Comparing Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Marxism, and Obama

A humorously serious look at life’s trials & tribulations,
American politics, religion, and other social madnesses by Beth Isbell.

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Comparing Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Marxism, and Obama

Post by roxybeast » October 23rd, 2009, 2:30 am

<center>Comparing Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Marxism, and Obama
by Beth Isbell

October 23, 2009</center>
Lately the far right wing in America, often described as "wing-nuts" or radical conservatives, or even "tea-baggers," try to label President Obama as both fascist and communist, and paint him simultaneously as both Hitler and Stalin. Their efforts to try to pin such pejorative labels on Obama simply demonstrate their ignorance of history. I find it interesting that uninformed right wingers here in America try to accuse Obama of being both, despite obvious definitional conflicts, when in fact he is neither. So let's take a closer look at what these terms mean.

Hitler and Stalin were both extreme totalitarian dictators. Hitler and the Nazi party are most often classified as fascist. Stalin was an authoritarian marxist. According to Wikipedia, "Fascism is normally described as 'extreme right.'" Marxism is more a political philosophy describing the struggle between the classes, than a true form of government, and in practice can vary from far left to far right in implementation, although most typically associated with the rise of communism in Russia, which is typically classified on the far left of the modern political spectrum. So when you claim someone is both a Facist & a Marxist, or Hitler and Stalin, at the same time, it simply shows that you don't know what they are talking about!

Fascism, a totalitarian style authoritarian dictatorship form of government, arose in Italy and Nazi Germany in response to perceived failures of democratic, socialist, and communist political systems. The primary connection between Hitler and Stalin is that both were ruthless dictators who were very repressive of individual freedoms and civil rights, particularly for any persons or groups that opposed their totalitarian authoritarian government policies, or in the case of Hitler, opposed his social Darwinism anti-semitic views. Which is why, despite Hitler's and Stalin's claims to be socialist, they are more correctly classified in modern views of political theory as being on the extreme right, at least with regard to their social policies and implementation of ruthless totalitarian dictatorships, by many historians.

It's pretty obvious that Obama is not a ruthless totalitarian dictator and his views are the polar opposite of Hitler and Stalin regarding individual freedoms & civil rights. So for anyone to try to characterize him that way is just plain ignorant, and frankly, a little bit nutty.
Last edited by roxybeast on October 23rd, 2009, 2:47 am, edited 10 times in total.

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Post by roxybeast » October 23rd, 2009, 2:36 am

To aid in the discussion, here are links to the Wikipedia discussions and definitions of Fascism, Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Capitalism and Democracy:

Fascism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism

Marxism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism

Socialism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Communism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

Capitalism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

Democracy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy

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