Seriously. All of these comments talking about the legality are completely missing the point. At most this indicts the current laws, rather than the person who was illegally and immorally surveilled, searched, detained, coerced, and now harassed through the legal system. Anybody standing on a narrow view of "but this is just the law" while we have an outright hostile government that actively hates our individual liberties has wholly lost the plot.
I want to engage with this comment in good faith, but I'm confused on what is trying to be said.
Per American Heritage Dictionary 5th Edition:
> A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
Looking at this case so far;
- we have not observed any dictatorial behavior,
- this is unrelated to economics,
- we have not observed any violent suppression,
- we have not observed any actions based on nationalism/race,
given these facts, at least by this definition of fascism, there appears to be none yet present in this case.
What history books or definition should Americans learn from that would lead them to view what transpired as fascism, and how should that inform their beliefs/decisions differently than how they are currently informed about the situation?
> we have not observed any dictatorial behavior, - this is unrelated to economics, - we have not observed any violent suppression, - we have not observed any actions based on nationalism/race,
So the main thing tying your comment together is that you have not been observing? This does not seem particularly "good faith", nor does it make for an interesting or productive conversation.
I stated 'we' not 'I'. And I did not imply that we haven't been observing, I was stating historically that, with all we have observed about this duress pin case, we have yet to observe any of the listed things happening.
If one believes we have, in fact, observed any of the above things taking place - rather than complaining about an uninteresting or unproductive conversation - one should contribute evidence to the contrary, which would be productive by informing everyone here.
Yes, I translated. You used the word "we" to make it sound like this is a universal opinion, when the reality is that it is merely your opinion.
There are well-known examples of every single one of the bullet points you "have not observed". So either you have not been paying much attention, which can be fixed with some simple web searches. Or you are being willfully ignorant of the widespread criticism, which is a disingenuous framing if you are truly interested in "good faith" discussion.
Hey now, you can't just go casually dropping F-bombs like that in polite conversation. "Fascism" is something terrible from history, highly specific to that time, and can never happen again unless the people involved loudly proclaim themselves Fascists. And even then it's questionable if they would have the right to use the trademark! In fact I'm not even sure if I believe that the events that happened in Italy during the early 20th century should be called fascism. The word means something really really bad (though I'm not sure what), and we shouldn't speak ill of the dead.
What's happening in the US is something completely new, different, and totally worth seeing what it can accomplish this time. Think of all those sci-fi "dystopias" with a privileged ruling class living lives of comfort and luxury, and not having to think about the filthy underclass. Good vibes are what I'm here for.
