Creeping fascism

David Neiwert is tackling the elephant in the room--the fact that the conservative movement is beginning to model its political tactics on those of fascists, in everything from calls of nationalistic superiority to exploiting fear that they then placate by portraying themselves as protector-fathers to stoking fears that degeneracy and racial mixing are "weakening" our nation. Fantastic stuff and very, very important to read.

Of course, violence and bullying tactics are also on the rise, but I imagine he'll deal with that later.

This entire situation troubles me, because we have a built-in blind spot, as a nation, to the possibility of fascism. We do not believe it is possible, and therefore we are not as wary as we should be of fascist appeals. We believe that fascism was magic worked on the German people by Hitler and when he died, so did fascism.

We think that Americans are naturally superior and therefore are immune. The irony is that believing in a natural superiority of your nation is the first step towards fascism.