not a coincidence that fascist ideas become popular/have their dissemination funded the most during crisises of capital/the rise of anything movement that even resembles being "left". Neoliberal Dems hijacked more subversive rhetoric, but then do nothing to improve material conditions. If the focus on fascism just focuses on groups of regular people, & ignore the totalitarian nature of our system (that has always existed) & those with power who fuel this hateful system, that's designed to divide/fuel hatred within the working class), something awful is gonna happen. I pray it doesn't, but soo many view ideology as a virtue or a reflection of their self worth - rather than a means to improve material conditions, so I doubt there is a shift in focus to the core of the rot within society: the capitalist class & the system they built to enrich themselves.

[@klauskinski5969]

@@Justin_Watson23 "Neoliberal Dems hijacked more subversive rhetoric, but then do nothing to improve material conditions" even worse. most of these problematic policies are pushed or developed under them but the media keeps silent. best example is the border facilities or deportation. trump deported a little over half what obama did. obama and biden build these camps and biden is continueing it.

[@SimonAshworthWood]

An economy with enough well-paid jobs and welfare for everyone requires that we build socialism and defeat any current fascist movements in order to achieve this socialism, because economic crises are inevitable in capitalism.

[@jonblaze4244]

I have to pushback a little against Gabriel. He said there was a failure in the department against the attack on the capital, I say the point was to let the right wing take it over but there wasn't a more organized force behind it.

[@XXTRIAGexx]

fascism is the usa

[@StopBaizuo]

Read "The fascism of the anti-fascists" by Pier Paolo Pasolini. After you read it, re-read it. If you still didn't understand it, read it again and again.

[@mackone8035]

That's a good suggestion. I think I will. But once should suffice.

[@SimonAshworthWood]

You believe that anti-fascists are fascist? That makes no sense. In order to get people to read a book, how about you tell us why we would want to read it? How about you summarise the book’s main points? If YOU understand it, then you will be able to do that.

[@StopBaizuo]

@@SimonAshworthWood Deeply think this and apparently I have famous companions.

[@nkvd1606]

I like Pasolini but can't find that text anywhere.

[@StopBaizuo]

@@nkvd1606 "Il fascismo degli antifascisti". Try to search the italian version.

[@yamoto1833]

All bullshits

[@timtebone1843]

this is all very loosely explained. i dont trust this dude

[@tanujSE]

As long as there is middle class and rich fascism remain one possibility and in America they are in great number