On the left, if they are going to tell you one big lie, they will claim that someone is a victim, and we should all send money to a special “caring” person who will make it all better. (i.e. The Unions, The Rainbow Coalition, ACORN)
On the right, they are WAYYYYYYY better at this. They will say, “Psst. I know the mainstream media, and all the school textbooks have been perpetrating this lie for years, but *I* will set the record straight and tell you the REAL truth.”
As soon as you hear that, you KNOW it will be a doozie!
This is the key of the playbook on the right, and they ALL do it.
Rush Limbaugh does it all the time, Mark Levin lives for it, Sean Hannity tries to do it, but he has such little in-depth knowledge of the issues, it’s laughable.
Glenn Beck makes his LIVING off of it. (Glenn’s WHOLE existence is dedicated to it) Michael Medved has a series of books called “The (fill in # here) of big lies about (fill in your favorite topic)” His latest one is “5 big lies about American Business.” (Can’t WAIT to read that one)
One of the big lies out there on the right, perpetrated by Glenn Beck is that Hitler was an extreme leftist. He’ll say something like, “Oh, I believed what I was taught and thought Hitler was on the extreme right, but after doing some research, you’ll be surprised to know that he was an extreme socialist leftist.”
REALLY Glenn? What exactly is your research?
Maybe he went to one of my fellow bloggers web sites:
http://democraticpeace.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/hitler-was-a-socialist/
This is actually a site with great information, but contradicts the hell out of itself, and draws a completely illogical conclusion. (Much like Glenn Beck, but without the great information)
The author lectures:
What is socialism? It is a politico-economic philosophy that believes government must direct all major economic decisions by command, and thus all the means of production for the greater good, however defined. There are three major divisions of socialism, all antagonistic to each other.
OK…
- Let’s go with author’s broad definition of Socialism and it’s 3 divisions. He says they are all “antagonistic” to each other. So by definition, they CANNOT all be one ideology.
- I would not agree that Socialism merely teaches that government should MAKE all major economic decisions. I would say Socialism teaches that government should OWN and OPERATE major institutions/sectors for the common good. By the author’s definition, every one of our past (and current) Presidents would be extreme Socialists. Herbert Hoover, by making the major economic decision to do nothing during the Great Depression would be a Socialist. This definition is absurdity to the extreme.
He then goes on to describe the three types of Socialism:
- Democratic Socialism
- Marxist-Leninism
- State Socialism
He defines Democratic Socialism:
“places the emphasis on democratic means, but then government is a tool for improving welfare and equality”
Every democratic country in the world has some degree of this (and well they should). It is written into the US Constitution. The trick is to clearly define where social good ends, and nanny-state welfare begins. Also, it is clear to differentiate equality of OPPORTUNITY – Good, from forced Economic equality – Very BAD
He then moves to Marxist-Leninism. – Needs no definition. We all know what this is.
Now we get to the best part – This is great!
“State Socialism”
This is a non-Marxist or anti-Marxist dictatorship that aims at near absolute economic control for the purpose of economic development and national power, all construed to benefit the people. Mussolini’s fascism was a state socialism that was explicitly anti-Marx and aggressively nationalistic. Hitler’s National Socialism was state socialism at its worse. It not only shared the socialism of fascism, but was explicitly racist.
This describes EVERY RIGHT-WING dictatorship that ever existed (except in some cases on the “racist” part)!
- Mussolini in Italy
- Hitler in Germany
- Pinochet in Chile
- Marcos in the Phillipines
- Papa Doc in Haiti
- Noriega in Panama
- Cabrera in Guatemala
- Saddam in Iraq
- The Shah in Iran
- Batista in Cuba
The list is ENDLESS!
This definition of Fascism from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism) I believe is most correct:
Fascism, pronounced /ˈfæʃɪzəm/, is a political ideology that seeks to combine radical and authoritarian nationalism[1][2][3][4] with a corporatist economic system.[5]
Corporatism is highly antithetical of Socialism, and is in no way compatible with it.
Mr. Democratic Peace Blogger, if you want to identify Fascism as a type of Socialism, go right ahead! But don’t give me this B.S. and say it’s on the left. It’s right-wing socialism at it’s worst. But I do thank you for giving Mr. Beck material to make a quite entertaining show.
