$$$ Inverted Totalitarianism $$$: In FASCIST AMERICA, money buys YOU!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > $$$ Inverted Totalitarianism $$$: In FASCIST AMERICA, money buys YOU!

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

Welcome to the CSPAM thread on Inverted Totalitarianism, informally known as American Fascism! This is some hosed up poo poo.

_{Note: For full multimedia experience, please play this song as you read.}
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzQ3yjpYZis

I decided to make this thread after reading this post in D&D because I see the bold in one form or another in political discussions throughout life without people labeling it directly:

Shady Amish Terror posted:

The incredible level of atomization and isolation that Americans face, in particular, is one of the biggest obstacles to collective action. People often feel uninvolved, disconnected, and self-concerned to a fault; they do not trust their neighbors, because they have been given no reason to. We have been propagandized for decades with the message that we must be self-sufficient, responsible adults, and the way you measure that is in wealth, and that in that regard you are, at best, in competition with your neighbor. Building alternative power requires a lot of people to do small, inglorious, nearly-invisible work. Organize your apartment block. Get a progressive elected to your city council. Get YOURSELF elected to your city council. Start a garden. Each small action isn't just some isolated action, it's an absolutely necessary step to reforming how we think about ourselves as a society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
The ever articulate, courageous, and comprehensive Chris Hedges breaks down the concept in this article.
The late Sheldon S. Wolin coined the term, and he tried to warn us in his book before he passed: Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism

We�re living in a system where ideologies, politics, schools, media, religions, ethnicities, gender, sexual orientation, healthcare, prisons, and virtually every natural resource and living thing is commodified and exploited until collapse regardless of the citizenry�s interest. Economics bests politics. This is 100% bipartisan within the establishment, and anti-Democratic.

Inverted Totalitarianism draws its power from relentlessly promoting an extreme form of rugged individualism upon the population as eloquently defined in Shady Amish Terror�s post I quoted (and bolded) above. It fundamentally relies on an atomized, alienated society distrusting one another down to an individualist level. This brutal system of exploitative, rugged individualist greed is producing both anti-liberal rightwing and leftwing populist movements around the country and the Western World as a reaction against it. The illiberal expressions on the right are taking the form of belligerent Christian/White Nationalism, while the ostensible �leftwing� expression has increasingly shown support for socialism and the question of capitalism altogether. In 2016 America, the rightwing version succeeded after the leftwing version was successfully blocked (now add 2020 to the latter, too!).

Inverted Totalitarianism is the ideology of neoliberalism administered in application by corporate and financial monopolies (truth is subservient to profit), which makes it fascist. �Late-stage neoliberalism!�

I guess if you have to explain this in simple terms to dumb people (liberals) why this ideology is fascist, then - in any tone you like - tell them to swap/replace the violent white supremacist ideology at the heart of nazi totalitarianism with money, and imagine that in practice, relatively speaking.

If we�re being objectionable, then America is the longest and most successful modern fascist country in history. It was literally founded by a group of slaveowners who did not want to pay taxes to the British Empire, and thus started a war over it. White supremacy (slavery/free labor/anti-labor) was/is used to justify it. Fascism was always at the heart of the American experiment (remember, only white landowners could vote at the beginning). It�s what we�ve always done. Fascism has always been in our DNA.

Two decades after the horrors of nazi fascism were well saturated in the modern world, Dr. MLK and the USSR�s international blackmail campaign of labeling America�s white supremacy as the logical successor to nazism eventually forced the white rentier class to ostensibly give equal rights to African Americans under the law before installing the �Great Society� programs. The GOP has been doing its best to undermine both with no opposition on economics from liberals ever since, and boom, here we are!

_{The2020JoeBidenCampaign.jpg}

Wolin writes:

quote:

Inverted totalitarianism reverses things. It is all politics all of the time but a politics largely untempered by the political. Party squabbles are occasionally on public display, and there is a frantic and continuous politics among factions of the party, interest groups, competing corporate powers, and rival media concerns. And there is, of course, the culminating moment of national elections when the attention of the nation is required to make a choice of personalities rather than a choice between alternatives. What is absent is the political, the commitment to finding where the common good lies amidst the welter of well-financed, highly organized, single-minded interests rabidly seeking governmental favors and overwhelming the practices of representative government and public administration by a sea of cash.
[...]
Every natural resource and living being is commodified and exploited by large corporations to the point of collapse as excess consumerism and sensationalism lull and manipulate the citizenry into surrendering their liberties and their participation in government.

some more praxis quotes for marxist undergrads:

quote:

"Fascism is not a form of state power "standing above both classes -- the proletariat and the bourgeoisie," as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It is not "the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of the state," as the British Socialist Brailsford declares. No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form, fomenting bestial hatred of other nations.... The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international position of the given country." - Georgi Dimitrov

quote:

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism � ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. - FDR

quote:

�If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. - Thomas Jefferson

quote:

So, no �Swastika.� I said, �Okay� Pretty As A Dollar Sign,� because that�s their fascism now. There�s nothing more fascist now than money. Everyone knows that. - Marilyn Manson

America is trying to force inverted totalitarianism upon the entire globe:

quote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUGh1Su7-ok

A relatively good illustration of American inverted totalitarianism in practice is seen in the Blade Runner films, particularly the sequel.

So I personally think nothing can stop this and its big brother Trumpism except for full Marxism-Leninism, especially Maoism (love to hear other theories), but who knows - I�m just a shitposter.

All discussions about the history of fascism and how to undermine it - especially in America - are welcome ITT. AntiFascist artworks depicting life under inverted totalitarianism are valued here as well.

P.S. :bgc:

How was your Easter, C-SPAM?

# ? Apr 14, 2020 02:17

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# ? May 8, 2024 20:45

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

Oh, and gently caress Joe Biden.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 02:20

Fleetwood: Mar 26, 2010; biggest hochul head in china

send the NeoConfederacy to the urn

# ? Apr 14, 2020 02:34

tokyo reject: Jun 12, 2019; when she's tryin to slide into your dm's but you wanna talk about a better america

"Late stage neoliberalism" is definitely going in my wheelhouse of vernacular

# ? Apr 14, 2020 02:47

Fleetwood: Mar 26, 2010; biggest hochul head in china

the perfect companion to sadopopulism

# ? Apr 14, 2020 03:26

Honky Mao: Dec 26, 2012

Oh poo poo? I always knew something was up

# ? Apr 14, 2020 03:50

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

Genuinely believe this is the first step:

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_03.htm

quote:

We stand for active ideological struggle because it is the weapon for ensuring unity within the Party and the revolutionary organizations in the interest of our fight. Every Communist and revolutionary should take up this weapon.

But liberalism rejects ideological struggle and stands for unprincipled peace, thus giving rise to a decadent, Philistine attitude and bringing about political degeneration in certain units and individuals in the Party and the revolutionary organizations.

Liberalism manifests itself in various ways.

To let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate. Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the organization and the individual are harmed. This is one type of liberalism.

To indulge in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one's suggestions to the organization. To say nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards. To show no regard at all for the principles of collective life but to follow one's own inclination. This is a second type.

To let things drift if they do not affect one personally; to say as little as possible while knowing perfectly well what is wrong, to be worldly wise and play safe and seek only to avoid blame. This is a third type.

Not to obey orders but to give pride of place to one's own opinions. To demand special consideration from the organization but to reject its discipline. This is a fourth type.

To indulge in personal attacks, pick quarrels, vent personal spite or seek revenge instead of entering into an argument and struggling against incorrect views for the sake of unity or progress or getting the work done properly. This is a fifth type.

To hear incorrect views without rebutting them and even to hear counter-revolutionary remarks without reporting them, but instead to take them calmly as if nothing had happened. This is a sixth type.

To be among the masses and fail to conduct propaganda and agitation or speak at meetings or conduct investigations and inquiries among them, and instead to be indifferent to them and show no concern for their well-being, forgetting that one is a Communist and behaving as if one were an ordinary non-Communist. This is a seventh type.

To see someone harming the interests of the masses and yet not feel indignant, or dissuade or stop him or reason with him, but to allow him to continue. This is an eighth type.

To work half-heartedly without a definite plan or direction; to work perfunctorily and muddle along--"So long as one remains a monk, one goes on tolling the bell." This is a ninth type.

To regard oneself as having rendered great service to the revolution, to pride oneself on being a veteran, to disdain minor assignments while being quite unequal to major tasks, to be slipshod in work and slack in study. This is a tenth type.

To be aware of one's own mistakes and yet make no attempt to correct them, taking a liberal attitude towards oneself. This is an eleventh type.

We could name more. But these eleven are the principal types.

They are all manifestations of liberalism.

Liberalism is extremely harmful in a revolutionary collective. It is a corrosive which eats away unity, undermines cohesion, causes apathy and creates dissension. It robs the revolutionary ranks of compact organization and strict discipline, prevents policies from being carried through and alienates the Party organizations from the masses which the Party leads. It is an extremely bad tendency.

Liberalism stems from petty-bourgeois selfishness, it places personal interests first and the interests of the revolution second, and this gives rise to ideological, political and organizational liberalism.

People who are liberals look upon the principles of Marxism as abstract dogma. They approve of Marxism, but are not prepared to practice it or to practice it in full; they are not prepared to replace their liberalism by Marxism. These people have their Marxism, but they have their liberalism as well--they talk Marxism but practice liberalism; they apply Marxism to others but liberalism to themselves. They keep both kinds of goods in stock and find a use for each. This is how the minds of certain people work.

Liberalism is a manifestation of opportunism and conflicts fundamentally with Marxism. It is negative and objectively has the effect of helping the enemy; that is why the enemy welcomes its preservation in our midst. Such being its nature, there should be no place for it in the ranks of the revolution.

We must use Marxism, which is positive in spirit, to overcome liberalism, which is negative. A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions, so as to consolidate the collective life of the Party and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses; he should be more concerned about the Party and the masses than about any private person, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a Communist.

All loyal, honest, active and upright Communists must unite to oppose the liberal tendencies shown by certain people among us, and set them on the right path. This is one of the tasks on our ideological front.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 03:54

Farm Frenzy: Jan 3, 2007

A4R8 posted:

_{The2020JoeBidenCampaign.jpg}

this is loving deep. makes you think.

# ? Apr 14, 2020 04:01

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

No One Should Want a Return to Normalcy

https://gen.medium.com/no-one-should-want-a-return-to-normalcy-a1091120d7d8

quote:

Republicans are poisoning the world online, and Democrats are busy telling you that What�s Happening Online Isn�t Real. It�s a perfect formula for rendering your voice worthless

# ? Apr 14, 2020 16:06

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

I forget which goon made this, but it is so good and relevant:

# ? Apr 14, 2020 23:36

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

When the administrators of inverted totalitarianism can no longer privatize the gains and socialize their losses.

# ? Apr 15, 2020 21:50

ContinuityNewTimes: Dec 30, 2010; Я выдуман напрочь

To get out of this people need to Get Into BA

# ? Apr 15, 2020 22:30

ContinuityNewTimes: Dec 30, 2010; Я выдуман напрочь

Maoism is a middle aged man giggling at weed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bahRhwpnM8

# ? Apr 15, 2020 23:03

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

quote:

Immanuel Kant coined the term �radical evil.� It was the privileging of one�s own interest over that of others, effectively reducing those around you to objects to be manipulated and used for your own ends. But Hannah Arendt, who also used the term �radical evil,� saw that it was worse than merely treating others as objects. Radical evil, she wrote, rendered vast numbers of people superfluous. They possessed no value at all. They were, once they could not be utilized by the powerful, discarded as human refuse.

FULL: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-age-of-radical-evil/

# ? Apr 16, 2020 20:12

Fleetwood: Mar 26, 2010; biggest hochul head in china

does anyone remember the name of the interviewer in this video? I keep thinking it's Bill Mitchell but I know that's not right lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzB4LZXl9_Q

# ? May 8, 2020 18:37

gh0stpinballa: Mar 5, 2019

i'll have a little marx-leninism *and* a little maoism thank you very much

# ? May 8, 2020 20:41

Impkins Patootie: Apr 20, 2017

Continuity RCP posted:

Maoism is a middle aged man giggling at weed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bahRhwpnM8

thats a nice watch

# ? May 8, 2020 20:48

ContinuityNewTimes: Dec 30, 2010; Я выдуман напрочь

Impkins Patootie posted:

thats a nice watch

Got to have something to console yourself in your self-imposed Parisian exile

# ? May 8, 2020 20:52

gh0stpinballa: Mar 5, 2019

huxley nailed what the dictatorship of the Future would like. decadence not repression is the model. drink, drug, porn, trinkets, all to your heart's content. slurp it up you dumb hog. down that brewskie while indifferently jacking off to that HD nut shot. what the hell it's only your life that's ending one minute at a time here. meantime we're gonna make you work until you die so you can fund our private island and climate change bunker.

# ? May 8, 2020 22:20

Chuka Umana: Apr 30, 2019; by sebmojo

gh0stpinballa posted:

huxley nailed what the dictatorship of the Future would like. decadence not repression is the model. drink, drug, porn, trinkets, all to your heart's content. slurp it up you dumb hog. down that brewskie while indifferently jacking off to that HD nut shot. what the hell it's only your life that's ending one minute at a time here. meantime we're gonna make you work until you die so you can fund our private island and climate change bunker.

Indeed, the only things people should be doing are reading theory and exercising for the physical requirements of violent revolution. Anything else, including video games, movies, pornography, and drugs and alcohol are counterrevolutionary and indulging in any of them should make you feel bad.

# ? May 8, 2020 22:56

emTme3: Nov 7, 2012; by Hand Knit

emTme3 has issued a correction as of 04:05 on Mar 31, 2022

# ? May 8, 2020 23:10

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

gh0stpinballa posted:

huxley nailed what the dictatorship of the Future would like. decadence not repression is the model. drink, drug, porn, trinkets, all to your heart's content. slurp it up you dumb hog. down that brewskie while indifferently jacking off to that HD nut shot. what the hell it's only your life that's ending one minute at a time here. meantime we're gonna make you work until you die so you can fund our private island and climate change bunker.

It�s a mixture of Brave New World and 1984 - of course America borrows the worst of both worlds!

How long until we open the camps for homeless people, communists, and enemies of capitalism altogether similar to this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps

# ? May 9, 2020 18:33

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

splifyphus posted:

why is it 'inverted'? i mean, lol if you haven't figured out that both fascist and communist totalitarianisms were just pale imitations of the originary totalitarianism of capital

Liberalism is capitalism during the periods when it is able to keep its internal contradictions in check, relatively speaking. Fascism is what you call it when it can't.

It�s called inverted totalitarianism in this case because it is fascism posing as liberal individualism.

# ? May 9, 2020 18:42

COVID-420: Apr 21, 2020; Natural cures they don't want you to know about.

"Money is my god. I worship money."

�Spaceghostpurpp, Been Fweago, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beOR7pmRH_8

# ? May 9, 2020 18:56

COVID-420: Apr 21, 2020; Natural cures they don't want you to know about.

I think a lot about the only rapper to ever actually just say it.

# ? May 9, 2020 18:56

I AM GRANDO: Aug 20, 2006

gh0stpinballa posted:

huxley nailed what the dictatorship of the Future would like. decadence not repression is the model. drink, drug, porn, trinkets, all to your heart's content. slurp it up you dumb hog. down that brewskie while indifferently jacking off to that HD nut shot. what the hell it's only your life that's ending one minute at a time here. meantime we're gonna make you work until you die so you can fund our private island and climate change bunker.

Huxley was criticizing the welfare state and the decline of communitarian ideas. We don�t really have that kind of totalitarianism because we don�t make even token gestures toward meeting people�s basic needs and make casual sex and drug use as dangerous as possible so that people die or have their lives destroyed in easily preventable ways. America is designed to torture and kill huge numbers of people and to make hedonism prohibitively expensive. Tv is designed to upset you at least as much as it calms you down.

Huxley�s dictator was tasked with creating a stable system that could run indefinitely. We definitely don�t have that same goal operating at any level.

# ? May 9, 2020 18:57

Fleetwood: Mar 26, 2010; biggest hochul head in china

Fleetwood posted:

does anyone remember the name of the interviewer in this video? I keep thinking it's Bill Mitchell but I know that's not right lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzB4LZXl9_Q

Bill Moyers! poo poo, it takes me a while but I get there eventually

# ? May 9, 2020 20:05

bagual: Oct 29, 2010; _{_{inconspicuous}}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKbEaZ-Jnws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOMEUamYkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgZ5k2n8k4s

# ? May 9, 2020 23:14

Atrocious Joe: Sep 2, 2011

LA Review of Books had an article in 2016 that really fits into this thread
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-supermanagerial-reich/

this sample gives a good example of how Nazi rule resembled "late stage capitalism"

quote:

Behemoth: The Political Economy of Nazism

Thinkers like Adorno and Arendt tended to approach Nazism through the lens of philosophy. They accepted Nazi self-assertions of �totalitarianism�; that a total, unified society was bound together through identification with party and leader, that all was driven through a Volksgemeinschaft (national community, or the consciousness of being part of an �authentic� national community). The reality was considerably messier. Adorno�s colleague Franz Neumann considered the same questions from the vantages of political economy and law. Far from �state capitalism,� where the profit motive is eliminated and production is under the complete control of the state, Neumann noted that under Nazism, business � especially large corporate interests � was given extraordinary leeway. They did not have perfect free rein, but large business interests were relieved of many previous social democratic restrictions. Independent labor organizations were crushed, and business was allowed to coagulate into massive, profit-generating monopolies as long as it produced the necessary goods and services the party and the army required.

The closer Neumann looked at the day-to-day operations of Nazism, the less convinced he was that one could call Nazi Germany a �state� in any traditional sense of the word. Along with his fellow Frankfurt School colleague Otto Kirchheimer, they noted that power, authority, and responsibility were not, as propaganda would have it, bound up entirely in the person of the Leader, but rather were confusingly diffuse throughout a disjointed and irrational system. Everyone (that is everyone included within the national-racial community) was to fall in line or develop themselves through F�hrerprinzip into autonomous self-starters, entrepreneurs, and pioneers of the national spirit in whatever sector they worked. Even as a rump state maintained the appearance of a heavy bureaucracy, with a great deal of actual organization still left to technocrats, industry was given wide berth. Society was dominated by myriad (in the parlance of our time) �thought-leaders� with overlapping and competing fiefdoms. The party itself maintained personnel connections within nearly every sector, and its own areas of control, particularly over racial questions � the sine qua non of Nazism. A deal was struck whereby the armed forces, still bruised and feeling �betrayed� by German surrender from World War I, came to an internal balance of powers agreement. Hitler was in charge, to be sure, but only through a constant negotiation between these sectors and their own mini-sovereignties. And even Hitler wasn�t the sovereign decision maker both his fervent supporters and adamant critics wanted him to be; Hitler�s office was more of a clearinghouse, often receiving conflicting positions in, sometimes sending conflicting positions out to be resolved by some other, smaller leader elsewhere. Certainly, the F�hrer was a dictator, but he was first among many, neither the striding colossus of Nazi propagandists nor the all-powerful, mini-mustachioed evil of moralistic Western popular culture.

In his final analysis, Neumann realized that Nazi Germany was not really a state in any recognizable sense at all. Far from Hobbes�s Biblical Leviathan � a mechanistic vision of a commonwealth functioning collectively for the safety and flourishing of its individual subjects whose power is bound up, expressed, and represented in the person of a monarch or ruling council � Neumann saw in Nazi Germany Hobbes�s alternative vision, the rumbling horror of the land monster Behemoth, a beast for Hobbes composed of Oliver Cromwell�s New Model Army, the Long Parliament, and Puritan businessmen taking on the appearance of a new state but in reality a mere disjointed assemblage of military, economic, and even restrictive sexual power that in Hobbes�s analysis spelled out the essence of anarchy in Britain and the utter devastation of Ireland. The German Behemoth under Nazi rule was a similar amalgam. Famously, it was only with the handshake agreements of traditional conservatives, the new far-right nationalists, the army, and, most importantly, the business elite, that the Nazis were given a shot at �governing.� Several of the business elite had to personally petition Hindenburg to appoint Hitler in the first place.

Radio War Nerd had an ep where Ames explained the early alliance between Italian fascists and liberals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6f0XT6yS7M

also what's with this

A4R8 posted:

It’s a mixture of Brave New World and 1984 - of course America borrows the worst of both worlds!

How long until we open the camps for homeless people, communists, and enemies of capitalism altogether similar to this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_re-education_camps

The US has the largest prison system in the world already, which disproportionately locks up people from oppressed groups. People inside are dying of COVID-19 because they are packed close together and lack even normal hygienic products like soap. I don't think I've even seen anything about prisoners getting extra PPE. There are still political prisoners inside from the liberation struggles of the 1960s and 70s.

# ? May 9, 2020 23:34

Tubgoat: Jun 30, 2013; by sebmojo

Without equal enforcement of laws, all prisoners are political prisoners.

# ? May 14, 2020 10:21

TheSlutPit: Dec 26, 2009

not to take away from the powerful tankie energy of this thread, but i just finished reading psychopolitics by byung-chul han and it's a pretty good dissection of why these phenomena (atomization, the individual as an entrepreneurial subject, dissolution of the collective community, etc) are a direct, intended effect of post-industrial capitalism and how 'classical' marxism is largely unequipped to address them. i would strongly recommend it if you're interested in these topics

# ? May 14, 2020 10:47

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

Inverted fascist media is under siege tonight!

# ? May 30, 2020 01:56

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# ? May 8, 2024 20:45

A4R8: Feb 28, 2020

https://twitter.com/ac360/status/1266534277208031233?s=21

Cornel West on CNN tonight: �We are witnessing America as a failed social experiment.� �The system cannot reform itself.�

E; fixed link.

A4R8 has issued a correction as of 02:22 on May 30, 2020

# ? May 30, 2020 02:19

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > $$$ Inverted Totalitarianism $$$: In FASCIST AMERICA, money buys YOU!