Hard to do, I know, but I think that it’s always prudent to take people with fascist tendencies seriously.
8 thoughts on “Taking Bill Press Seriously”
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Hard to do, I know, but I think that it’s always prudent to take people with fascist tendencies seriously.
Comments are closed.
I’ve always wondered, how is it possible for a nation of generally good people, Italians and Germans in the 1930s, to allow fascism to take hold. It had to seem reasonable at the time while the ramifications were not apparently obvious.
It seems we have a large percentage of citizens willing to believe today some of the things they said in the thirties… but I’m still finding it difficult to believe. I don’t like that about myself. I feel like people need to wake up, but I’m feeling like I have a need for a good swift kick myself. Definitely surreal.
As far as Bill Press, he’s just delusional. It’s painful listening to an idiot like that.
Someday, if we live up to the demands Dear Leader has placed upon us, we may overcome our silly, selfish little whining and be worthy of serfdom.
(Speaking of the demands “Il Dufe” has placed on us, has anyone seen TAXI DRIVER lately? When the movie came out, Senator Palantine, the presidential candidate, seemed an amalgam of then-Governor Jimmy Carter (the populist-outsider rhetoric) and the “limousine liberal” mayor of New York City, John Lindsay. Seeing the movie again recently, Palantine’s messianic rhetoric and bearing remind me of Obama.)
It reminds me of the time when the East German government published a statement that it was “beginning to lose confidence in the German people”. Bertold Brecht (not exactly an innocent party in this case) commented “Why don’t they dissolve the people and elect a new one”.
I’ve always wondered, how is it possible for a nation of generally good people, Italians and Germans in the 1930s, to allow fascism to take hold. It had to seem reasonable at the time while the ramifications were not apparently obvious.
I’m more familiar with Germany’s post WWI history than of Italy’s but I think some things were likely in common.
Germany was in economic and political turmoil after the war. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were very punishing, essentially destroying the German economy and especially the middle class. Factional violence was rampant with various communist, nationalist, and national socialist groups fighting one another. The economic turmoil only became worse with the onset of the Great Depression. From that turmoil, Hitler rose in political power in large part by telling the people what they wanted to hear. He (and many German WWI vets) believed that Germany didn’t lose the war but instead they were betrayed. He blamed the economic turmoil on the actions of international bankers (AKA Jews). He promised to restore law and order. He won elected office and moved over the next few years to consolidate absolute power. This didn’t happen overnight.
I read recently that Italy was also having some economic turmoil during the 1920s that led to the rise of the Fascists. I can’t find the article now but it was discussing an excessive federal debt level that the Fascists actually got under control once they obtained power.
Economic turmoil can lead people to do desperate things. During the 1930s, many Americans became communists because that economic model seemed to be working better than what we had. With all of our social safety nets, that kind of desperation is unlikely to happen here, unless the rampant spending required to maintain those safety nets actually causes the much greater economic havoc (e.g., runaway inflation) that many of us fear. That could get very, very messy.
Getting back to the subject for a moment, I’m at a loss as to how one extracts all of the vile pronouncements attributed to Bill Press from the radio quote. Am I missing something?
Extrapolating from someone’s statements to their horrible logical conclusions doesn’t mean the person quoted has done so, or would agree if it were pointed out to him or or.
I listened to Press for hours way back when, and while he said only one thing I agreed with (and it was non-political), I never heard him utter the kind of foul statements attributed to him in the blog. Again, did I miss a big part of something?
Extrapolating from someone’s statements to their horrible logical conclusions doesn’t mean the person quoted has done so, or would agree if it were pointed out to him or or.
Of course it doesn’t mean that. The poster even said that Press wouldn’t agree. That doesn’t mean that they aren’t the logical conclusions, though.
Italy had perpetually ongoing and crippling strikes, led by the communist party, before the fascists got to power. The italian fascists used to organize strike busting squads, formed by farmers, unemployed and other disenfranchised citizens to attack strike picket lines. Mussolini beforehand was a well known and charismatic journalist who rather infamously defended that Italy should return to its Roman Empire roots and colonize Africa.