farmeruminations

I was recently castigated at another blog, which for the moment will remain nameless, for describing the policies of the Oprompter administration as fascist. Here is my reply. At the bottom of the page will be a link with another man suggesting the same thing.

Also, Farmer Tom, is it really necessary to name-call just because you don't agree with someone? It's just common courtesy, and calling someone a fascist is hardly likely to result in a productive discussion.

Lia,

Sadly, I'm afraid your comment demonstrates a symptom of the collapse of our intellectual culture. Let me attempt to demonstrate.

water

wa⋅ter
   
[waw-ter, wot-er]
–noun
1. a transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, H2O, freezing at 32°F or 0°C and boiling at 212°F or 100°C, that in a more or less impure state constitutes rain, oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.: it contains 11.188 percent hydrogen and 88.812 percent oxygen, by weight.

marriage

mar⋅riage

   [mar-ij]
–noun
1. the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
2. the state, condition, or relationship of being married; wedlock: a happy marriage.
3. the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of a man and woman to live as husband and wife, including the accompanying social festivities: to officiate at a marriage.

fascism

fas⋅cism

[fash-iz-uhm]
–noun
1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." [Robert O. Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism," 2004]

Now Lia, the culture can try mightily to change the meaning of words. They try to claim that marriage is not the union of one man and one woman for life, but instead the union of two perverts (sodomites). Water is water, marriage is marriage, and the policies of our current administration are fascist in their nature.

The president of the United States has fired the Chairman of an automobile company, since when is it the job of government to tell an automobile company how to run their business? The government is taking your and my money and giving it to business and banks. Since when is that the role of government? The government is demanding that doctors and nurses do the bidding of the government when it comes to health care. Since when is it the role of the government to tell anyone what is acceptable or preferable for their personal health care?

See, the meaning of policies and practices of a political leader and his party are not determined by what the latest spin or analysis coming from a media sympathetic to the very same political party and its leader are telling us . Facts are facts, and the policies this administration are pursing can not be accurately described by any other term than fascism.

Going back to your comment about name calling, you assume that speaking the truth about the policies of this administration is name calling. What pray tell would you call their policies? Since when is using obtuse language and/or failing to call water water useful in helping people understand the facts about anything?

If I had said that the policies of this administration were freedom loving and lead to personal liberty would you have objected?? Those would be blatant lies, since nothing this administration has done so far has expanded individual liberty and personal freedom, nothing.

You may not like that facts, and you may wish that I had not mentioned them either, but the facts are the facts and while many people would like to ignore the facts (or even more likely) cover up the facts, they remain what they are, and the facts are that the policies of this administration are best described by the term fascism.

Oh, and one more thing, you and several others lately have talked about convincing others, productive discussion, or an open dialog. That is unmitigated male bovine effluvia. One can not have a productive discussion, an open dialog or a convincing argument if the two parties have not defined their terms and/are speaking in finite, mutually understood terminology. Water is water. Marriage is marriage, and fascism is fascism. Now we can have a discussion, because we have established the boundaries of the discussion and the meaning of the terms we will use.