Posted on 10/05/2016 1:33:06 PM PDT by Kaslin
The Left is relentless in its attempt to nail the label of “fascist” to those on the right side of the political spectrum, Donald Trump being the most recent victim of this deceitful tactic. In truth, it is the massive increase in regulations and cronyism brought about by the progressive Left, that has the U.S. more and more resembling an actual fascist state.
Anyone wishing to experience this on a macro scale need only attempt doing business in California. Take just one industry as an example: construction, and one small sub-section within it: electrical -- the industry in which I work. As an electrical contractor for nearly twenty years, I’ve seen the regulatory environment grow over time but especially so over the last decade.
Surprisingly, individuals and corporations are still permitted to own property within the Peoples Republic of California. But those wanting to actually develop said property will quickly discover “ownership” is merely a relative term.
Again, taking just one area -- consumption of electricity -- look at the control the state now maintains over the use of private property. The California Energy Commission has a set of regulations called Title-24 that dictate the strict energy saving requirements for the construction of residential and commercial “private property.” All for the collective good, of course. Now, the free market already provides all the information and incentive necessary to employ any energy (cost) saving measures -- if an “owner” chooses to do so. But far from being right-wing, fascism is the antithesis of individuals being free to choose.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Holy crap. I knew the bloat of government was bad, and the erosion of our industrial base was critical, but I had no idea.
No idea. This shocked me, though it shouldn't have.
I would have hoped you meant the first two sentences, not the first two words, but...I understand the point you make.
You and I see “The Left” and we get all the meaning in those two words. Others might not be so tuned in.
There are several versions of right vs. left, but on the spectrum of total freedom vs. totalitarian state, anarchy is indeed on the far right. Complete and total freedom, with no rules/laws/responsibility, no enforcement, because there are no laws. Anarchy is also short-lived, in that those who do not wish to live in total anarchy usually come together in some form of governance (tribal). Monarchy is really not a single ruler, neither is dictatorship, it's actually an oligarchy designed to have a figurehead, but that single figurehead can do nothing without willing support.
People who call themselves anarchists today are really just liberal disruptors who would piss themselves if true anarchy were to suddenly break out.
A more accurate version of political philosophy is a two axis system. One axis is political authority and the other axis is financial authority.
Alternately, the axes may be authority and rationality.
What is is kind of funny is that, when you go off one edge, you loop back to the other side. For instance, extreme ‘anarchists’ often start looking like fascists...
It always comes down to the question of “Who’s going to enforce this, and how?”
Reason would bring a society to a moderate philosophy. Not too tight, not too loose.
ping
The first questions to ask about politics is:
(1) is the function of the state to limited or unlimited?
and is any area of human life to be inviolate, exempt from governmental coercion?
or
is the state to be all-encompassing and all-powerful?
(2) Do men have certain rights which the state cannot transgress?
or
may the state properly act without restriction, in any sphere to achieve its purposes?
The answers to these questions separate fascism from the right.
I’m surprised at the blowback to your quip. I for one got exactly what you meant. And it wasn’t a bad comment.
Obamacare is fascist.
With all due respect, and pardon me for being blunt, I find that claim to be very stupid, claiming that the far left represents totalitarianism absolutely, while the far right represents total freedom/anarchy.
And the reason I would list that as stupid is because I can name quite a few adherents of anarchy who were if anything of the far left. For example, Michel Foucault, who basically demanded that society tear itself apart due to even existence being an oppressive state, or Jean-Paul Sartre who considered absolute freedom of the individual, including the freedom to commit murder, to be the highest good even while acting as a stooge for Communism, or how about Bill Ayers and/or Noam Chomsky, both of whom adhered to anarchism. Might as well as mention Nicola and Bart as well, they adhered to anarchism as well, and they were radical leftists.
If anything, total anarchy and totalitarian states both sit on exactly the same placement on the political axis (ie, far-left), at best are only separated by a few degrees, not polar opposites on the spectrum.
Other than maybe the pejorative that’s used by leftists like George Lucas against conservatives, and maybe the uniforms and the fact that “Stormtroopers” was a unit name (which wasn’t even the SA, and if anything was closer to the Stoßtruppen of World War I, and as far as the uniforms, technically, they were derived more from German Uhlans, who predated Nazi Germany), I fail to see how the Galactic Empire was even remotely Fascist. Militaristic, sure, but fascist? In the Imperial Handbook, they actually allowed the Corporate Sector to actually embrace free markets without any control from the Empire (at most, only requiring some percentage of the profits), that’s not fascist. It also doesn’t help that Lucas made it explicitly clear that the Empire was based on Nixon’s America, and the Rebels were based on the Vietcong.
Anarchy - definition: NOUN a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority: "he must ensure public order in a country threatened with anarchy" synonyms: lawlessness, & nihilism. Absense of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.
Most who claim to be anarchists are really just people who want to tear down existing governments/societies and replace them with their own ideals. They are not anarchists.
I get my view on this from the following video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJfwa9XKZQ
As an aside. I didn’t say anarchists, or those claiming to be anarchists, were on the right side of the spectrum. I said anarchy was. Total absence of government is about as far right as it gets. That video I linked states that the very people who want to tear down the system and call themselves anarchists are the very people who want to be put in charge when those who fear living in anarchy come calling for help. They are not true anarchists in the strictest definition of anarchy. I actually agree with the rest of your post, in that most of your examples are far-left commies. They are better defined as Anarcho-Communists, in that their end goal isn’t total freedom, but total state control.
“Anarchy - definition: NOUN a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority: “he must ensure public order in a country threatened with anarchy” synonyms: lawlessness, & nihilism. Absense of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.
Most who claim to be anarchists are really just people who want to tear down existing governments/societies and replace them with their own ideals. They are not anarchists.
I get my view on this from the following video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ODJfwa9XKZQ “
So, someone like the Joker from The Dark Knight or Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI in other words (and they certainly adhered to the whole disorder and anarchy, to the extent that they’re perfectly willing to off themselves just to prove it)? Yeah, that doesn’t really dissuade my views on how anarchy is even right-wing. Want to know what my view of right-wing is? Theocracy, more specifically, the type of theocracy where God is the unquestioned ruler of everyone and everything, controlling everyone like puppets. Anarchy, at its absolute extreme, can’t even allow for God to exist, because as long as God exists, there IS a form of government.
“As an aside. I didn’t say anarchists, or those claiming to be anarchists, were on the right side of the spectrum. I said anarchy was. Total absence of government is about as far right as it gets. That video I linked states that the very people who want to tear down the system and call themselves anarchists are the very people who want to be put in charge when those who fear living in anarchy come calling for help. They are not true anarchists in the strictest definition of anarchy. I actually agree with the rest of your post, in that most of your examples are far-left commies. They are better defined as Anarcho-Communists, in that their end goal isn’t total freedom, but total state control.”
Even Karl Marx demanded for the end of the state, though (I believe one of the key fundamentals of Communism was the creation of not just a classless society, but a stateless one as well). Heck, Michel Foucault even implied at one point that he actually WANTED a world where people slaughtered each other for no other reason other than due to it being fun (I believe some of his exact words were, and I quote, “I would like to reply to you in terms of Spinoza and say that the proletariat doesn’t wage war against the ruling class because it considers such a war to be just. The proletariat makes war with the ruling class because, for the first time in history, it wants to take power. And because it will overthrow the power of the ruling class it considers such a war to be just.” and “When the proletariat takes power, it may be quite possible that the proletariat will exert towards the classes over which it has just triumphed, a violent, dictatorial and even bloody power. I can’t see what objection one could make to this.” Seriously, this guy’s the closest we’ve got to the real life equivalent of Heath Ledger’s version of the Joker, including, as his quotes indicate, chaos simply for the sake of chaos.).
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