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  • WaxedWookie@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyz•Just a little guy
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    7 months ago

    Breathing - famous for being optional for those that would like to live.

    Yes, there have only been around 3 people killed by them (largely because they’re shy, aquatic, and somewhat uncommon), and intervention can be made to stop them from killing you, but they’re one of the most toxic animals on the planet, and are unquestionably deadly.








  • When very charitably, at least 12 of Eco’s 14 signs of Ur fascism has been checked off along with the dictionary definition, this is a pretty weak argument - Where do you get your meaning of words if it’s not based on the dictionary or on something’s traits?

    Deregulation and the outsourcing of state power to complicit, newly empowered commercial interests is standard within fascism, and pushing that power from notionally democratic direct government control to undemocratic businesses that have an interest in preserving the government that removed their guardrails and handed them all that power is undeniably authoritarian. Would you make the argument that company towns aren’t authoritarian or centralised because it’s not government power?

    Excessive debt is indeed a driver of authoritatian policy for better or worse, but fascism isn’t the only flavour of authoritarianism. Similarly, company towns tend to thrive in small government environments, and are historically incredibly authoritarian. That’s not a good thing.


  • Oh - my mistake - you think you’re not supporting fascism… It’d be quaint if it weren’t for the consequences.

    Fascism is characterised by the merging of state and commercial interests, not a strong centralised authority in a beuracratic sense. Let’s run the list, shall we?

    ā€œThe cult of traditionā€, characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.

    Check.

    ā€œThe rejection of modernismā€, which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement, as many fascist regimes cite their industrial potency as proof of the vitality of their system.

    Check.

    ā€œThe cult of action for action’s sakeā€, which dictates that action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.

    Check.

    ā€œDisagreement is treasonā€ – fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.

    Big check.

    ā€œFear of differenceā€, which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.

    That couldn’t be Trum- CHECK.

    ā€œAppeal to a frustrated middle classā€, fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.

    Check.

    ā€œObsession with a plotā€ and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society. Eco also cites Pat Robertson’s book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.

    Check.

    Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as ā€œat the same time too strong and too weakā€. On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.

    Check.

    ā€œPacifism is trafficking with the enemyā€ because ā€œlife is permanent warfareā€ – there must always be an enemy to fight. Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to not build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.

    Ukraine/Palestine - soft check.

    ā€œContempt for the weakā€, which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate leader, who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.

    Check.

    ā€œEverybody is educated to become a heroā€, which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, ā€œ[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.ā€

    Soft check, but that’s clearly firming up.

    ā€œMachismoā€, which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold ā€œboth disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexualityā€.

    Check.

    ā€œSelective populismā€ – the people, conceived monolithically, have a common will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he alone dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of ā€œno longer represent[ing] the voice of the peopleā€.

    Check.

    ā€œNewspeakā€ – fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.

    Check.

    I’ve got bad news for you…