In 1947 scientists created the Doomsday Clock. In 2011a Fascist Clock is

[snagglepuss]

required, an graphic image to not only convey how close America is to becoming a Fascist state but also to eliminate any confusion as to what it actually means, to eliminate confusion spread by the likes of Back and Limbaugh.

Beck et al have the upper hand at the moment because fascism means only what they want it to mean and are going on the offensive to tar Obama and everyone to the left of him as fascists. Liberals and progressives OTOH seem to be very divided about where the US is on the political spectrum and this lack of consensus is imo dangerous and serves only to bolster RW propaganda.




edit grammar

[Pab Sungenis]

1. How close to?

It already is, since January 20, 2001 at the latest.

[wundermaus]

2. You're pretty close but it was actually...

December 12, 2000
GEORGE W. BUSH, et al., PETITIONERS v.
ALBERT GORE, Jr., et al.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=000&invol=00-949

Show me in the constitution where the supreme court selects the President of the United States.
It's called a coup d'etat.

[snagglepuss]

6. This illustrates my point. Many on the Left share your pov, however, many

don't. It seems to me that the Left should be on the same page more or less. It would be interesting to see liberals and progressives hammer out some consensus as to what would be midnight.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. Beck has the upper hand? Wow!

Just for fun, think about this actual fact. About twice as many people listen to Thom Hartman's radio show as watch Glen Beckk on TV. Yet for many, it is very important to say that Beck controls the message, and no one on the left can be heard. I find it to be amusing. Beck has a wee, tiny audience. At his peak, he had under three million. From Oct 09 to Oct 10 he lost 28% of his audience, landing at about 1.7 million a day. Jersey Shore gets like 8 million, also on basic cable, just for comparison.
So how some guy who is getting even less popular than his peak as a cult oddity has some upper hand and is able to define terms evades me. This guy can rant and rave and say what he likes, he's losing market share daily, and he had almost none to begin with.
So much of the trip FoxNews plays on folks involves this ploy of comparing their shows only to MSNBC and Fox and calling that number one. It is silly time. Network shows get canceled for having twice the audience of all three combined in any given hour.
Americans think of Beckkk as a clown. The few that have heard of him that is.

[The Doctor.]

4. Yes, true.... and thank you for posting this. But what Beck has

is the 'bat-shit insane' market cornered.

In terms of leverage, he's still pretty fucking dangerous to democracy.

[snagglepuss]

8. One method of pickpocketing is to have one or two of people confuse or

distract the mark then have someone else steal the wallet. Beck and his cohorts achieve much the same thing to those outside their listening audience. The message that comes across to people who aren't his fans is that talk about facsism is crazy talk coming from rw loons, not to be taking seriously.

[Kaleva]

5. Historically, there is only one proven way to defeat Fascism.

[Rex]

7. MM

It all started unraveling in 2000.