Re: Unanswered Questions

Bob Yates wrote:
> Rat & Swan wrote:

> > 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


> Seems to be a little confusion here.  A fascist is one where the
> government controls the use of private property,

  All governments control the use of private property to one
  degree or another -- ours certainly does, the fascist
  or Corporate State, the Nazi state, and the socialist state do.
  Private property was very much intact in Nazi Germany.  Big
  business had ties to the government and was active in financing
  it, as many businessmen, such as Fritz Thyssen, saw the Nazis
  as a defense against Bolshevism.  There were also leftist
  Nazis such as Goebbels and Otto Strasser and his brother,
  Gregor.


> the talk here is about
> NAZI government policies.  For example, if the government could tell you
> what color to paint your house or how many bathrooms to have for your
> employees, that would be a fascist government.

  Our U.S. government CAN tell people what color to paint their houses
  and, at least, what kind of fixtures you can have in your bathroom,
  depending on the locality.  And does.

  Rat