• kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    You don’t feel the system that enslaved human beings based on their race “exalts nation and race over the individual?”

    I’d say the US wasn’t fascist in that period because fascism is a post-industrial ideology that’s interrelated with corporate mass media. But, when it did come around, fascism was explicitly modeled on the “slavery + colonial genocide” era of the USA’s development. Fascism in the 20th century was the logic of colonialism coming home from the periphery to the imperial core.

    • joe@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      You may not have noticed that the definition is an AND statement, not an OR statement.

      Is there any point to this line of discussion? What’s the end game here? You aren’t going to convince me there’s no point in voting.

      • kestrel7_7@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        My point is that the only reason the USA “wasn’t fascist” in the 19th century was because the term “fascism” hadn’t been invented yet. It’s ahistorical to use that term. However, fascism is very much based on and directly inspired by the colonialist slave society that existed the USA in the early 19th century. Mussolini and other early fascists talked openly & extensively about this. As has been said, Hitler treated other Europeans like Europeans had been treating their colonial subjects.

        I wasn’t talking about voting, and I’m certainly not discouraging anyone from voting. I’m not sure why you got that from what I posted. You were saying that the USA wasn’t fascist in the 19th century, and I’m agreeing, but with a big ol’ asterisk.

        • joe@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          I’m not sure why you got that from what I posted.

          I assumed you read the entire thread that led to mine. Kind of interesting that you apparently didn’t, but not a big deal; sorry about the bad assumption.

          My point is that the only reason the USA “wasn’t fascist” in the 19th century was because the term “fascism” hadn’t been invented yet.

          Even without the word, the ideas existed. America didn’t have a dictatorship, so it didn’t meet the definition of fascism, regardless of the label we use.

          I can’t say for sure, but I think you’re confused about what these fascist dictators allegedly modeled after America. Is wasn’t the system of government, it was the shitty way America treated undesirables. A democracy (as we all know) can treat even its own citizens in abhorrent ways and still be a democracy. In the simplest example, a country that directly votes on any given topic can vote to round up and kill all red-haired people. That’s democratic. Terrible, yes, but democratic.

          I’m pretty interested in what, if anything, you’re working towards here. Let’s say I agree that American has always been essentially fascist, despite being able to vote out representatives. So what?