Website review: An Iron Fist In A Velvet Glove
Yoza discovered this in Alternative News
•6 reviews since Jan 3, 2008
alternative-news, politics, fascism
•informationclearinghouse.info/article18994.ht...
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Yoza discovered 8 months ago- The guy who wrote this article makes an interesting point. The threat of a fascist style crackdown in any democratic state is usually enough to deter large scale dissent, the state does not need to actually enforce the crackdown to meet its objective. From the page:" So why does a democracy need fascist schemes like Reagan's Rex-84 Alpha Explan (a FEMA plan to put American protesters against a planned war against Nicaragua into camps)? Because American democracy is an iron fist in a velvet glove, a glove that's becoming increasingly transparent. Threats of repression are rarely carried out. They don't need to be. If potential opponents are afraid, there's little need for concentration camps. The threat of repression (and actual crackdowns, explained away as exceptional excesses and brushed off with a token apology) creates a chilling effect on people who might pick up a rock instead of a sign. A dog doesn't have to bite everyone every day to earn a fearsome reputation. Mount cameras all over the place, and you don't need to have anyone actually watching on the other side."
- Innomen rated 8 months ago
- The simplest breakdown of why we don't have revolt in this country.
- Laurel700 rated 8 months ago
- From the page: "What would you do if you learned that Bush Administration officials wanted to round up thousands of Americans and throw them into concentration camps? For all we know, there is no slippery slope. It's entirely possible that extraordinary rendition, eliminating habeas corpus, and the torture camps at Guantánamo and elsewhere are exactly what the government says they are--tools for fighting terrorists, not domestic political opponents. But how likely is it? History is clear: Over and over again, the U.S. government places fascists in powerful positions. Once in office, they exploit wars and national tragedies to roll back hard-won freedoms. They're Democrats as well as Republicans. As has happened with increasing frequency in recent years, another blockbuster story revealing the anti-democratic impulse within the top echelon of the U.S. government has appeared and vanished overnight. According to Cold War-era files declassified last week, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover repeatedly advised President Harry Truman to arrest "all individuals potentially dangerous" to national security, jail them in military prisons and try them before kangaroo tribunals that "will not be bound by the rules of evidence." "For a long period of time the FBI has been accumulating the names, identities and activities of individuals found to be potentially dangerous to the internal security through investigation," Hoover wrote in a 1950 memo. "These names have been compiled in an index, which index has been kept up to date." Capitalizing on anti-communist hysteria at the start of the Korean War, Hoover asked Truman to preemptively detain 12,000 people, 97 percent of them American citizens, in order to "protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage." Hoover was a lunatic. Truman ought to have fired him on the spot. Instead, in September 1950 Congress took his advice and passed a law authorizing the detention of "dangerous radicals" if the president declared a national emergency. Truman signed it. In fact, he declared such an emergency three months later. No one knows why, but the president never actually followed through with mass arrests. Hoover's "subversives"--people suspected of left-wing political sympathies--remained free. He was wrong. There were no acts of sabotage. It wasn't the first time the government went "crazy.""
- donthefox rated 8 months ago
- Everyone loves fascism!!!!
- Aeneas101 rated 8 months ago
- What would you do if you learned that Bush Administration officials wanted to round up thousands of Americans and throw them into concentration camps? Well, you will probably say that couldn't happen because you believe that the US is a democracy. Declassified records may make you rethink that belief. The article shows that those in power will take whatever means necessary in order to stay in power. From the page: "According to Cold War-era files declassified last week, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover repeatedly advised President Harry Truman to arrest "all individuals potentially dangerous" to national security, jail them in military prisons and try them before kangaroo tribunals that "will not be bound by the rules of evidence." "
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