14 Characteristics of Fascism, should we be cautious?

Fascism is the “F Word” that seems to raise the hackles on most folks backs, unlike the ubiquitous one that many of us use to informally punctuate our sentences. This heavy handed word is being used as a demonizing tool by some people, and an actual description of possible trending in this country by others. My own informal definition of Fascism is where individual rights, freedom of speech, access to transparent news are limited and married with a great deal of “Corporate Cronyism” that benefits the Military Industrial Complex and world bankers. In addition, fear and False Flag events are used as a mind bending tool to justify wars and brutality.
Lawrence Britt, a high level business executive, who has a passion for contemporary history has examined many Fascist regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to the following regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin countries.
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

The individual display of flags as a symbol of national pride is benign. What is dangerous is when our national leaders portray our malicious behavior, as being acceptable because we are always the “Good Guys”, and others are “Evil Doers”, we are then approaching foreign affairs with an imperialistic myopic mythical chauvinistic point of view.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Our treatment of detainees has been despicable, in violation of the Geneva Conventions, very arbitrary, and lacks any sense of humanity and justice that our country was founded upon.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

In the past we used Communism as the scapegoat for oppression and military buildups, these days it is Muslim bashing. It has never been proven that 19 Muslim high-jackers flew planes into the WTC Towers, in fact seven have been identified as CIA operatives, and proven to be alive.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Today the military uses approximately half of our federal budget, with much of it buried in other departments other than “Defense”. A large portion of the mobilization and operations in the present Middle East wars are carried on by private no-bid contractors, who or have been “Crony Capitalist” buddies of people within the Pentagon and Whitehouse.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

It is still a white male dominated corporatocracy that primarily recognizes only the legitimacy of heterosexual male control. For example parity pay for women, who today only get paid approximately 77% of what a male receives for the same job description has been shot down primarily by a Conservative legislature. The Defense of Marriage Act and foot dragging on DADT in the military are additional examples of sexism and a lack of parity for homosexuals.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

The mass media today is owned and controlled by approximately six major corporations who have only one motive which is profit and not transparency. In addition many of these corporations have CEO’s and board members who sit on other corporations who benefit directly or indirectly from the Military Industrial Complex.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

Homeland Security has put a limit of citizen rights, privacy from wire tapping, and government inroads to monitor the internet. Intrusive body scans and searches are an exaggerated hoax that enriches government insiders.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

The words “God” and ‘Christian Nation” are invoked many times in government official discourse. Should a politician say that he is an Atheist or Agnostic, is to place a major blight on his career. There have been complaints by military field personnel in Iraq about top brass coercing soldiers toward forced Christian belief and worship.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

We have seen a real reticence to legislate and prosecute egregious behavior and overstepping by Wall Street and major Corporations. When there was Senate hearings relating to Cheney’s secret meetings with the major oil CEO’s about taking over the oil assets in Iraq, just 2 weeks prior to “9/11”, some of the politicians refused to require that the oil “Fat Cats” testify under oath at the hearings.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

The power of private union membership in the US has plummeted to 12% from a high of 30% a decade ago, a large cause for this has been weakened union lobbying and off shoring of jobs which has been exacerbated by NAFTA and low wages in other countries.


11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

Intellectuals are seen in this country as an irritant that promotes “Critical Thinking”, human rights, and questioning of nation state behavior.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

Habeas Corpus rules have been suspended by the invocation of Homeland Security and exaggerated abusive Executive power.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

With the major influence of Wall Street and Corporate “Personhood” use of lobbying money, the guy on the street does not have a reasonable chance to sway our corrupt politicians.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Stalin said, “I don’t care how many people vote for whom, only who counts the votes”. With allegations of past voter fraud in the Florida, supported by a Right Wing Supreme Court majority, which is difficult to uncover because of electronic voting machines, it is easy for “Hackers” and corrupted software programmers to change vote counts in the system.

Be it Communism or Fascism manifesting itself under a degree of Totalitarianism, supported by manufactured fear and enemies, governments ability to control the media, and “Corporate Cronyism”, the precious thing we call democracy, bolstered by our Constitutional rights, will be eroded and may die.