semantic fearmongering
Yesterday, pResident G.W. Bush redefined our so-called "War on Terror[ism]", declaring that we are at war against "Islamic Fascists."
Some would say that this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Fascism is an extreme right-wing political stance. Personally, I see a resemblance between Bush/Cheney and notable fascist regimes from history; I don't see a similar resemblance between Islamic fundamentalists and fascists.
It appears to me that Bush was simply using the term "fascist" as a scare tactic. "Fascist" sounds evil and brings to mind horrible events such as the Nazi Holocaust. While al-Qaeda is truly fighting us, they bear little resemblance to fascist regimes known to me (and I am a student of history).
WINTER FUNDRAISER DAY 6
4 minutes ago
Fascism is an extreme right-wing political stance
ReplyDeleteActually I take issue with that assessment ;) - both fascism and nazism were extreme political stances, but both had features drawn from extreme right- and left- wing positions. Both were anti-democratic in a major way. In fact there was a lot of similarity between fascism/nazism and the system operating in the USSR at the same time, Stalinism. I don't particularly like Bush's use of the term 'Islamo-fascism', but whatever you think of Bush it isn't entirely inaccurate; I wouldn't want to be a woman, or a gay man (although I'm that anyway) in a country run according to fundamentalist Islamic principles; of course being a gay man ina country run accordiung to strict Catholic or fundamentalist Christian principles isn't such great fun either ;)
Glad to see you posting semi-regularly again, btw.