POLITICS Re: Dirty Secrets of H1N1 Vaccine?

[Guest guest]

>

> What do you mean by " paranoid-style of American politics " ?

See

http://www.amazon.com/Paranoid-Style-American-Politics-Essays/dp/0674654617/ref=\

sr_1_2?ie=UTF8 & s=books & qid=1257009851 & sr=8-2

or http://tinyurl.com/yzwz2xt

>

>

> Certainly I don't think being a Reagan

> > appointee makes you a defender of liberty, and the content is definitely

> in the

> > Bircher-mode, which is to say American-form fascism. It has got nothing to

> do with

> > liberty, in my opinion, since it is primarily a means of accusing everyone

> else who

> > disagrees with you as being part of some grand conspiracy to undermine

> traditional

> > values. That's virtually the definition of fascism, so I really find it

> hard to not

> > comment on that even if I understand why the appeal to liberty from

> oppressive

> > governmental interference is attractive.

>

> Where did you find this definition of fascism?? This is not at all what

> classic fascism is typically defined as. And as far as the Birch

> society goes, where are you getting your information about that

> organization? I'm no expert on that group, but I've read a very well-cited

> book by one of its members on globalism and know one or two people that are

> members, and they and the book all represent what I understand the group to

> be about and that is that they are extremely anti-globalism and pro-liberty

> Which, by default, would mean they are anti-fascism as well.

The essential shared viewpoint of fascist groups is an extreme nationalism that

targets enemies " within " who allegedly seek a conspiratorial takeover on behalf

of international communism or some comparable globalist conspiracy. The

Birch society is the classic American case of that. You'll note that Hofstadter

discusses the Birchers explicitly. This is not just being anti-globalist in

preference, but seeing enemies everywhere, including " liberals " who allegedly

are willing or naive dupes of conspiratorial communists, targeting civil rights

legislation in particular as a communist conspiracy and a violation of the

Constitution. They also go on quite a bit about banking conspiracies as a

communist plot and the like. Standard fascist rhetoric. See

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=_Birch_Society

A few scary quotes:

" In April 1966, the New York Times reported on " the increasing tempo of radical

right attacks on local government, libraries, school boards, parent-teachers

associations, mental health programs, the Republican party and, most recently,

the ecumenical movement. … The Birch Society is by far the most successful and

'respectable' radical right organization in the country. It operates alone or in

support of other extremist organizations whose major preoccupation, like that of

the Birchers, is the internal Communist conspiracy in the United States. "

and

" Today the Birch Society still sees communism as a threat, and sees the

collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe as false and " planned " by the

Russian/Eastern European governments which it sees controlled by " the

insiders " . "

This is where the Birchers are coming from and I can't see any way to see

this as benign and it is definitely paranoid. But then I like civil rights laws,

libraries, international cooperation, and probably a whole host of other

unAmerican things.

Bill