Re: Unanswered Questions

Jonathan Ball wrote:

  <snip>
> if the United States 
> were really, "quite literally", a fascist state, she would be sitting in 
> a concentration camp right this minute, or she would be dead.

  Ah, Jonnie, you ignore that fact that fascist states don't start
  out (or, actually, even end up) as absolute.  The first
  concentration camps in Germany, like Dachau, were relatively
  mild and a good number of "suspect" people were eventually
  released (see, for example, Kurt Ludecke's description of his
  own escape in his _I Knew Hitler_ c. 1937).  The fascist state
  in Germany did not even begin with a majority of supporters
  of the Nazi Party in the legislature -- even after the Communists
  were removed.  For several years, people were still saying they
  could control or ignore the Nazis, that it was all a temporary
  thing, and that "good" people didn't have to worry.  Fascist
  controls evolve slowly, as they are doing in our own country
  (the U.S.) today.  You don't get death squads all at once.


   Rat