Words Words Words

a reflection on fascism and Kent State

Jon Stewart doesn't like to use the word "fascist" because he's afraid if we overuse the word, it will lose its potency. He's probably right. Since I was a child, liberals have called conservatives "fascists," and conservatives have called liberals "communists," and neither was terribly accurate.

If I was 19 after Kent State, I probably would have called Nixon a fascist and a bunch of other things. After the illegal bombing of Cambodia, I probably would have then too. That Senate Republicans were willing to prosecute him for Watergate but not Cambodia always bothered me. No impeachment would work without the Senate Republicans, and I guess Watergate was a bridge too far for them.

Fascism is a pretty specific thing, and we probably do overuse the word too much. Racism and white supremacist ideas don't equate to fascism. There were a lot of good Southern boys fighting Hitler who came home to put on some good old-fashioned lynching.

With Elon Musk, it's hard to tell. After the war, a fairly large number of ex-pat Germans moved to South Africa, but there were as many Jews as nazis. I can't equate apartheid to fascism because it's super similar to what Mississippi had for generations.

One thing I noticed about the "Unite The Right" rally in Charlottesville was that there seems to be a unification of far-right groups, and all the old labels are hard to apply correctly anymore.

When Heather Heyer died, I was still pretty deep in rehabilitation, but I heard the clarion call to pay attention to politics again. Before that, I just assumed Donald Trump was the same clown he was on "Celebrity Apprentice", but this was something different.

I felt like Penn Jillette would have warned me since he was on the show. Maybe he did, but he tends to speak enigmatically, so maybe I missed it. Gary Bussy did. Since he's nuts, I ignored him. Maybe he's not so nuts.

Maybe fascism isn't the right word anymore. The elements I worry about are the White Supremacy, homophobia, Misogyny, and perhaps the worst of all, this anything-to-gain-power attitude. The Constitution is specifically designed to prevent power grabs, but we've been chipping away at those precautions for seventy years, and I'm worried about how strong what we left might be.

I'm gonna start really trying to use more accurate words than "fascist." I know lots of words, so maybe it won't be so bad. I always thought Nixon was an absolute limit in the American Experiment. Boy, was I ever wrong. Nixon didn't even provide an adequate warning.

If I were 19 in 1970, I probably would have said fascist. Probably a lot. If I were Mexican or gay or trans in 2025, I probably would say fascist. Probably quite a lot. I think there are more accurate words, though. Now, to just find them.