Some of our states are passing laws that are evocative of dictatorships and the result is silence

[dsc]

Florida passed a law that mandates that LGBT people not be discussed at all in k - 3 and only in 'age appropriate' ways in other grades with the violators facing lawsuits. Idaho passed a law banning affirming care for trans teens including banning people from leaving the state to get such care, the penalty is a felony with prison time up to life in prison. Missouri is about to pass a law banning women from leaving the state to get abortions and authorizing suits against people who help them do so (even if those people aren't from Missouri). And one could watch MSNBC 24/7 and not hear a word about these laws. Disney literally told their employees who were upset over Florida's law and Disney's contributions to politicians who enacted it, to get therapy. I know there are important things happening but it seems this should merit a mention on the news.

[spanone]

1. ...K&R...

Creeping authoritarianism

[Kid Berwyn]

2. Friendly Fascism

Bertram Gross coined the phrase.

“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.” — President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Professor Bertram Gross said fascism was transformed, almost imperceptibly, but is the mechanism of making the rich richer and the rest under their thumb...

Friendly Fascism

The New Face of Power in America

by Bertram Gross

South End Press, 1980, paper

"As long as an economic system provides an acceptable degree of security, growing material wealth and opportunity for further increase for the next generation, the average American does not ask who is running things or what goals are being pursued." — Daniel R. Fusfeld

Introduction, Rise and Fall of Classic Fascism
The Takeoff Toward a New Corporate Society
The Mysterious Establishment
The Specter of Friendly Fascism
Subverting Democratic Machinery
Impossibility: It Couldn't Happen
Quotations

Source w/ links: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Friendly_Fascism_BGross.html

The Unfolding Logic

p161
... as I survey the entire panorama of contending forces, I can readily detect something more important: the outline of a powerful logic of events. This logic points toward tighter integration of every First World Establishment. In the United States it points toward more concentrated, unscrupulous, repressive, and militaristic control by a Big Business-Big Government partnership that-to preserve the privileges of the ultra-rich, the corporate overseers, and the brass in the military and civilian order-squelches the rights and liberties of other people both at home and abroad. That is friendly fascism.

p162
At any particular moment First World leaders may respond to crisis like people in a crowded night club when smoke and flames suddenly billow forth. They do not set up a committee to plan their response. Neither do they act in a random or haphazard fashion. Rather, the logic of the situation prevails. Everyone runs to where they think the exits are. In the ensuing melee some may be trampled to death. Those who know where the exits really are, who are most favorably situated, and have the most strength will save themselves.

Thus it was in Italy, Japan, and Germany when the classic fascists came to power. The crisis of depression, inflation, and class conflict provided an ideal opportunity for the cartels, warmongers, right-wing extremists, and rowdy street fighters to rush toward power. The fascist response was not worked out by some central cabal of secret conspirators. Nor was it a random or accidental development. The dominant logic of the situation prevailed.

Thus too it was after World War II. Neither First World unity nor the Golden International was the product of any central planners in the banking, industrial, political, or military community. Indeed, there was then-as there still is-considerable conflict among competing groups at the pinnacle of the major capitalist establishments. But there was a broad unfolding logic about the way these conflicts were adjusted and the "Free World" empire came into being. This logic involved hundreds of separate plans and planning committees-some highly visible, some less so, some secret. It encompassed the values and pressures of reactionaries, conservatives, and liberals. In some cases, it was a logic of response to anticapitalist movements and offensives that forced them into certain measures-like the expanded welfare state-which helped themselves despite themselves.

Although the friendly fascists are subversive elements, they rarely see themselves as such. Some are merely out to make money under conditions of stagflation. Some are merely concerned with keeping or expanding their power and privileges. Many use the rhetoric of freedom, liberty, democracy, human values, or even human rights. In pursuing their mutual interests through a new coalition of concentrated oligarchic power, people may be hurt-whether through pollution, shortages, unemployment, inflation, or war. But that is not part of their central purpose. It is the product of invisible hands that are not theirs.

Source: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Specter_FriendlyFascism_FF.html

[ZonkerHarris]

22. I know Bertram's son David. He teaches at USC. I tried to get a documentary made of the book

after Trump became president.
Hollywood was too scared to do it.

[Kid Berwyn]

23. That film would rock The System.

Bertram taught at my alma mater, Wayne State University, in Detroit, where he founded the Center for Urban Studies. While I was not his student, a number of his colleagues remember his work. Thank you for sharing, ZonkerHarris!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. "And one could watch MSNBC 24/7 and not hear a word about these laws."

And one could watch MSNBC 24/7 and not hear a word about these laws.

Can you think of a solution?

[RussBLib]

9. I have heard them mentioned, but not enough.

Democrats should be standing up and shredding this BS.

[Irish_Dem]

4. The GOP and Putin have the same goals.

Total permanent power and access to all their country's financial assets. The GOP will give their MAGA base white christian minority rule. We will be living in a tightly controlled autocratic and fascist regime.

State by state, we will see these kinds of laws enacted.

The GOP is taking over the voting apparatus, has a huge propaganda arm in Fox News and the US media.

Disney needs to be boycotted if they brushed off the concerns of their employees about these new laws.

[gab13by13]

6. Eventually we will end up just like Russia,

one of our political parties has become the Putin party, or as Liz Cheney puts it, "members of the Putin party.

Dare I even bring up DOJ? I will get blasted.

There is only one way for a minority to rule the majority. Think about this, Joseph Biden got 8 million more votes than Donald Trump and we have a debate in the United States over who won.

Our only hope is to GOTV in rigged elections, not a good scenario.

[Irish_Dem]

8. Yes that is the goal, to be an autocratic, fascist state.

Exactly, the goal is to permanently prevent the Democratic Party from holding power.

Right if the GOP owns the voting system, how effective will GOTV be?

[gab13by13]

10. I am still upset over DOJ allowing a pro-Trump fake company,

have access to ballots, voter information, election materials and equipment, all in violation of both state and federal laws. Because DOJ did nothing, these fraudits spread to other states fueling the Big Lie where honest election officials are being systematically replaced with Magats. I'm still pizzed. A citizens group, not DOJ, filed a FOIA request for Cyber Ninjas to turn over documents and a judge agreed and ordered it. When Cyber Ninjas refused they were fined 10's of thousands of dollars a day, which they just laughed at because they are a fake company with a mail box for an office.

Rant off.

[Irish_Dem]

11. If not this way, Putin and the GOP would get the info some other way.

Plenty of their corruption and skullduggery every where.

[ificandream]

5. Please don't misinform people about the news. These stories have been reported extensively.

Here's one link.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/disney-ceo-bob-chapek-support-lgbtq-1235197938/

[yardwork]

25. Are you serious?

Reported extensively?

[ificandream]

26. Absolutely ..

Check out the links. Google is your friend. The media is covering these stories.

[link:https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/dont-say-gay-bill-florida-senate-passes-controversial-lgbtq-school-mea-rcna19133|]

[link:https://time.com/6155905/florida-dont-say-gay-passed/|]

[link:https://www.newsweek.com/idaho-house-passes-anti-trans-youth-treatment-bill-hb675-1686298|]

[link:https://www.npr.org/2021/05/03/991987280/idahos-transgender-sports-ban-faces-a-major-legal-hurdle|]

[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/08/missouri-abortion-ban-texas-supreme-court/|]

[link:https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/missouri-revisits-8-week-abortion-ban-as-laws-are-challenged-nationwide|]

[usajumpedtheshark]

7. Another reason I fear for the future of this country

Ten years ago I was looking forward to having grandchildren but now I'm anxious what kind of country their generation will inherit.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

12. Mainly because many people think if the law doesn't apply to them, it doesn't affect them.

They're wrong.

[leftstreet]

15. +1

[Delphinus]

17. +1,000

If we've learned nothing else from Covid, it's that what affects one, affects others. We are all connected.

[betsuni]

13. These things have been reported on the news.

I know about all of these things and don't live in the U.S., I saw them on the news.

[JoanofArgh]

14. Ruth Ben Ghiat who wrote Strongmen :Mussolini to the Present

tweeted this

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=eIhyFsSpySmNGUUblXrpNw

More ideas for measures that don't just take away rights, but also incentivize people to turn on each other: both are key to creating authoritarianism.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. I don't think we know how to organize in Florida.

Here I have been on DU, several times trying to reach out to DUers to come together and...crickets.

Republicans have it so much easier because they start bringing their type of people to their homes under the guise of fellowship and worship. And in the end, they're financial consultants selling whatever product they want to sell.

So, I'm putting it out there. Starting in June, if progressives in the area want a place to come together to talk about the coming election, I will have a place for them here. Just expect it to get infiltrated, because that's how the other side do in Florida.

[twodogsbarking]

18. The internet is a great source for information.

But it changes people. The information may just be lies in disguise.

[Snackshack]

19. The silence

Is deafening. I keep seeing tweets from Sen. Schumer about what a good day today would be for President Biden to cancel student debt and various other issues but not a peep about what when would be a good day to get tough with the GOP on voting rights.

[JoanofArgh]

20. +1

When Biden got elected , one of the first things I wanted them to tackle (besides the COVID stuff) was voting tights because it's the foundation of everything, to remaining a Democracy.

[dlilafae]

21. dsc,

You're not wrong!!!

I'm not sure if people don't possess the ability to grasp what is unfolding b/c they're just numb, or if they lack they simply lack the intelligence to assuage the gravity of the situation?

Either way, there should be more outrage and backlash, and I haven't seen much being reported. Although, my trumpy ass Governor (who aspirations are a Senate seat), just had to walk back a gay conversion therapy Bill. No one has reported the reasoning for such, or has said why, but we understand. Because this manner of thinking is inherently flawed. ~ Supremely!

The History of Conversion Therapy/Snip ~

There were plenty of theories as to why people were homosexual. For Eugen Steinach, a pioneering Austrian endocrinologist, homosexuality was rooted in a man’s testicles. This theory led to testicle transplantation experiments in the 1920s during which gay men were castrated, then given “heterosexual” testicles.”

Others theorized that homosexuality was a psychological disorder instead. Sigmund Freud hypothesized that humans are born innately bisexual and that homosexual people become gay because of their conditioning. But though Freud emphasized that homosexuality wasn’t a disease, per se, some of his colleagues didn’t agree. They began to use new psychiatric interventions in an attempt to “cure” gay people.

Some LGBTQ people were given electro-convulsive therapy, but others were subjected to even more extreme techniques like lobotomies. Other “treatments” included shocks administered through electrodes that were implanted directly into the brain. Robert Galbraith Heath, a psychiatrist in New Orleans who pioneered the technique, used this form of brain stimulation, along with hired prostitutes and heterosexual pornography, to “change” the sexual orientation of gay men. But though Heath contended he was able to actually turn gay men straight, his work has since been challenged and criticized for its methodology.

[:https://www.history.com/news/gay-conversion-therapy-origins-19th-century|

[:|

[yardwork]

24. Well, yes. It's been happening for a long time now - fascist takeover of the U.S.

Extremely wealthy white supremacists are funding it. Hell, extremely wealthy white supremacists own all the news outlets.

It's grim.