Clues that your country may be turning into a fascist state

Following Bush and Rumsfeld's all-out assault on the patriotism of yer average American this week, naming all and sundry (ie anyone who disagrees with them) "fascists" - and since they brought the subject up... I thought I'd take another look at the old Warning signs of fascism lists which have been floating round the internet for the past few years. I linked to some of them in yesterday's blog post.

Here's one I found and borrowed from The Progressive Review. Thanks, guys! You can add to the list at their website.

NOTE: Some of these symptoms are found in non-fascist countries where they should be treated as serious warning signs. On the other hand, fascist states - unlike democratic nations - have many, if not all, of these symptoms:

• Your president asserts the right to ignore part or all of laws passed by the national legislature


• Massive warrantless searches


• Your president and other officials regularly lie to you


• Fraudulent election counts


• Government monitoring of letters, emails, phone calls and checking accounts


• Secret courts


• A government subservient to the interests of the country's largest corporations


• Use of torture on prisoners


• Courts that support presidential use of unconstitutional powers


• Massive spying on citizens, especially those involved in political dissent


• A government that uses words like democracy, freedom and peace while engaging in acts dramatically at odds with such words


• Government agencies or officials declaring themselves exempt from portions of the law or constitution


• Creation of watchlists, no-fly lists and similar exclusionary documents


• National ID cards


• Growing number of citizens incarcerated for a growing number of offenses


• Massive use of cameras to spy on citizens


• A media supportive of, or obsequious towards, the government in covering its police state activities


• Security bubble around government leaders' public appearances including preselected audiences and limit on proximity of protests


• Disarming of citizenry


• Dissent characterized as disloyal by government and its supporting media


• Increasing government control over private behavior


• Lack of legal recourse to stop illegal government actions


• Prison without trial and arrests without charges


• It is difficult to borrow books from libraries pertaining to controversial subjects such as, communism, socialism, and, fascism.


• Transfer of powers from legislatures to executive


• Assassinations of popular public figures


• Expansion of prisons and laws that lead people to prisons


• President claims right to make war whenever he wants


• Words misused to mean their opposite: ie peace for war, democracy for fascism


• The president sets himself up as the sole moral authority for the entire country, using his personal beliefs as the basis on which to declare what is 'good' and what is 'evil'.

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

And tomorrow (since they brought it up), maybe we'll examine Bush's grandpa's links with the Nazis, and take a look at Rumsfeld making nice with Saddam Hussein in the days when being friends with that particular dictator was A-OK. Because they did, after all, bring the subject up.

Useful Links

• 12 warning signs of fascism
• Clues Your Country May Be Turning Into A Fascist State
• Fascism
  
• Fascism (Wikipedia)
  
• Fascism Anyone?
• Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism
  
• George W Bush and the 14 Points of fascism
• Is the U.S. showing signs of turning into a fascist state?
• Keith Olberman on Donald Rumsfeld - great video!
• Signs of a Police State Are Everywhere
• Top ten signs of the impending U.S. Police State

Technorati tags: George Bush, Nazis, fascism, warning signs of fascism, fascist, Donald Rumsfeld, hypocrisy, politics, America.