What is fascism...

Well... that explains it. I use the definition that is common to any moderately educated English speaker instead. So, unlike you, I don't NEED to make up my own definitions. I just use the one that already exists.

 

The common definition is a synonym for patriotism there's no such thing as extreme patriotism.

You're using the left wing super spooky definition.

 

You have to be aware that the guy Castro overthrew, Fulgencio Batista, was about as brutal a dictator as you can have. He especially liked burning people alive

 

True. And that is precisely why Castro was supported by so many Americans at the time.

 

No denying that, but the US government didn't seem to mind. It seems to be a sore spot that most presidents gloss over. Obama was the only one to change the game up, but then came agent orange.

 

The US government has a long and sad history of supporting dictators as long as they support us, there's no real defense of it

 

Indeed, I read of it in HRC's book,Hard Choices(a great read btw. Even as we're of different political opinions). It also makes the "who we are" crowd hollow AF. They're not against dictatorships, just against 'dictatorships' that apparently threaten their cozy lobbying jobs and the Washington Beltway.

There can be a real nuanced debate over all sorts of political systems, but it starts with understanding those systems and even better still, understanding if people really support a thing or not.(IE: I'm a Fascist, I don't mind being called one in the context of a proper debate and having said debate. We for example have had those kind of debates on this forum as you're staunchly far-left, and I respect that.)

Debate is only possible by understanding and respecting people's opinions, even as we try to defeat the other person's position.

 

I agree. The US has as much responsibility to the events that made Cuba what it is today as do the refugees who fled.

 

What is fascism? Here is fascism:

 

"But when fascism comes it will not be in the form of an anti-American movement or pro-Hitler bund, practicing disloyalty. Nor will it come in the form of a crusade against war. It will appear rather in the luminous robes of flaming patriotism; it will take some genuinely indigenous shape and color, and it will spread only because its leaders, who are not yet visible, will know how to locate the great springs of public opinion and desire and the streams of thought that flow from them and will know how to attract to their banners leaders who can command the support of the controlling minorities in American public life. The danger lies not so much in the would-be Fuhrers who may arise, but in the presence in our midst of certainly deeply running currents of hope and appetite and opinion. The war upon fascism must be begun there."

"We just can’t find the first actual instance of someone saying “when Fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross,” verbatim, although the general idea has clearly been around for nearly a century, at least. The quote’s warning is worth considering. But its origins remain mysterious."

https://relevantmagazine.com/cultur...e-wrapped-in-the-flag-and-carrying-a-cross-1/

Reagan himself was called the "Friendly Fascist" btw

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/frien...GcYaAgYSEALw_wcB#idiq=1198205&edition=1921169

 

I don't understand how you are blaming the refugees at all. Most were victims of Batista who hadn't supported Castro either.
If you want somebody to blame try the America Mafia, who used Havana as a huge money laundry.

 

I associate elements of Fascism with what people call patriotism.
My personal background relationships and current circumstances might be characterised as ‘international’ which is an influence on my world view.
I always feel unsettled watching people singing national anthems from anywhere that calls itself a country. To me there is a kind of mindlessness of it all, like people have surrendered the will to think and act independently.
See also religion.

 

@Aleksander Ulyanov i'm not sure lewis was the first to write it, but the quote rings much more truely than reagan's partisan antiregulatory hyperbole.

 

or the american corporations, including bacardi, who used battista to clear the peons from their own land.

 

"borders are imaginary lines drawn in the sand to choose teams for the next war. " rampart

 

Because the situation in Cuba did not happen overnight.

Batista was a good leader in the beginning. It was his second time doing a presidential stint (after another corrupt leader) that he started going south. It's a complicated and nuanced story that I heard many facets of while growing up. I believe there is a lesson to be learned here for Americans today.

The mafia's influence in Havana is only secondary to the US government's role in exacerbating and supporting Batista when they knew what he was doing.

 

I couldn't agree more. It is this faux uber patriotism that describes the MAGA minion.

Just this year alone, I have seen three different incidences of MAGA followers parading around in different parts of CA waving huge American and Trump flags out of the back of their pickup trucks. The last one occurred just the day before yesterday while I was vacationing on the central coast, while heading back from watching elephant seals on the beach, I heard a truck pass by on the Pacific Coast Highway carry those flags. The undercurrent of fanatical fascism is palpable and real.

 

Fits the bill with where some politicians like DeSantis are going.

They weren't fooled. Their country was taken by a violent revolution which turned the country into a totalitarian communism. Thinking someone in US is trying to do that here is ignorant as hell.

Oddly enough those who shriek the loudest about illegal immigration love illegal immigrants if they say they'll vote Republican

I am sure that is what you have been told, but it was a Dem who came up with "Wet Foot, Dry Foot" policy (Clinton) and Mariel boatlift (Carter).

 

It was only a matter of time

Sure, no one is saying commies are the good guys, because they are not. Its odd to see someone say "us fascists are bad, but commies are worse".

 

What is possibly wrong or detrimental with people having pride in their country, state, city, county, NFL team, MLB team, the high school football, basketball and volleyball teams not to mention the band, church, Rotary or Lions club, family, house, car, employer? No pride in any of those things? Pride only in a world one cannot possibly relate to?

 

Pride is fine, blind national patriotism is not in my view.
Consider all the 19 year old young men drafted to go to Vietnam to die because somebody told them it was their 'patriotic duty' to do so, the alternative being prison.

 

But you were talking about singing the national anthem.

 

Gobledyook and low grade gobledyook at that. You want to see what Fascism looks like the Biden speech the other night would be a text book example.

 

Adolph biden seems semi-fascist.

Post editorial board: Biden's 'scolding' and 'demeaning' speech fell short



Hitler screamed a lot,
Biden screams a lot.

Hitler scolded and demeaned people that didn't agree him.
Biden scolds and demeans people who don't agree with him.

I think that Biden and his ilk may be Semi-Fascists.