Chomsky Warns of Risk of Fascism in America

FOCUS: Apocalypse Fairly Soon

FOCUS: Five Facts That Put America to Shame

The NDAA's Coup d'Etat Foiled

FOCUS: The Commencement Address That Won't Be Given

A Victory for All of Us

Noam Chomsky, the leading left-wing intellectual, warned last week that fascism may be coming to the United States.

Portrait, Noam Chomsky, 06/15/09. (photo: Sam Lahoz)

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+47 # Guest 2010-04-13 23:51

All true, Professor Chomsky, but, please, fascism COMING to the US? I'm sure you're aware of nazi Nacht-und-Nebel (night-and-fog) laws - anyone could be picked up at any time, many to disappear forever. The Patriot Acts allows similar procedures - anyone designated a terrorist (and anyone can be so designated) can be arrested and detained without accountability to the public. Habeas corpus has been set aside. In the US. If that ain't fascism then we need a new definition of the term. Pete Edler, Stockholm

+6 # Guest 2010-04-14 10:08

Peter: thanks for writing the piece - it saved me from responding.!

-68 # Guest 2010-04-13 23:57

And just remember....in the late 1930's, Germany outlawed private ownership of firearms. A few years later, 'undesirables' were being imprisoned, shot and gassed. If I had to choose between the two, I'll take Sarah Palin over Sarah Brady any day of the week!

+6 # Guest 2010-04-14 04:56

Quoting

And just remember....in the late 1930's, Germany outlawed private ownership of firearms. A few years later, 'undesirables' were being imprisoned, shot and gassed. If I had to choose between the two, I'll take Sarah Palin over Sarah Brady any day of the week!

HANDGUNS, HANDGUNS.....there's a difference for God's sake! Sarah shoots from a helocopter, lets have this in America too. That sounds like fun...

+1 # Guest 2010-04-16 19:53

Quoting

And just remember....in the late 1930's, Germany outlawed private ownership of firearms. A few years later, 'undesirables' were being imprisoned, shot and gassed. If I had to choose between the two, I'll take Sarah Palin over Sarah Brady any day of the week!

The fallacy of "Nazi gun control" is best pointed out by guncite http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcnazimyth.html which is also one of the best sites for logical reasoning in favor of the American Second Amendment.

+1 # Guest 2010-04-13 23:59

Interesting review.

+52 # Guest 2010-04-14 00:04

Sad but too true. How to nip them in the bud? Limbaugh, Beck, Palin and Bachmann as well as Newt and Cheney are at it hammer and tongs about the "socialization" of America, demonizing our President despite his accomplishments over the 15 months he has been in the Oval Office. God forbid that Government should actually HELP the people, not just the RICH people. They are Nazi fanatics who only fan the flames of the ignorant, angry and resentful in search of a scapegoat, who are horrified at the thought of a black President, especially an INTELLIGENT black President. I never thought I'd live to see the day when Americans would condemn intelligence and fight against their own best interests in favor of the regressive, "me-firsters" who have taken over the Party of Lincoln and morphed into "tea-baggers" and "Pitbulls with lipstick". Look out for the "Storm Troopers", the Militias are already training for the rebellion.

+3 # Guest 2010-04-14 07:55

Quoting

Sad but too true. How to nip them in the bud? Limbaugh, Beck, Palin and Bachmann as well as Newt and Cheney are at it hammer and tongs about the "socialization" of America, demonizing our President despite his accomplishments over the 15 months he has been in the Oval Office. God forbid that Government should actually HELP the people, not just the RICH people. They are Nazi fanatics who only fan the flames of the ignorant, angry and resentful in search of a scapegoat, who are horrified at the thought of a black President, especially an INTELLIGENT black President. I never thought I'd live to see the day when Americans would condemn intelligence and fight against their own best interests in favor of the regressive, "me-firsters" who have taken over the Party of Lincoln and morphed into "tea-baggers" and "Pitbulls with lipstick". Look out for the "Storm Troopers", the Militias are already training for the rebellion.

Well Said.

+14 # Guest 2010-04-14 14:24

Well said. It's really scary. I'm glad I'm not the only one that sees where all this anti-Obama hatred could lead. The worst part is that so many people that watch Fox news and other scare-tactic news programs really believe the "socialist" bullshit and that Obama has it in for "real" Americans. Disgustingly ignorant... they are just blinded by the fear that has been jackhammered into their head by the likes of Glenn Beck and other hate mongers like him. And republicans tend to not care who they hurt along the way as long as they can get things how they want (particularly when those being hurt are poor, minorities etc...). Hopefully someone will intervene before we revert back to slavery, religious oppression and no rights for women.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-19 22:32

I think that one of the main people who can start reining this in is Rupert Murdoch, who owns and financially benefits from Fox News......New York Magazine had a story about him recently...and I think that if he and his family were hounded everywhere they went and held accountable for this, things might shift slightly.
Apparently, many in their social circle DO criticize them to their faces, and some of the family members are aghast and uncomfortable with it....I'm not talking threats to them at all....just their having to answer wherever they go.....they are making money off of ruining the US....and it's not even their country. And for the most part, they can peacefully go about their business and not have to think about it.
Ditto w/ Limbaugh and Palin and the others.....if the heat was turned up on them a little more, and they felt that rather than just having their butts kissed.......it might make them think a little. They live in a narcissistic bubble.

+2 # Guest 2010-04-20 16:09

That is basically how I see it. We are living in very dangerous times. It is fairly easy to see how we reached this point but getting out of this mess is a far different story.

0 # Guest 2010-04-20 16:21

To investigate the Nazi thesis further one might look at the book Raphael Lemkin wrote about the development of Nazi legislation and see whether any comparisons with US law can be made. This would perhaps make a good PhD topic. Lemkin was the 'one-man NGO' who spearheaded the creation of the international Genocide Convention requiring countries to prevent and punish acts of genocide, and he coined the word 'genocide'. He was motivated by the events in Armenia at the turn of the last century and by the growth of naziism in Germany.

+25 # Guest 2010-04-14 02:33

Hmmm... Now that Chomsky has told the world that he sees parallels with the U.S. & Nazi Germany, maybe the rest of this sleeping nation will see what MANY others have seen and have been shouting from the rooftops in warning, will finally be heard...
The only thing I can disagree with him on, is that Nazi style Fascism isn't "coming soon"... It doesn't merely "resemble" what occurred there when Hitler and his minions were taking power... No. It is here, NOW... Any fool that will open their eyes will plainly see we are in the midst of this monster's belly, NOW...
Not that Mr. Chomsky is a fool... Just late for dinner...
I did think the statement he made, "Ridiculing the tea party shenanigans is a serious error.", is quite humorous, in an oxymoronic kinda way... Isn't stating what someone is doing as, "shenanigans", in a sense ridicule?
Oh well... Like I said, at least now maybe, more will wake up to what the heck is really going on, now that the god of the left hath spoken...

-4 # Guest 2010-04-15 04:56

Quiet Bear, you are so right! But I think you may have been to subtle. What Gnome failed to mention were signs like the Black Panthers intimidating voters in Pennsylvania, SEIU thugs threatening people who disagree with them, and "Activists" infiltrating and disrupting the "shenanigans" of the Tea Partiers. Of course an essential ingredient here is the media looking the other way while this is going on!

+33 # Guest 2010-04-14 03:17

We already have Corporate Fascism...you just can't put an individual face to it. After the last Supreme Court idiot's decision, we may soon have Corp. for president! That's when I buy an AK.

+29 # Guest 2010-04-14 03:33

...But Noam forgot to tell us, while on the subject of Nazi German fascism, that the bankers financed it. The Weimar Republic was a threat to them, so they used their financial and political levers to crash it (and eventually Protestant Germany).

Chomsky's old enough and tenured enough not to care about offending bourgois politically correct notions with his informed tweets on how things really work, behind the 2 or 3 layers of public broadcast propaganda.

And anyone out there who still thinks that 'propaganda' is something that "communist" states excel at- as opposed to "capitalist"- probably doesn't have a passport.

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men"
- George Orwell, 1939

+18 # Guest 2010-04-14 07:59

And don't forget the heavy financing of the Nazis by none other than PRESCOTT BUSH. This is a direct link -- the bush's ARE Fascists and it was the final nail in the coffin of the US when they stole that election for the delinquent baby bush.

However, I can't imagine the teabaggers have justification for their anger and their sick racist views. Huh? Poor white people? Aw. I have NO sympathy for those fascists.

0 # Guest 2010-04-16 19:54

They can't call themselves the KKK any more.

+17 # Guest 2010-04-14 03:36

The difference between past fascist movements and the present may be mitigated by the internet. Much depends on the media here accepting their responsibility and the willingness of citizens everywhere to ferret out the truth.

+9 # Guest 2010-04-14 04:00

OK, Norm but for black folks, fascism has "echoed" for centuries. I suppose this is just another example of white privilege, it becomes as "real" issue when it affects white folks.

Remember they likened Obama to bin Laden, Hitler, a Martian, and a liar, so adding a banker is mild. Can you explain that? Chomsky this is just America's European cultural roots going to the next level of it's social development under capitalism. But being a non certified black man, my views mean nothing.

+13 # Guest 2010-04-14 08:07

It's true. Black people in this country have, for the most part, NOT experienced a democracy. Neither have the Native Americans. It's been Fascism for them -- police raids, traffic stops just for driving while black, herded into prisons (concentration camps) in mass numbers and executions of innocents just because they were black and in the wrong place at the wrong time (Mumia). First they came for the black people, and we did nothing. And now they are coming for us. Now we wake up finally.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-15 02:31

Your statement is going in my quote book.

There is nothing more truer than:

"Black people in this country have, for the most part, NOT experienced a democracy."

As a Black female, that truth resonates very deeply.

Awesome.

+15 # Guest 2010-04-14 04:06

...failed state capitalism

"The Last Official Act of Any Government is to Loot the Nation"

Noam is right to note that the socio-economic trainride to destination fascism [failed state capitalism] was initially set in place in the 1970s.
They've been working 'we the people' over for decades now.

Nonetheless, WE are not THEIR fools, and need not play their game if we do not want to.

We have the resources to solve our problems (and there are many) without resorting to the idiocy of [further] fascism from Washingtoon.

+30 # Guest 2010-04-14 04:14

Mr. Chomsky sees clearer than most. Its all falling into place, and most are too dumbed down or shell shocked to realize whats happening and where it's leading. Or cheering it on.
High unemployment, xenophobia, homophobia, scapegoats, an incredibly militarized economy and culture, flag waving, fear regarding national security, shrill voices urging vague action, endemic racism and violence, widespread poverty, an incredibly wealthy and powerful elite,
religious fundamentalism, constant wars, trumped up enemies and threats, corrupt politicians, etc. In short, everything is in place, as before and elsewhere. All you need is a charismatic figure with all the answers.

Good luck with it all. Hopefully there'll be some of us left when the smoke clears.

0 # Guest 2010-04-14 18:22

Sarah Palin is pretty charismatic to these people....

+24 # Guest 2010-04-14 04:48

On April 12, 2010, the Wisconsin Senate passed a bill that would accommodate "Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission"--the U.S. Supreme Court decision that would open the floodgates of global corporate money into candidate elections at all levels. We are ready for fascism when a legislative body in a progressive state willingly defers to a second judicial coup against the people of the United States.

For anyone who thinks I and President Obama are overstating the threat the Roberts majority has made against the people of the United States and their Constitutions, read Abraham Lincoln's attack upon the Dred Scott decision and Professor Ronald Dworkin's criticism of "Citizens United."

Cliff Arnebeck, Attorney
Columbus, OH

+17 # Guest 2010-04-14 04:53

Corporatism is another name for fascism according to the first dictator; Mussolini and that was the real power behind Hitler,once he received the Junker support it was all downhill for the National Socialists. Playing on fears,pride,the all-powerful military with an arrogance in the people themselves over their neighbors sinched the deal for the Germans. Are we there? We are past 'there'. We are a plutocracy that violates international law,national law, and in other words we have met the Nazi's and we are them. We rendition,tortu re,start wars that are not wars,build up untenable debts for our kids to pay. Dissent, join a protest and see how you are treated by the police state. Pay your taxes without real representation, grovel at your job,pay for health care through your nose, while your reps,who work for you get it free and a wonderful pension plan paid for by...you. War? Did Congress declare war? Only by the supreme law of the land can they and they did they?. Millions of innocent dead.

0 # Guest 2010-04-20 16:58

Clarification: The corporatism you refer to is an extreme form of 'state' corporatism as used in the past by Portugal, fascist Italy and other countries. In this form 'corporations' are essentially auxiliary organs dependent and penetrat-ed by the government. A milder, successful form of 'societal' corporatism exists in the political systems of several European countries, including Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. In that form government activity depends, at least in part, on 'corporations' that are non-competitive, autonomous and penetrat-ive. See Philippe Schmitter article in 1979 book. Which form predominates depends on the existing needs of capitalism. Schmitter argues that corporatization of interest representation is related to capitalism's dependence on maintaining conditions for accumulating resources as affected by stages in its institutional development, the international context and especially by conflicting class interests. All can help by consuming less.

+17 # Guest 2010-04-14 05:20

Despite the arguments that fascism is here now...it isn't. Read "Rise and fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer who was a foreign corespondent living in Germany during Hitler's Rise to Power and during the Nazification of Germany through the thirties. It is an extraordinary account (except for Shirer's Homophobia....)of the times and one can't help noticing the parallels. Chomsky is spot on in placing the current madness in the lead up to fascism but if this was fascism now Noam Chomsky would already be in a concentration camp....as would you. There is no need to sensationalize when what is happening is scary enough

+3 # Guest 2010-04-20 06:57

The point is not to let it grow like an eboli virus. It is here. Perhaps not full blown but it's here. The Nazi's just held a rally right in front of the Los Angeles City Hall! It was a small group but it made AOL news. Don't get lazy or we will all be the Good German who did nothing.

Quoting

Despite the arguments that fascism is here now...it isn't. Read "Rise and fall of the Third Reich" by William Shirer who was a foreign corespondent living in Germany during Hitler's Rise to Power and during the Nazification of Germany through the thirties. It is an extraordinary account (except for Shirer's Homophobia....)of the times and one can't help noticing the parallels. Chomsky is spot on in placing the current madness in the lead up to fascism but if this was fascism now Noam Chomsky would already be in a concentration camp....as would you. There is no need to sensationalize when what is happening is scary enough

+11 # Guest 2010-04-14 05:29

Mr. Chomsky warns of fascism and then offers nothing in terms of how prevent it. Worse. He adds to the fascist-like attacks on President Obama, and the multi-racial, multi-class movement that elected him, by implying his administration -- and the forces that elected him -- are ineffective and will "collapse." There is a conscious and broad and diverse (racially, ethnically, etc.)movement of working people, union members, small business folks, etc., who are fighting for jobs, equality, immigrant rights, health care,peace and the success of this president. Is it big and broad enough to significantly win the many needed reforms to curb corporate power and provide badly needed jobs, schools, etc. for all? No. But to ignore this is inaccurate and wrong.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-14 05:32

We have a problem.

How many Americans are invested in multinational corporation stock?

+17 # Guest 2010-04-14 05:38

The errosion of public power over the financial intersets in this nation since the 1970's has been breath-taking. Author and historian Kevin Phillips documents the decline of nations who throughout history has allowed this pernicious and destructive course. I hope Americans can break the cycle and renew the promise of democratically elected ligitimate government free from corrupting influences.

Kurt Bateman, Healthcare Activist

+7 # Guest 2010-04-14 07:16

Naomi Wolf has been writing about this for years. At least 3 books warning us and telling us what we need to do to stop this amassing of a critical fascist mass.

+8 # Guest 2010-04-14 12:08

So has another Naomi ... Naomi Klein - her book "The Shock Doctrine" is brilliant and scary.

+5 # Guest 2010-04-14 07:23

“The level of anger and fear is like nothing I can compare in my lifetime."
That's true.
“They are hearing answers from only one place: Fox, talk radio, and Sarah Palin.”
That's not true.
But ominous clouds are gathering. That's pretty obvious. I think "civil" war is likely, since the right has no answers either. Rome went through 100 years of back and forth before Caesar took over.
The mainstream media is failing to inform. The Internet offers some hope. I say prepare for the worst. Hope for the best. Talk to people. I think what's bugging the Teabaggers for the most part, is they see their world, the great white consumptive American way of life, going down the tubes. A little humility would go a long way to help. Study the Constitution, since it's our basic agreement.
Number one for progressives would be to turn back abortion to the states. Number one for conservatives would would be to realize war only makes the federal government stronger.

+2 # Guest 2010-04-14 10:27

Gee, you're pretty quick to throw women under the bus to take the heat off yourself. So long as it doesn't directly affect you then thats okay.

+1 # Guest 2010-04-14 16:27

Sorry to disappoint you. Letting the states decide abortion is not throwing women under the bus anymore than favoring legal abortion is throwing the fetus under the bus. I would prefer having the decision made at the state level. Having one law for all is worse than a patchwork of state laws all over the place, in my opinion. I would live where I favored the laws, as I do to some extent now. But practically speaking, opposition to abortion is where a lot of the Republican support comes from. It's skewing politics enormously. Maybe you'd agree to the idea if there were one national law forbidding abortion. Then you'd be in their shoes and maybe see things from their point of view. Roe v Wade was a very bad decision. And it did not legalize abortion, as one often reads. Abortion was in the process of becoming legal in many states. Roe v Wade made having abortion illegal illegal. It took the matter out of the democratic political process and substituted the opinions of nine old farts.

+2 # Guest 2010-04-14 22:39

What those nine old farts did was rule that no state had a right to deny this medical treatment (which is what abortion is) to any woman. No doubt, it's a big bargaining-chip/fly-in-the-ointment of politics, but that doesn't mean removing that ruling would change anything for the better. And guess what else; I don't care if it would ease the political scene. Taking away a woman's right to control her own body isn't a way to combat fascism, it's a big component in fascism. Particularly when you have acres of pro-life individuals walking around with posters showing what they claim to be a 6-week old fetus that's actually a 6-month old fetus. Many pro-lifers don't actually know squat about the process of human development and when a fetus becomes viable. Just because they choose to allow ignorance and their religious doctrines to influence their position on this matter doesn't mean we should accommodate them. Their position is just another part of the fascism that's affecting our country.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-15 11:07

I'm impressed, Titania. Extremely concise and accurate insight. In a nutshell, a lack of respect for the needs of others is the basis of fascism which leads to outright denial of life and liberty itself. Thank you. Kenny

-2 # Guest 2010-04-16 18:08

There are many ways to view abortion, ranging from medical operation to murder. But I'm not arguing for or against abortion. I realize positions are for the most part hardened cement. Each side is as intransigent as the other. I'm arguing about the level at which the decision concerning its legality should be made, and the effect this has on the level of anger. Should it be made at the global level? The national? The state, or even the local level? Are you so committed to the status quo, come hell or high water, that no reconsideration is even possible? I say let the people decide at the state or local level. Democracy is a dangerous thing, you might not always like the results, but if anything is, it's the antidote to looking to a leader, anxious for power, to solve your problems.

0 # Guest 2010-04-17 07:50

Thank you, Clever Tatania. Well written!!! If Nick Reynolds thinks giving abortion over to states is the answer, he's completely devoid of the current reality on the ground as it refers to abortion rights. States are currently under siege from pro-lifers, weakening right to choose laws, with their eventual goal of making abortion almost impossible. In general, "states rights" is the mantra of Libertarian wings of ideology. My problem with libertarianism, is that this is not 1776, when there were only thirteen colonies, and significantly less people to make up our great union. Libertarians, at least to me, seem to have one, or two good ideas. Unfortunately, those good ideas are followed up with....By the way----Elvis is being kept alive, and is on life support in a Cincinnati hospital basement.

0 # Guest 2010-04-19 15:00

Trivialize the matter if you like. But when you disenfranchise millions of voters and don't let them vote on an issue some take very seriously, you've gone a long way toward fascism.

+12 # ProfPeteB 2010-04-14 07:39

"FASCISM MAY BE COMING...?"
I started saying that in 1974. It isn't coming, it is here and has been for a long time, It never was not here. Prescott Bush was "trading with the enemy," lending Adolph Hitler money from 1932-1942 and tried to have FDR assassinated in 1933. He held millions for a Nazi war criminal who migrated to South America until 1951, and then Bush was elected Senator. So, he had enough fascist supporters to overlook his treasonous acts and he was never prosecuted for his attempt to kill FDR. Lindberg was also an admirer of Hitler. "FASCISM MAY BE COMING...?" Sir, with all due respect, my granddad, founder of AFL CIO's early integrated unions in Illinois warned Truman of the power of avarice inherent in fascism and growing among the greedy wealthy followers of McCarthy. Are you kidding or simply under valuing the intellect of the educated Progressives in America?

+4 # Guest 2010-04-14 08:43

Funny, tragic...however not unlike something I was telling a friend of mine the other day. I said that this all sounded eerily like what was occurring in 1932 when Hitler was first coming into his own. In his world the country was so divided that with a small percentage of votes like 32% or so he forced his way into the chancellory and later became leader of a disparate nation. After WWI the country was so upset and there were so many people who kept saying that the most oppressed were pure-blooded Germans who were being stripped of the right to be heard in their own country. The idea resonated in a country looking for a scapegoat. If this is not the Fascism we picture when we look at our country today, remember no one will go for it looking for the face of Hitler. We'll be trying to run from it and, in so doing, may fall directly into its arms.

+11 # Guest 2010-04-14 09:22

The conditions for fascism are here, no doubt. What is not yet here is the numbers.

The tea baggers are a small minority at this time but their threat is clear and their call for the return of white supremacy is evident.

It all depends on the outcome of the next election cycle. Who will the electorate listen to? That depends on who comes up with the right spin and sufficient funds to advertise it. Hitler had both.

In other words money. So if you want to halt the spread of fascism loosen your purse strings and contribute to effective anti-fascist, pro Obama causes.

-1 # Guest 2010-08-27 09:51

Unfortunately, "anti-fascist, pro Obama" is oxymoronic.

+3 # Guest 2010-04-14 09:55

We are living in an inverted totalitarian state at this time where the wheels of democracy are jammed for you and me but greased for what the corporate elites want and get very fast.

Not an openly fascist state yet. You would know and we don't have it for everybody just yet. But it will happen because the same ones behind the 1934 coup are at it again now. They learned much from their failure. They hold most of the cards and are just waiting for when the hand will be played. Our economic situation was allowed to happen. Situation is much like 1934 when IBM, Ford and the others almost took the country and would have joined with the Axis powers. Now they will be the central Axis power in the world. Obama is an agent of theirs even though he is black. Full on fascism isn't here. You would know without a doubt.

Remember FDR was oblivious to the conspiracy and when he was told hushed it up but did nothing. His legacy.

+6 # Guest 2010-04-14 10:39

The Teabaggers are what Stalin used to call "useful Idiots"-they can be stampeded in a way that will not address their genuine grievances but only set up the rest of the country for further repression. The bull always goes for the cape, never the matador! Corporatism/Fascism has taken over this country!

+5 # Guest 2010-04-14 12:42

Correction, Corporatism/Fascism wish they are takingover the country. The fact the Supreme Court Justices who ruled Corporatism know they were wrong. And the people are now responding to their anti-American, anti-democracy actions.

They have been placed on notice by non-other than the American people.

I am seeing many decals on automobile condemning the Supreme Court decisions.

+5 # Guest 2010-04-14 12:51

"Useful Idiots" really nails it. The poor fools are just cogs in the wheel, totally ignorant of how they're being used. Tragic really.
I love your analogy of the bull and the cape. Right on! I will begin using it.

+3 # Guest 2010-04-14 10:42

On the aspect of religion, in Nazi Germany and here now...
As Chomsky says, when Christian organizations joined the coalition, the center collapsed and fascism took over.
It looks like parallels now, with many Cristian organizations supporting or willing to support the movement toward fascism.
But-- Hitler and the Nazis were actually practitioners of the Occult. It would seem from that that they may have betrayed their Christian supporters who had helped put them in power.
Any information on this?
Also, have the right wing Christians learned from this? Will they throw their support to the Fascists when they're poised to actually take over?

+3 # Guest 2010-04-14 13:38

While it's true the Nazis, particularly Goebbel's wife, liked to dabble in the occult and they were always looking to some form of Nordic hero-type gods, one must never underestimate the power of the church when it came to making Hitler's Germany a success. Before the war, the pope was more than happy to accommodate the whims of that state and during the war when Jews were being killed and they had knowledge of it, the church put out a stony-faced silence. Later on, after the war was over, the Vatican provided (through its nation status) many of the passports Nazis like Mengele used to get to Argentina and the like. There was no betrayal there. They were in cahoots. What did the church get in return? Fealty, freedom and absolution. No one would dare accuse a church of anything and if they get a little on the side, so be it.

+6 # Guest 2010-04-14 11:35

It would be hard to overstate the value of Noam Chomsky. I hope no one on the left overlooks the implicit lesson of his recent remarks. We should not imitate the tea-baggers, but we should certainly try to recruit them. Their anger is very legitimate. They, along with all the rest of us common folks, have been skewered. And the change we progressives thought we were promoting in campaigning for Obama has not occurred. Rather, in accepting so many behaviors of the Bush administration, Obama has conferred on them the character of precedents; so we've actually suffered a major reversal. Reach out to the tea-baggers. Don't imitate their antics, but take their anger seriously. The anger that brought fascism to Germany was genuine and legitimate. The anger shaking America today is at least equally legitimate. The longing though in the depths of ALL our souls is a longing for something better than fascism.

+5 # Guest 2010-04-14 12:55

Brilliantly said. I'll start reaching out. Building bridges instead of walls. Thanks.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-14 13:47

"We should not imitate the tea-baggers, but we should certainly try to recruit them. Their anger is very legitimate."

Hmmm . . . maybe their anger is legitimate, but it is VERY misplaced. They are attacking attempts by government representatives and more "progressive" activists to actually improve the situation with racist scapegoating, "big lie" propaganda, and other Nazi-like tactics (all while denouncing the current administration as "fascist.") If fascism triumphs in the US, the tea-bag movement and people like Palin who cater to it will be a major reason why. So what is "legitimate" about that? How can that be turned around? In my mind, these people are dangerous, paranoid, anti-intellectual lunatics, and it seems unwise to pretend otherwise.

0 # Guest 2010-04-17 13:16

It isn't misplaced, just misdirected.

0 # Guest 2010-04-21 05:11

Tea-Baggers? It's important not to condemn the Tea Party. If you recall the Tea Party has been a growing movement for several years with it's roots in adhering to the Constitution. As a matter of fact the movement has grown so large that the "Establishment" is trying to put one of it's own as the head, like Sarah Palin. The MSM would have you believe the Tea Party is comprised of racist-militia's and nothing could be farther from the truth. The terms Republican, Democrat, Conspiracy Theorist, Racist, Militia are all terms to divide us as citizens. The truth is the "Banksters" pull most of the strings in Washington. Remember that Banks make tremendous profits in war by financing both sides. Then after all the destruction the rebuilding needs to be financed as well. Read " Confessions of an Economic Hitman" John Perkins.

-2 # Guest 2010-04-14 13:27

Noam has been accused of being a left filter for the powers that be along with Bill Kristol on the right. Is saying Fascism is "coming" mearly a leftist decoy to deny Fascism is "here?"

+10 # Guest 2010-04-14 13:58

As a college student who is newly faced with socialism, republicans and democrats. All I can say is that most of the youth of America is getting P.O.ed that our government seems to be forgetting to serve the people of the nation not just the powerful of the nation. I will continue to attend forums, protests and read literature like this to try and keep a handle of my rights as an American citizen. Myself and many of my friends are ready to do what it takes to have positive change for the people of the United States and we are ready to go at getting this change in a smart and humanitarian way. It is up to us not to let fear rule us and that we don't use fear to rule.

+5 # Guest 2010-04-14 14:00

@ Tom O'Neil

I don't know what you wanted from Obama but you certainly can not compare him with the likes of George W. Bush. I do knows that Obama has made some mistakes, not enough to be compared to Bush.

Truthfully, I'm not sure what the t-baggers want either because it's too racially motivated to see through the screaming and yelling and bringing their guns. I'm not sure 'they' know what they want unless they're told by Rush, Beck and Hannity etc.

I don't think you're going to find too many Democrats if you want them to team up with the t-baggers.

+1 # Guest 2010-04-17 09:14

Stellar, I don't think you and I are opposed as to the kind of America we want. If I differ from you, it's because I reflect on the fact Geithner has been an able lieutenant to Paulson from the start of the bailout, Summers has been mentored by Rubin, and Rubin was raised in the demented house of Goldman Sachs. I read that Goldman Sachs contributed significantly to Obama's campaign; more directly, I know Obama voted for the bailout as a Senator, and that as President-elect, he vigorously (and successfully) resisted an effort on the part of Democrats to censure it. It's not, however, just the network of relationships that I sketch here, but the number of Bush policies that remain in play that makes me think like this. It might, in turn, strike you that I am demented, but I truly see the Obama administration as a kind of third term for G. W.

+15 # Guest 2010-04-14 15:09

Sinclair Lewis said "When Fascism comes to America it will wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

+1 # Guest 2010-04-14 18:03

Let me clarify a bit what I think legitimates angry Americans today. The bailout, sponsored by Hank Paulson, which Obama endorsed both as voting Senator and as in-coming President, and which was shepherded through Congress by Democrat Chris Dodd in the Senate and Democrat Barney Frank in the House, and which had NO strings attached requiring the receiving parties to renegotiate the loans leading then and now to massive foreclosures, has put the financial resources of average Americans into hock for as far as the eye can see in support of the richest, greediest, and least deserving people in the land. This, I believe, explains the ache in the heart of ordinary people all over America today. The pain is the symptom, and I bet lots of people who suffer from it have yet to come to a diagnosis of its cause. The sufferings of the tea-baggers are real enough. We on the left are in a position make a diagnosis.
We should regard our fellow-sufferers on the right with compassion and understanding.

+2 # Guest 2010-04-15 05:32

"We should regard our fellow-sufferers on the right with compassion and understand." - Tom ONeill

I disagree completely. Obviously you can't see the trees for the forest. For eight whole years the Republicans did their best to make the rich richer, the poor poorer and sick sicker. They supported the "richest, greediest, and least derserving people in the land" to quote you. They created a war of attrition, waste, death and crimes and they did it in our name. They introduced an international torture policy that would have made the Germans during Adoph Hitler blush with envy. They changed for the worst the whole system of justice by appointing corporate bought right wing conservatives to the benches.

The result are America has been degraded into a nation of angry, stupid racist white men and women. All you have to do is to witness the current events.

To top it all, they cannot stand to see a black man as president of the USA.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-14 19:30

Weimar Germany is not post-WWII America. The dems will--as usual for a party which controls the presidency--lose some seats in both houses this fall, but in 2012, Obama will defeat the Repubs because Palin is (excuse the pun) pale by comparison. The Repubs will, like after Nixon's defeat in 1960, regroup and attempt to come back, but I don't see that happening until 2016 at the earliest. Although nothing is sure in politics, there's a very good chance the dems will win re-election in 2012. It is rare (Carter, Ford) for a President to be re-elected. The odds are that the dems will lose some seats this year and get some back in 2012. What'll happen after that will depend upon how Obama does. It is true that this has been a particularly severe recession, but so was the one during Reagan's first term, and he won re-election (re: it's morning in america) so the odds are good that Obama will, too. That's my two-cents worth.

+1 # Guest 2010-04-15 00:27

I agree - the comparison with Weimar Germany is feeble. One of the reasons why Hitler and the Nazis were "successful" was because of the barely developed political culture that time and the democratic system wasn't working at all. Also the circumstances that time were fairly different.

+1 # Guest 2010-04-15 13:23

How well is OUR political system working? Not so well, IMHO. When the outcome of a Presidential election is decided by the Supreme Court, "Houston, we have a problem."

And the newspapers, TV news shows, and the 'whole' of the political culture (e.g. Hillary) was echoing the LIES about WMD. This is evidence, if not proof, that the political culture is sick, pathetic, abnormal. It may be 'well-developed' in a Himmler-like (or Bernaise) -way, but it totally fails to "inform", and has been rejected by me (and vast swaths the polity) as unreliable, corrupt, and malicious.

Perhaps the comparison w/ Germany is more different in detail, than in essence.

+1 # Guest 2010-04-14 20:13

Criticism of the bank bailout is like preferring a fatal illness to the post surgery discomfort. The global economy was shot to pieces with phony money.
So, don't diss Obama - he's the only hope you've got.
The flag waving militarist christian right is desperately trying to get another Bush-type back in power. They really believe in guns and free speech for themselves, and that god ordained America to "democratize" and convert the heathens that sit on all that oil.
Concentration camps already exist they were set up a couple of years ago by Bush and funded on the pretext of housing "illegals".
The Fascists can tolerate a Dem president and Congress ... it's only a slowdown in their grand design ...

+2 # Guest 2010-04-15 10:07

This is the shortest posting that I have ever made. We're already there!!

+1 # wavewatcher 2010-04-15 10:13

This Tea party thingy is NOT a real Party. They are being used in two ways. To disrupt our vote and to gather money to the Republican coffers. The anger is real. Misguided. The "Party" they really should be after are the Rebublicans who mainly got us where we are today. Where was all this anger when the Bush Administration was spending blindly, getting us into 2 wars and making companies rich beyond their wildest dreams? Lying to us and attacking the messengers and not the message when red flags were going up every month or so. Palin, I just have 4 words for you....Freedom Of The Press. How a country gets to where they were in the 30's? By controlling the message. By screaming lies louder and longer than anyone else without being challenged. She bashes the very thing that makes us America, The Press. Americans need to defend and protect that Constitutional right and hopefully generations to come will be exercising this right. If one doesn't know how our country operates we all lose.

0 # wavewatcher 2010-04-15 10:26

OK. Let me get this straight. The right loves their God and Guns. They believe in both. Why do they need an armed party when they say they believe in God too? I remember hearing about Angels, Almighty Power, God mowing down Armies by the wave of His hand, and this God protecting the good and faithful by the word of His mouth. I was taught this. I was raised on this. Then what does God need with all this fire power?

+3 # Guest 2010-04-15 12:33

While we all debate history and politics, while America is so polarized, and as Moyers says we live in a "Culture of Cruelty", the real work of the Nation isn't getting done, essential problems are not getting solved, life has gotten much more difficult for so many people.

I have participated in health care rallies in Chicago even though I have decent health care, two of my children do not. I have a college educated child without a job. This week I heard of two families I know (one white family and one black family) losing their homes. I thought the economy was supposed to be getting better!

In my disillusionment , I feel like maybe the Jehovah's Witnesses, are right, even though I am not one of them. They call government "The Wicked System". And when I read all of this discussion, I feel like Eliza Doolittle "Words, words, words, I'm so sick of words..." People are suffering.

Can't we have real democracy and not be governed by special interests. Is it possible?

+1 # Guest 2010-04-17 08:00

It's hard when the people are so split. The two parties are too ideologically rigid. A third party might break up the logjam. But the Reps and Dems have done their best to make sure that won't happen. America's acceptance of invading Iraq and Afghanistan befuddles me. Maybe we deserve this. Work to relieve the suffering you see. Democracy is possible, if the people are enlightened.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-15 18:17

Chomsky says the selling out of the American people has been a bi-partisan enterprise. I think it is important we take in this point of his. Ordinary Republicans feel they've been sold out (and they have), so they go to tea-parties and blame Obama. Ordinary Democrats feel they have been sold out (and they have), so they defend Obama and go after Bush. So long as man-in-the-street type Republicans blame Democrats, and man-in-the-street type Democrats blame Republicans, the plutocracy that actually runs America (see recent Supreme Court decision) chortles, and continues to steal all of us "flat-income-and-declining-fast" Americans out of house and home. When I say people on the left should reach out to people on the right, I do not mean that either the left or the right should make peace with the plutocrats--who, for short term lives of luxury and privilege are running America into the ground, and perhaps making the planet permanently less pleasant into the bargain.

+3 # Guest 2010-04-16 06:40

If the worry is fascism in it's true form emerging in the US I don't think you need to be too concerned. The Tea Party movement is more or less led by the same groups who have been dominating the Republican Party (and for that matter the Democratic Party to a large extent); the concerned affiliates of large corporations. There's a difference between using fascist methods to get your fascist government elected and using fascist methods to get your plutocratic laissez-faire government elected. The Republic Party intends to use working class discontent to get elected, just as it used Conservatism to get elected, but as has been pointed out many times (Frank's 'What's the Matter with Kansas' stands out in my mind here) the Party's adherence to Conservatism itself has actually been fairly limited.

You're probably just going to get a worse, more extreme version of what you've had before; Reagan-heavy rather than Reagan-lite.

+3 # Guest 2010-04-16 08:24

Chomsky is paying too little attention to the social profile of the Tea-Party types. They are not the people hardest hit by capitalism's crisis. They are, instead, by and large the more privileged people. The tragedy today is that these clowns are organized while those truly suffering from capitalism's ills are not.

+2 # Guest 2010-04-20 17:06

You make a valuable point. You may be interested to read about the biggest financial backer of the 'Tea Partiers', the billionaire Koch family, and how they made their fortune during the 1920s building the Soviet Union's oil infrastructure when no US industry would hire them. See AlterNet article by Yash Levine, The Roots of Stalin in the Tea Party Movement, April 17, 2010.

+4 # Guest 2010-04-16 18:05

Our nation's path to fascism lies less with the tea baggers than the "all out drive" of the rop deciders in our military/corporate/security complex to win the war for control of oil and gas reserves in the Middle East, South-Central Asia and Africa.
They will bankrupt future generations and silence all organized oppositiion to their trajectory for their profit and power in global domination.
Read the top article on my website:
www.psycho-imperialism.com

0 # Guest 2010-04-17 09:18

I agree with you, Robert. It's just this that makes me think there could be a way to make common cause with the tea-baggers. My assumption is that they do not want, any more than I or you do, the path to destruction and desolation along which "the powers that be" are taking us.

+3 # Guest 2010-04-17 14:48

The Robert’s U.S. Supreme Court decision changing the interpretation of the Bill of Rights from meaning “We the people” to mean “We the multinational corporations” on January 19, 2010 will live as a day of infamy in the history of our (what was our) Constitution. In one day, the Supreme Court has set themselves up as the “Fathers of a New U.S Constitution” and moved Americans from a “Representative Democracy” of individuals to a “Corporate Plutocracy” representing the rich and powerful. Therefore, the Robert’s conservative Supreme Court is anti-Democratic.

0 # Guest 2010-04-18 13:49

The primary concern of Chomsky and most commenters here is Fascism. Most anti Obama people seem to think he is a Socialist, so why aren't they applauding him as an antidote to Fascism?

+2 # Guest 2010-04-18 17:42

Guineu: I'm not sure who the "they" is when you ask: "so why aren't they applauding him [Obama] as an antidote to Fascism?" I can tell you, Guineu, why I'M not. To give away all the financial assets of the American people to our biggest banks is NOT to act like a Socialist; it's to act like a whipped puppy.

-1 # Guest 2010-04-26 14:36

I recall the Boston Tea Party and staging Indian costumes to elicit a political response. Never doubt that Americans can read the difference between good cop bad cop chaos. The central banks and their intelligence thugs need a new world order and Americans will not allow Jewish interests to prevail. We would not be having this discussion at all were it not for the financiers of world chaos.

-5 # Guest 2010-04-30 17:00

Prof. Chomsky is intellectually dishonest: it is well documented that Weimar Germany was totally occupied and corrupted by Zionists. There was no freedom of speech, no freedom of art. There was no need to "create" an enemy, it was present and robust. And today in equally occupied and corrupted America, Zionists, as they always do, put one group of people against another. They seduce Blacks with the promise of the "ultimate revenge" for the slavery, and they need illegals as another disruptive element in society. The planet would have been enjoying peace now, if not for Zionists, who apparently have no desires or volitions of second order (philosophers call such individuals Wantons). Prof. Chomsky, as a philosopher, among other things, knows this very well.

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