American Corporate Facism Thread with Chris Hedges

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > American Corporate Facism Thread with Chris Hedges

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

Long live our corporate stooges. :patriot:

If you are unfamiliar with Hedges, who is one of the only people speaking the truth these days. Here is some background info on him.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hedges

He's also got some sweet youtube videos thrashing elites and the Empire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQky0mTizgY

quote:

Posted on Sep 12, 2010

AP / Elise Amendola
By Chris Hedges

There are no longer any major institutions in American society, including the press, the educational system, the financial sector, labor unions, the arts, religious institutions and our dysfunctional political parties, which can be considered democratic. The intent, design and function of these institutions, controlled by corporate money, are to bolster the hierarchical and anti-democratic power of the corporate state. These institutions, often mouthing liberal values, abet and perpetuate mounting inequality. They operate increasingly in secrecy. They ignore suffering or sacrifice human lives for profit. They control and manipulate all levers of power and mass communication. They have muzzled the voices and concerns of citizens. They use entertainment, celebrity gossip and emotionally laden public-relations lies to seduce us into believing in a Disneyworld fantasy of democracy.

The menace we face does not come from the insane wing of the Republican Party, which may make huge inroads in the coming elections, but the institutions tasked with protecting democratic participation. Do not fear Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. Do not fear the tea party movement, the birthers, the legions of conspiracy theorists or the militias. Fear the underlying corporate power structure, which no one, from Barack Obama to the right-wing nut cases who pollute the airwaves, can alter. If the hegemony of the corporate state is not soon broken we will descend into a technologically enhanced age of barbarism.

Investing emotional and intellectual energy in electoral politics is a waste of time. Resistance means a radical break with the formal structures of American society. We must cut as many ties with consumer society and corporations as possible. We must build a new political and economic consciousness centered on the tangible issues of sustainable agriculture, self-sufficiency and radical environmental reform. The democratic system, and the liberal institutions that once made piecemeal reform possible, is dead. It exists only in name. It is no longer a viable mechanism for change. And the longer we play our scripted and absurd role in this charade the worse it will get. Do not pity Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. They will get what they deserve. They sold the citizens out for cash and power. They lied. They manipulated and deceived the public, from the bailouts to the abandonment of universal health care, to serve corporate interests. They refused to halt the wanton corporate destruction of the ecosystem on which all life depends. They betrayed the most basic ideals of democracy. And they, as much as the Republicans, are the problem.

�It is like being in a pit,� Ralph Nader told me when we spoke on Saturday. �If you are four feet in the pit you have a chance to grab the top and hoist yourself up. If you are 30 feet in the pit you have to start on a different scale.�

All resistance will take place outside the arena of electoral politics. The more we expand community credit unions, community health clinics and food cooperatives and build alternative energy systems, the more empowered we will become.

�To the extent that these organizations expand and get into communities where they do not exist, we will weaken the multinational goliath, from the banks to the agribusinesses to the HMO giants and hospital chains,� Nader said.
The failure of liberals to defend the interests of working men and women as our manufacturing sector was dismantled, labor unions were destroyed and social services were slashed has proved to be a disastrous and fatal misjudgment. Liberals, who betrayed the working class, have no credibility. This is one of the principal reasons the anti-war movement cannot attract the families whose sons and daughters are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. And liberal hypocrisy has opened the door for a virulent right wing. If we are to reconnect with the working class we will have to begin from zero. We will have to rebuild the ties with the poor and the working class which the liberal establishment severed. We will have to condemn the liberal class as vociferously as we condemn the right wing. And we will have to remain true to the moral imperative to foster the common good and the tangible needs of housing, health care, jobs, education and food.

We will, once again, be bombarded in this election cycle with messages of fear from the Democratic Party�designed, in the end, to serve corporate interests. �Better Barack Obama than Sarah Palin,� we will be told. Better the sane technocrats like Larry Summers than half-wits like John Bolton. But this time we must resist. If we express the legitimate rage of the dispossessed working class as our own, if we denounce and refuse to cooperate with the Democratic Party, we can begin to impede the march of the right-wing trolls who seem destined to inherit power. If we again prove compliant we will discredit the socialism we should be offering as an alternative to a perverted Christian and corporate fascism.

The tea party movement is, as Nader points out, �a conviction revolt.� Most of the participants in the tea party rallies are not poor. They are small-business people and professionals. They feel that something is wrong. They see that the two parties are equally responsible for the subsidies and bailouts, the wars and the deficits. They know these parties must be replaced. The corporate state, whose interests are being championed by tea party leaders such as Palin and Dick Armey, is working hard to make sure the anger of the movement is directed toward government rather than corporations and Wall Street. And if these corporate apologists succeed, a more overt form of corporate fascism will emerge without a socialist counterweight.

�Poor people do not organize,� Nader lamented. �They never have. It has always been people who have fairly good jobs. You don�t see Wal-Mart workers massing anywhere. The people who are the most militant are the people who had the best blue-collar jobs. Their expectation level was high. When they felt their jobs were being jeopardized they got really angry. But when you are at $7.25 an hour you want to hang on to $7.25 an hour. It is a strange thing.�

�People have institutionalized oppressive power in the form of surrender,� Nader said. �It is not that they like it. But what are you going to do about it? You make the best of it. The system of control is staggeringly dictatorial. It breaks new ground and innovates in ways no one in human history has ever innovated. You start in American history where these corporations have influence. Then they have lobbyists. Then they run candidates. Then they put their appointments in top government positions. Now, they are actually operating the government. Look at Halliburton and Blackwater. Yesterday someone in our office called the Office of Pipeline Safety apropos the San Bruno explosion in California. The press woman answered. The guy in our office saw on the screen that she had CTR next to her name. He said, �What is CTR?� She said, �I am a contractor.� He said, �This is the press office at the Department of Transportation. They contracted out the press office?� �Yes,� she said, �but that�s OK, I come to work here every day.� �

�The corporate state is the ultimate maturation of American-type fascism,� Nader said. �They leave wide areas of personal freedom so that people can confuse personal freedom with civic freedom�the freedom to go where you want, eat where you want, associate with who you want, buy what you want, work where you want, sleep when you want, play when you want. If people have given up on any civic or political role for themselves there is a sufficient amount of elbow room to get through the day. They do not have the freedom to participate in the decisions about war, foreign policy, domestic health and safety issues, taxes or transportation. That is its genius. But one of its Achilles� heels is that the price of the corporate state is a deteriorating political economy. They can�t stop their greed from getting the next morsel. The question is, at what point are enough people going to have a breaking point in terms of their own economic plight? At what point will they say enough is enough? When that happens, is a tea party type enough or [Sen. Robert M.] La Follette or Eugene Debs type of enough?�

It is anti-corporate movements as exemplified by the Scandinavian energy firm Kraft&Kultur that we must emulate. Kraft&Kultur sells electricity exclusively from solar and water power. It has begun to merge clean energy with cultural events, bookstores and a political consciousness that actively defies corporate hegemony.

The failure by the Obama administration to use the bailout and stimulus money to build public works such as schools, libraries, roads, clinics, highways, public transit and reclaiming dams, as well as create green jobs, has snuffed out any hope of serious economic, political or environmental reform coming from the centralized bureaucracy of the corporate state. And since the government did not hire enough auditors and examiners to monitor how the hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds funneled to Wall Street are being spent, we will soon see reports of widespread mismanagement and corruption. The rot and corruption at the top levels of our financial and political systems, coupled with the increasing deprivation felt by tens of millions of Americans, are volatile tinder for a horrific right-wing backlash in the absence of a committed socialist alternative.

�If you took a day off and did nothing but listen to Hannity, Beck and Limbaugh and realized that this goes on 260 days a year, you would see that it is overwhelming,� Nader said. �You have to almost have a genetic resistance in your mind and body not to be affected by it. These guys are very good. They are clever. They are funny. They are emotional. It beats me how Air America didn�t make it, except it went after [it criticized] corporations, and corporations advertise. These right-wingers go after government, and government doesn�t advertise. And that is the difference. It isn�t that their message appeals more. Air America starved because it could not get ads.�
We do not have much time left. And the longer we refuse to confront corporate power the more impotent we become as society breaks down. The game of electoral politics, which is given legitimacy by the right and the so-called left on the cable news shows, is just that�a game. It diverts us from what should be our daily task�dismantling, piece by piece, the iron grip that corporations hold over our lives. Hope is a word that is applicable only to those who grasp reality, however bleak, and do something meaningful to fight back�which does not include the farce of elections and involvement in mainstream political parties. Hope is about fighting against the real forces of destruction, not chanting �Yes We Can!� in rallies orchestrated by marketing experts, television crews, pollsters and propagandists or begging Obama to be Obama. Hope, in the hands of realists, spreads fear into the black heart of the corporate elite. But hope, real hope, remains thwarted by our collective self-delusion.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/do_not_pity_the_democrats_20100913#14154617296101&action=collapse_widget&id=1968798

TLDR; Corporations control everything, including both parties. Therefore we should not get angry about or invest any energy in the farce of electoral politics. We should instead focus on building economies that exclude powerful, hierarchical corporations.

I agree wholeheartedly. I just don't think investment in alternatives is a realistic solution. Unfortunately, it will take severe crisis. Thoughts?

Dengue_Fever fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Nov 8, 2014

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 17:02

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 15:15

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

GreyjoyBastard posted:

I don't think "fascism" is the word you're looking for. It's an awful specific term.

Maybe authoritarianism, if you're really bent on somewhat mischaracterizing the current state of affairs. Or heck, just go with corporatism.

Actually, 'corporatism' might be a more specific term to what we are talking about here, but American style 'fascism' is still an appropriate name for our country today. Fascism has goals of radical and authoritarian nationalism. American style fascism is not as overt as its European forms. The authoritarian aspects are slightly more secretive. But the nationalist and mass mobilization aspects are quite clear. Nonstop veneration of troops and hushing of criticism of military policy, along with incessant flag waving in the form of rhetoric.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 06:08

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

Caros posted:

My initial thought is that while he may be right, you're going to get a lot of flack for things like the bolded statements. I actually agree with a lot of your points but I get pretty much instant negative thoughts when someone says things like that. The phrasing is the same sort of thing you'd expect when someone is talking about a cult leader. He's the one who tells the truth... maaaaaan.

Actually, what I said exactly was 'he is one of the only people', not 'the one', there's a distinction there. Thanks anyway.

Oh and sorry for misspelling the thread title, a little bit of dyslexia kicking in. Didn't read over it when I edited.

I stand by Nader's term 'American style fascism' or my term 'corporate fascism' as a good descriptor for the unifying ideology of the country. The corporations put their logos everywhere, they dominate messaging and propaganda through media and advertising. If you hope to have the privilege to rent yourself out for a living, you better do exactly what they want you to do, you worm, and you better not make any provocative posts on the Internet, either. Through control over money, resources, and messaging, they exert a highly authoritarian hold on American society. And if nationalism (the other part of fascism) serves their needs (as it often does) then so be it.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 06:26

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

Caros posted:

I didn't mean to imply that your cult didn't have several high ranking people, just that the way you are talking about him sounds culty. Saying "He is one of the only people speaking the truth these days" is an insane sounding statement because it goes towards the conspiracy theory/cult habit of talking about how only your chosen few know the real truth/secret knowledge/whatever.

As for your rewording, you can stand by it all you want, that doesn't make it correct. Making up and/or redefining the meaning of words is another cult-like behavior.

Don't take it too hard, I'm just bitter after the last Eripsa thread. I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but you've gone about it so poorly that I simply can't trust you. I will never love again.

I hate you you suck, too.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 07:26

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

I hate you guys, most of you are more concerned with presentation and style than actual meaty ideas. Or with criticizing anything in a condescending manner. gently caress you guys. This is the last post I'm going to make in DnD.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 07:31

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

Nessus posted:

What's wrong with oligarchy or plutocracy? Do those just lack emotional pop here, is it that fascism is bad so a bad thing must be fascism? I mean, those are pretty much objectively the case, to the point where if I was asked about the American political system I would say "a plutocracy with representative-democratic elements."

e: to be clear, I mean 'what is wrong with using those terms to describe what we have,' which seems to have significant differences from historical fascism - if the Klan were night-riding to suppress opponents of the Republican Party I would be a lot more sympathetic to the use of the term 'fascism.'

I would agree with you, that oligarchy and plutocracy are fine terms to describe the nature of moneyed interests control over government, but I do think that fascism captures the effectiveness and pervasiveness of corporate messaging in particular. A plutocracy implies leadership by few, but it does not necessarily imply domination of the people by a non-stop propaganda machine and near total control over resources and thereby livelihood, I do believe. One of the distinctions in fascism is processing the people toward nationalism with the goal of continued empire. I would argue that most governments, if not all, possess a working plutocracy. The difference between these countries and the modern US is the extent to which national pride, and what follows as willingness to defer to national power and unity above all else, allow the flourishing of totalitarianism through silent acquiescence.

Dengue_Fever fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Nov 9, 2014

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 08:23

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

Arri posted:

Members of the prevailing ideology believe that their votes mean something and they're really angry that their 'team' lost, so it's unlikely you're going to get anything but democratic handwringing here.

Also your thread has already, as of page 1, been coopted/redirected from discussing the topic to arguing about semantics with a bunch of people who are uninterested in engaging the topic but instead drowning it in a pile of poo poo specifically with the intention that you just shut up and go away because you didn't agree to their personal understanding of a specific word's definition. There's also the underlying thought of "the system is fine the way it is now, only minor tweaks are needed."

Yes, that's true. Thank you.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2014 08:36

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 15:15

Dengue_Fever: Sep 21, 2011

Uranium Phoenix posted:

To return more to the intent of the thread, which really should be less about Hedges specifically and more about combating the power of corporations, I want to disagree with eschewing elections. Participating in elections as a third party is indeed participating in a rigged game, but it's a game that a lot of everyday people pay attention to. Through participating in elections as an alternative to the two corporate parties, we can give voice to various demands or issues that are actually important. There are also unopposed candidates everywhere, especially at the state and local level, and we can drag them leftwards or even win. Elected offices can act as a platform from which to speak. Through building popular support on an issue and candidate, we also can begin to create organizations of people that can do more than win elections.

I think that building alternative economies isn't a great solution. Corporations have immense access to resources and power, and if alternative economies ever become an actual threat, they'll use the state and political power to combat them. Then, you'll have to fight through civil disobedience, mass movements, and elections just like if you started with labor struggles or politics to begin with.

I see your point, and it makes sense, giving voice to certain issues. But when we put energy into electoral politics we not only vote for the legitimacy of this or that candidate but also the electoral system itself. I don't think that most candidates and especially the system deserves a vote of confidence whatsoever. There are other ways to popularize messages, as OWS showed.

In Alabama with racial discrimination in the sixties they had no political recourse; they had to use economic means. We are in the same boat today, except it's much bigger and covers a wider cross section of people, making it more difficult to organize. I do think, though, that the only way we will effect change is through hurting those who hold the most economic power economically through boycott or alternatives. It's just a matter of getting enough peopleon board.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2014 05:41

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