Quote:Going mentally through Umberto Eco's 14 points I find;
1) cult of tradition (check)
2) rejection of modernism (check)
3) action for action's sake (super check)
4) disagreement is treason (check, "the argument is over")
5) fear of differences (not so much yet, except Muslims)
6) appeal to a frustrated middle class (Oh, yes! check)
7) obsession with overwhelming adversity (Yes, yes yes.)
8) humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies (Not so much)
9) life is permanent warfare (Yes. check)
10) elitism and contempt for the weak (minded) (Yes, check)
11) everybody is educated to become a hero (Not so much)
12) machismo of ego (emerging, but not yet)
13) selective populism (check)
14) Newspeak, and meaningless rhetoric (check)
So, 10 of 14 aspects are fully engaged to various levels with 4 of them (5, 8, 11, 12) not yet a factor in USA politics.
Quick, panic!
No, wait. Scratch that. You're exaggerating again.
10 of the 14 aspects are "fully engaged"? The US is now entirely (like, Nazi Germany entirely) enaged in selective populism? Elitism and contempt for the weak? The country that brought us Google has descended in a few short years to total rejection of modernism? The country of Jefferson now has "fully engaged" with the idea that disagreement is treason?
Or do the "various levels" include everything above zero? (How does one "fully engage" with something that is at a low level?)
Some of these things are troubling, but the idea that they amount to imminent fascism is no more realistic than the idea that taxation plus inflation equals Leninism.
Strangely, one of the trends that is most disturbing to me, manifested in the rise of an angry populist anti-immigrant voice, a lingering and vicious anti-gay sentiment, and of course the "Obama (pronounced like alabama) is an ay-rab" crowd, is not one of the 10 you checked off. (Fear of differences.)
-Jester