Comments | aibas: thought provoking link

aibas

thought provoking link

Feb 25, 2005 14:22

Facism, anyone? http://www.bushflash.com/14

Comments 13

All in the telling iskushenie February 25 2005, 23:07:53 UTC

While this is interesting and suggestive, I disagree with the conclusions drawn. First off I think you'd be hard pressed to accuse the Bush administration of sexism. Secondly, a lot of these are based on opinions, suspicions, and conspiracy theories, not on facts. It's easy to demonize those whom you disagree with and fear. While pagans, homosexuals, and leftists feel that they have been demonized by the Bush administration, most of those in the opposite camp feel that the left has demonized the Bush administration out of an unwillingness to accept that there is a substantial portion of the population that disagrees with them. I would note that the left has also felt free to declare half of the american people no better than a group of half wit thugs. We have an ideological war going on, with the future of american society hanging in the balance. Both sides are being dishonest. This is just dishonesty from the side that pisses me off more.

Re: All in the telling heronguy February 26 2005, 04:47:02 UTC

Regardless of one's personal politics, I think one would be hard-pressed to say that the Bush regime is NOT fascist (or, for that matter, sexist). The only question is whether fascism (or sexism) is a bad thing or a good thing. For years the right wing labeled the left wing "communist" (which is essentially true), now the left wing labels the right wing "fascist" (which is also essentially true). "Communism" and "fascism", in their purest forms, both look pretty good on paper and fail pretty miserably in the real world. It is true that the left is currently demonizing the right as "half-wit thugs", in much the same way the right demonized the left as "unpatriotic traitors" just a few years ago. The leadership of the right wing are not half-wits, and the followership of the right wing are not thugs, although the converse is probably not true. I can't speak for homosexuals or leftists, but as a Pagan (it's the proper name of a religion, literate people capitalize it) yes, my faith community has been demonized by George W. Bush, ( ... )

Re: All in the telling iskushenie February 26 2005, 10:22:53 UTC

It's 2:00 AM, or about five hours past my normal bedtime, so I apologize in advance if this makes less sense than normal. I would tend to agree that the extreme left are communists and the extreme right are fascists. I disagree that either looks good on paper. Both make egregious errors in their presuppositions. Pure socialism is a bad idea. Pure capitalism is a bad idea. And that's moving towards the center from both extremes (which go beyond bad to horrible). I would disagree that the Bush administration is fascist. They might wish to be fascist, they certainly have tendencies in that direction, but we're a long way from fascism. If we weren't we wouldn't be having this conversation. The left doesn't lie, they simply see the world differently from the right. The right would argue that their worldview doesn't make sense. I would argue that their worldview doesn't make sense. As to the final comment in that atrocious video, the rest of the world can feel free to hate our government, but I wouldn't voluntarily live under ( ... )

Re: All in the telling heronguy February 28 2005, 05:24:43 UTC

Actually, yes, I can see why a non-Pagan would not recognize that Paganism is a religion, in much the same way that many non-Christians do not recognize Christianity as a religion. "Paganism" (or "NeoPaganism") is a religion in the same sense that "Christianity" is a religion. For sake of analogy, there are a small number of major sects of "Christianity", called things like "Orthodox", "Catholic" and "Protestant". Within the division called "Protestant", there are sub-sects called things like "Baptist", "Anglican", and "Quaker". One would be awfully hard-pressed to claim any theological "cohesion" between Quakers and Catholics, but they are both still "Christian". Within Paganism, there are also several major sects, such as "Wicca", "Druidism", "Thelema", and "Asatru". Within the division called "Wicca" there are also many sub-sects, called things like "Gardnerian", "Feri", or "Dianic". One would be equally hard-pressed to claim any theological cohesion between Dianic Wicca and Asatru, but they are both still Pagan ( ... )

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