Authoritarians and the Bush Administration - John Dean

[clinttidan]

People of America sell ur houses escape the country b4 it goes into martial law. Your government is evil, b4 they start introducing the 666 chip. If you deny it u will be imprisoned or killed. If you can get out of the country sell your house and move

[Seasass]

@clinttidan That would have been great advice when this clip was first posted. Unfortunately, the real estate market has taken a bit of a nosedive since then :/

At least our government is on the right track now (in my humble opinion), but that could easily change if the economy takes another sudden downturn, which is entirely possible. I shudder at the thought.

[clinttidan]

@Seasass It's been a year since ur post just going through all my old comments u said the economy is right back on track what are ur views on this now. 13 trillion in debt doesnt seem right on track a country that cannot sustain itself without the aid of other nations lending them money isnt on track.

[Seasass]

@clinttidan Read my original comment, please. "Our GOVERNMENT is on the right track," in reference (and relevance) to this video, meant that it was no longer dominated by proto-fascist figures who have an authoritarian mindset and little respect for civil liberties. My only comment about the economy is that IF it took another downturn (which I considered to be extremely possible--our "recovery" was always fragile), people would turn to authoritarian leaders out of fear.

[clinttidan]

@Seasass Your governmenty isnt on the right track imo and many americans would also see 20% unemployment. New laws that are tearing the constition apart i see things in a different perspective than u so i will leave it at that

[Seasass]

@clinttidan I think we have more of a language barrier than a difference in perspective :) I am not really that happy with the current state of affairs in our country, and I do believe things will get worse before they get better. My very cautious optimism a year ago was limited to the change in our executive branch only (e.g., I think Obama actually understands why warrantless wire-tapping is not cool). Our legislative branch, especially since 11/2010, is increasingly populated by nut-jobs.

[Mycos1]

Absolutely! And Altemeyer's "The Authoritarian's", an online e-book that summarizes the decades of research done on the topic, is also a "must-read". Altemeyers model presents a more methodologically sophisticated and statistically robust approach to measuring and conceptualizing authoritarianism.

[yellowhue30]

watch "the cove"

[freethinker17]

the reason the Nazis called themselves "the nationalists German socialist workers party"was because then as now the left was known for its socialism and it internationalism. The right was known for its nationalism and its capitalism. The Nazis wanted to offer a false sense of unity and to imply that the whole struggle between left and right had just be manufactured by this conspiratorial Jewish element of the population.

[freethinker17]

The fascist of Mussolini, Hitler and Franco with it emphasis on xenophobic nationalism, aggressive miltarism, religious extremism and capitalists greed, could hardly by any stretch of the imagination be considered "Left-wing" or"socialist". socialism refers to either" 1. the government providing services for the poor such as welfar, social security ect or 2. the means of production being democratically controlled. I don't think any fascist government fitted either of these descriptions.

[AlanCom1]

@kromando33: I definitely know more about fascism and socialism that you do. They are both left wing movements. Fascism is a brand of socialism. Read about about Mussolini and you will see that he was a socialist just like you. The only difference is that he was a nationalist while you claim to be an internationalist. Read some history, then talk.

[xelenty]

Bush cuts taxes and then increases spending... I rest my case...

[AlanCom1]

bullshit.

And false. If fearmongering works, why is the president worried about Iraq and cleaning up that mess and draining the swamp?

If fearmongering works, why do we have a Democratic congress and senate?

I guess this retard doesn't know what fascism is. Fascism is an expansionist socialist brand. Where is the socialism in Bush's tax cuts?

John, you are a retard.

[Mycos1]

Only an authoritarian RWA could possibly say fascism is "left-wing". Why? Despite EVERY scholar and historian featured in peer-reviewed journals stating that Nazism is right-wing, a few right-wing SDOs decide it would be too hard to rehabilitate Hitler's image but also too embarrassing to leave him alone as a fellow right-winger. What do they do? They just move fascism over to the left knowing gullible RWA followers will buy it the way they bought that Jews secretly controlled the world.

[AlanCom1]

@mycos1:

I don't know what you mean by RWA, but calling Nazi right wing shows not only ignorance, but I would also add stupidity (plus I'm not talking about a kid here, I am talking about a 51 yo person).

If you think Hitler and the Nazi were right wing (compared to you) it means that you are a communist (for them everybody is right wing).

What part of NAtional SOcialist (worker's party) you don't get. They were the early 20th century version of SEIU and ACORN.

[Mycos1]

Clearly your only source of info FOX "news". You have posted almost a complete list of GOP talking points.

Tell me.. Why can you not find a single credible reference source (Encyclopedia Brittanica, World Book, etc.) that defines fascism as left-wing?

And while your at it, tell us why the communist gov. that followed in East Germany was named GDR or German DEMOCRATIC Republic? According to your logic East Germany was a democracy!! And N. Korea is democratic too! It says so in the name!

[Mycos1]

what you forget is that Hitler came to power in a democratic society. He needed votes and the real socialists were getting far more votes than he was when he initially named the party. It was nothing more than a calculated attempt...largely successful...to siphon votes away from his main competitor. But at the same time he was pretending to be the workers best friend he was killing socialist organizers behind the scenes. Mussolini, who invented fascism, said "Fascism is the opposite socialism!"

[AlanCom1]

@mycos1:

I am wasting my time with you.

You are uninformed. Read Alan Bullock - Hilter or Jonah Goldberg - Liberal Fascism.

[Mycos1]

@AlanCom1 LOLOL! I see where you went wrong with your education. There's a certain onus on everyone to first make sure their source of historical data comes from an actual historian if they intend on repeating it as fact. These buffoons are neither...and the test is that you will not be able to find a REAL historian who claims they are. "Peer-review" it's called .Learn it.. Remember it. Know it

[mingkat3]

"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security."

Dwight D.Eisenhower

[johan28]

What is really been said here is we should fear the 20-30 percent conservative christianity population because we have a lot to lose, if they continue growing.

[johan28]

What is being said is not that we should all be liberal tree hugging hippies that survive on donations. What is being said is that fear and an unshakeable belief in our own rightesnous is our worst enemy.

[johan28]

Irony. Did I say 'fear' the 20-30 percent conservative population? Maybe I did. Keep them in your thoughts. It just so happens that most of them are authoritarian personality. Possibly because there is one true god and one true list of laws. They're absolutists in the knowledge that there is ONE god and ONE way to live right. All other ways lead to hell and eternal damnation. Left to them, they would destroy the very thing they seek to protect.

[scalliwagrx8]

anyone that believes that should believe that "one true god" the almighty can take care of his own creations. People that think they have to keep others in line or else in soome way god's will won't come to fruition should ask themselves just how much faith they really have. Rightwing Kristian Konservatives I really doubt believe god is powerful enough and they somehow they have to get in everybody elses business.

[JohananRaatz]

I have to point out that the idea of the "authoritarian personality" actually stems from propagandistic "research" by the critical theorist Theodore Adorno. He attempted to label anyone who was conservative as potentially fascist.

In reality a tradeoff is needed between authority and freedom to help maintain a proper healthy society. The critical theorists didn't understand that. If we follow their definitions closely, 99% of civilizations in human history were "fascist" or "authoritarian."

[WolYou]

JohananRaatz: You dont understand how the system works. You think of authorities as unselfish people working in the interest of the people. The contrary is the case. There are no "theorists", but lots of historians. And if you would bother to inform yourself about the last 500 years, you'd be able to see the texture of abused power. Its in your interest to keep the opportunities for such an abuse small.

[Mycos1]

A great deal of research has been done since Adorno's post-WW2 attempts to learn how so many "good" German's could be bakers one day, and camp guards the next. John Dean speaks from close association with Dr. R. Altemeyer, the world's leading scientist on the subject of the "RWA-SDO (authoritarian) Embrace". Which is one that takes place between charismatic leaders who portray strength and who attract overwhelmingly high numbers of political/socially conservative followers.

[Mycos1]

@JohananRaatz Hardly. Prior to the excess food wealth that agriculture provided, the vast majority of neolithic cultures, then and today, tended toward egalitarianism...this being the anthropological use of the word. (eg. egalitarian -rank - class/caste)

[JohananRaatz]

@Mycos1 Yes, but agrarian style cultures don't have that kind of egalitarian structure. The same is true with cultures more advanced than agrarian societies. So the only kind of society where this works is a backwards neolithic one with flea bitten savages running loose on Pandora or something. What kind of a luddite wants to live in that?

[Mycos1]

@JohananRaatz Agrarian technology brought an excess of food, a need to store its amount, and who got how much of it...hence the invention of language and counting. But it also presented us with the unique situation of skill specialization thus a reliance on others for things we once got ourselves or had shared.. In H-G times, hoarding would get you killed or banished..(which amounted to a death sentence)). cont...

[Mycos1]

Interestingly, neolithic cultures having great natural wealth eg. Haida due the salmon runs, also accumulated excess of other goods (they engaged heavily in trade with Interior tribes) They also adopted a non-egalitarian system of rank acquisition. BUT!! Because non-egalitarian wealth distribution brings strife, the chiefs decided they would redistribute their personal wealth in "Potlatch" ceremonies, with the chief who gave away the most goods gaining the most prestige.

[Mycos1]

The point being that hoarding wealth isn't a result of technological comfort or development, nor is the gaining of high status and prestige the result of hoarding wealth alone. Technology, creature comforts, the acquisition of power and status are all still possible without the need for hoarding and starvation acting as the "sad but necessary" result of having an economic system capable of stimulating technological developments. That's a false dichotomy.

[blaziermissy]

I think he nailed it when he said "fear" is what drives followers of the tarded repubs fascist shit, b/c they can't handle the ambiguity. So why don't they research instead of mindless following? I just don't get why they don't see red flags like the rest of us....giving over your/our rights due to fear should immediately make one think...

[thebig1]

John Dean is nothing but a closet LIBERAL. Goldwater was Libertarian but he was much more to the Conservative side.

[Whoo69]

Republicans nowadays are just as big gov't as Democrats. Right on, Mr. Dean!

[genious777]

Thanks so much fo sharing this!

[mollymarieDUB]

Closr to fasism is just like almost civil war in Iraq. I just re-watched Star Wars Episode 3. And the line was "So this is how democracy dies, with applause.

[alromano]

Very sensible.