When did America meet the definition of a fascist state?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. That depends on your definition.

A lot of people are hung up on massive state-sanctioned violence against citizens, and proclaim that if we don't exactly mirror some previous fascist nation, we aren't one. Or that 'fascism' depends upon state capture of corporations, as opposed to our corporate capture of the government.

But a lot of the steps took place in the wake of '9/11'. The creation of 'Homeland Security'. The ramping up and militarization of police forces. We've always had the quashing of nonviolent protests with force, so that's not new. "Free Speech Zones" - aka you don't have free speech or the right to assemble unless the government tells you just where and when you can. The use of government power to preference the wealthy elite isn't new either, that's another one that's been around since the beginning. The incredible expansion of surveillance of the population is fairly new, though.

But in the new fascism, violence is more often retail rather than wholesale, with police almost always evading any responsibility for their horrific actions, while control is through the age old 'bread and circuses' and elections whose outcomes are different only in the degree to which most folks get screwed.

So the increase in the rate of slide into fascism happened on 9/12/2001.