The word fascism and fascist, meaning authoritarianism and forcible repression of other views, angles, ideas and opinions gets thrown around a lot these days.
It used to be apply to right wing groups, leaders and governments like Mussolini in Italy, Franco in Spain, Juan Perón in Argentina and of course Adolf Hitler in Germany.
More recently we’ve seen the same, identical fascist philosophy and tactic being harnessed by Apple, Amazon, Google and Twitter in relation to Parler in an effort to suppress the views and opinions of anyone not subscribing to their corporate, far left groupthink.
It is ‘corporate fascism’ plain and simple. Arms length fascism, subcontracted by government to the private sector in a PPP type arrangement to give the government, as Jim Biden (that’s right Jim Biden) would say, ‘plausible deniability’
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
It has now also extended to book publishing with US Senator Josh Hawley having his book deal cancelled because he had the temerity to speak out and object to the election result in a particular state at the joint sitting on January 6 which was the entire idea of the joint sitting as allowed for in the constitution.
Banks and credit card companies are also now reviewing whether they too, will withdraw services and banking facilities to not only Trump and family, but anyone who worked within the Trump administration or supported the administration.
This is not just the casual deployment of the word, fascism, because you’re trying to ramp up the rhetoric or because you can’t think of another word.
Look up the definition for yourself. Fascism is what we are talking about.
With commentators on major media outlets calling for Trump supporters to be sent off to re-education camps to be reprogrammed, this is the real thing. This is the moment the left has been waiting for, for decades.
This is fascism red in tooth and claw with all the hallmarks of your worst nightmare.
It’s too easy to cutely pass all this off with the phrase, ‘cancel culture’ and we do so at our peril. Cancel culture is a throwaway line designed to make it sound harmless and a passing fad
It’s not harmless and its not a fad. It is dangerous. Very dangerous.
With recent developments it has now become all too apparent that far from being a right wing political philosophy, fascism has now become a wholly owned political philosophy of the left.
Consider this development of the last few days: —
“….Hundreds of authors, editors, and agents signed an open letter asking the world’s publishers to skip a post-presidency memoir from Donald Trump.
More publishing industry figures are being invited to add their names to the”No Book Deals for Traitors” letter, which as of January 18th had 547 signatures.
The letter, “No Book Deals for Traitors,” was created by novelist Barry Lyga, as The Los Angeles Times and Publisher’s Weekly reported. Lyga’s letter opposed any book from members of Trump’s administration.
In part, it read: “As members of the writing and publishing community of the United States, we affirm that participation in the administration of Donald Trump must be considered a uniquely mitigating criterion for publishing houses when considering book deals.”
Among the growing list of co-signers were staffers from each of the five biggest publishing houses, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.