Hold the phone--is it really possible that the U.S. is a facist state? I'm going to react to the following article in particular: http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm
"1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism."
I think the States qualifies. If you diss the flag, or are accused of being "anti-American," things can turn ugly pretty quickly. People even get accused of being Anti-American for slamming the President, as if they weren't allowed to have contrary opinions! I'm sorry, guys, but if you had been nicer to the Dixie Chicks, amoung other things, I might not have been able to confidently check this point off.
"2. Disdain for the importance of human rights."
I'm not convinced that this applies to the U.S. Sure, the American Gov't has pretty shoddy foreign policies, and you could make a pretty good argument about the labour abuses that American corporations are largely responsible for, but by and large the American populace seems to care about human rights, and the American gov't sometimes cares too. Otherwise the whole Iraqi prisoner scandal wouldn't have been such a big deal.
"3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause."
This point is a little on the weak side, maybe. The Bush gov't has definitely scapegoated Saddam's regime in Iraq for a lot of stuff, though, so I would give it a check.
"4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism."
Check. (Says Joe American: "What, is that supposed to be a bad thing?")
"5. Rampant sexism."
Doesn't apply, which isn't to say that sexism has been eliminated or that women's rights don't still deserve attention in America, but honestly, the U.S. is further along than the vast majority of other nations in this regard.
"6. A controlled mass media."
Hmmm... a little bit close... I'd have to say "not really." It is true that Corporate America has a huge strangle-hold on American media, but Americans are still doing a pretty good job of fighting for free speech, in my opinion, and there are very active channels of communication that the media does not control. On the other hand, when you look at American television, and stuff like CNN and Fox News... well... hmmmm.... it's a close one.
"7. Obsession with national security."
Check.
"8. Religion and ruling elite tied together."
Not really. Not that I can see.
"9. Power of corporations protected."
Corporate rule getting priority over individual rights? In America? Check.
"10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated."
Power of labor is hurting quite a bit, isn't it? What with all of the outsourcing factories to other countries and stuff... hmmmm... check.
"11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts."
There's a little bit of that in the U.S., to be sure, but I don't think it's all that bad. As I said earlier, Americans still tend to fight hard to protect freedom of speech, so I don't think this one applies.
"12. Obsession with crime and punishment."
There are a lot of criminals guilty only of petty drug charges in the American prision system. I dunno, though... I'd probably have to learn more about this issue to properly decide (that goes for a lot of these points).
"13. Rampant cronyism and corruption."
Seems to apply.
"14. Fraudulent elections."
And another one, thanks to Prez Bush: check!
So that's gotta be about 6 out of 14 checks with quite a few close calls and "maybes." How facist is too facist? 50%? Can you even quantify facism that way? I wonder.
