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Edited on Sat Sep-11-10 09:39 PM by 20score
If one follows the progression of the nineteenth century’s adage, “lies, damn lies and statistics,” propaganda would be the next logical step in the increasingly worse set of deceptions. Propaganda can crush economies, kill millions in unjust wars, change reality and alter history itself. As George Orwell said, “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.”
There is now a concerted effort by those that would fit the definition of corporatists, to change what it means to be on the left or the right, politically. Corporatism is of course a more polite and less politically charged way to say, fascism. Whatever word is used to describe it, it means a philosophy that gives more power to corporations than other more conventional political systems do. And despite what people like Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Beck say, it is a system started as a reaction against Marxism and liberal concepts such as social justice.
When Jonah Goldberg’s book, Liberal Fascism came out in January of 2008, many were a little shocked and it elicited more than a few laughs. But after Obama’s election, people who control right-wing messaging saw an advantage to pushing this meme. Glenn Beck and others on Fox News and right-wing radio pushed this untrue version of history between fictional stories about ACORN and the poor taking down the economy. Within a year, millions had changed what they believed about Hitler’s place on the political spectrum and how they defined the left and the right. After about seven decades of being the very definition of the far right, Hitler had moved to being on the far left - at least for those easily manipulated by these types of propaganda campaigns. But there was nothing other than one word, ‘socialist,’ as in National Socialist Party, to help back up their new definition of the left and of fascism. So, enter a new falsehood in the war on reality and history. A fabricated graph showing the left as meaning 100% government control, and the right being portrayed as no government, or complete anarchy.
There is a year old video still making the rounds in certain circles, titled, Republic vs. Democracy. As with all good deceptions, it has truth in it, also. The definitions of a republic and a democracy are correct. The video points out, contrary to what many on the right believe, that if a law is not constitutionally sound, it will not stand in a republic. There is history in the video that is also correct, albeit incomplete. These truths are put forward in order to garner support for a complete falsehood. In this video, the more authoritarian and the more government control there is, the more left wing the ideology falls on the videos graph. The less government, the more right wing on the graph. Monarchies, oligarchies and dictatorships all fall on the left, according to this video. It ignores the etymology of the words, left and right with regard to politics. Those words came to mean certain political views because of the seating of the National Assembly, during and after the French Revolution. The more conservative and authoritarian people, supporting the monarchy on the right; and the more liberal supporters of the common man and the revolution, on the left side of the National Assembly. The video ignores not only the origins of the words, but the current definitions also. Words mean what they mean because people agree to their meaning, arbitrarily creating one’s own definition of words does not change their correct definition. For years, being on the right meant being conservative - being for the status quo. Since society has generally moved in a more progressive direction, giving more freedoms to individuals as the centuries pass, those hanging on to the past are more authoritarian by definition. Even if the ideas they are holding onto were once considered to be liberal positions.
There is a reason for changing the history and definition of what it means to be on the left or the right. The people who made this video, along with others who are pushing this meme of the fascist liberal, are doing so in order to make people okay with supporting far right ideologies. If the left is proposing programs that benefit the poor and middle class and the left can be tied to Hitler, then obviously the left is on the wrong side and should be fought tooth and nail. If the right is supporting ideas that help the rich, but are on the same side as those who fought Hitler, then they must be on the right side of the issues today.
To be infuriated with those who are pushing the falsehoods concerning liberal fascism is a rational response. These people are ignoring reality and changing history to be able to make things decidedly worse for a majority of the country. They are tarnishing the memory of those who came before us and made the world a better place than it otherwise would have been. They are taking what has been and continues to be, some of the best of humanity that works for a better society and defaming them as some of the worst elements of mankind. These people are also arrogant enough to disregard what people have chosen to call themselves, and decided for others what they will now be labeled.
We have all seen in recent years some extremely unlikely memes take hold. We should not ignore this one in hopes that it will disappear on its own.
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