indoctrination and fascism in US

[punisa]

I'd like to learn something.. the tactics of indoctrination in US. How do people fight against it? And what is even more important question - do ordinary people even realize the propaganda that is brought upon them?

As indoctrination was very closely related to right wing ideology during 20th (and 21st) century, is there any tangible - even remote - possibility of United States having a far right leadership at some point in the future?

Although Fascism still maintains capitalist mode of production, many sources claim that capitalist elite does not benefit from it that much, at least not as much as from free exploitable market.
Does that mean that capitalist leaders, such as in US, will nurture right wing up to the point where it is safe to call it "just patriotism", being careful not to overflow into fascism?
Or could fascism be a possible solution for further declining markets?

Accidentally I found a book cover while browsing, just the cover speaks volumes about horrible indoctrination, read the bottom, apparently its just one of the series of "child training tips", now that's just sad.
I do hate the nazis, but "book burning" suddenly came to my mind as a very cool idea :thumbup1:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511lm5gcCnL.jpg

[chegitz guevara]

There is no quicker way to scare liberals away from you than to burn books. While I don't have respect for the ideas of liberalism, we do want to turn them from liberals into revolutionaries, and you can't do that if they are fleeing from you.

[proudcomrade]

I think that Punisa was just being facetious about book-burning. :lol:

The right indoctrination in the US can be a subtle thing. The social-studies and history books are presented with a lot of loaded language that suggests positive connotations for the US' founding and role in the world; likewise, the same kind of slanted language subtly (or, at other times, obviously) devalues other systems, in particular, anything to do with revolutions that aren't libertarian or rightist. When twentieth-century history is even briefly discussed at all, we tend to get a lot of supposed "facts" about how the USSR equals gulags and a bloodthirsty Stalin, and about how the people's hero Kennedy saved us all from crazy Fidel and his nukes. Everything we hear about capitalism gets couched in "buzzwords", loaded terms like "freedom", "liberty", "democracy" and the like; meanwhile, we never hear them use similar positive language to describe anything related to Communism. They do not teach that part with words like "equality", "camaraderie" or "compassion", just gulags and dictators and nukes.

It is sort of similar the way the system taints the teaching about racism. The history classes and student assemblies go on and on about how our hero Columbus "discovered America", and how "friendly Native Americans" helped, and how Lincoln was such a tireless moral crusader against slavery, and how Brown v. Board of Education made education racially equal, etc. Then they combine that with the old Horatio Alger myths about hard work making for prosperity. When people grow up to see what really happened and continues to happen, they end up drawing faulty conclusions and believing racist things about the reasons why so many people of color stay trapped in persistent cycles of poverty and social issues. Then they end up not believing any of these beliefs to be racist, because they are merely the conclusions they inevitably drew from the conveniently-slanted stuff they were taught during the formative years of childhood.

Kids who question this during school are made to feel like pariahs. It is reinforced in the way sports are made unnecessarily hyper-competitive, and consistently funded and supported hundreds of times more than the arts, which tend to get either dismissed with a little bit of lip-service at best, or completely done away with in some school systems at worst.

Meanwhile, all of the above "learning" is reinforced every single year with a battery of standardized tests in which conveniently-framed questions make the kids repeat everything that they "learned" in these classes.

[Jethro Tull]

None of this has much to do at all with fascism, though, unless we're just using "fascist" as a synonym for "bad".

[RadioRaheem84]

As indoctrination was very closely related to right wing ideology during 20th (and 21st) century, is there any tangible - even remote - possibility of United States having a far right leadership at some point in the future?

Although Fascism still maintains capitalist mode of production, many sources claim that capitalist elite does not benefit from it that much, at least not as much as from free exploitable market.
Does that mean that capitalist leaders, such as in US, will nurture right wing up to the point where it is safe to call it "just patriotism", being careful not to overflow into fascism?
Or could fascism be a possible solution for further declining markets?

I can see the growth of a right wing movement in the US turning quite fascistic. When working and middle class conservatives really wise up and learn about the destructive nature of finance capitalism, they'll revolt against it as did the NSDAP in Germany. Right wing populism will demand that jobs return to the US, illegals be kicked and super-patriotism reign supreme. Think Pat Buchanan or the John Birch Society gone wild!

[RadioRaheem84]

The cover of that book is scary! It equates liberalism with socialism and communism! That type of indoctrination is seriously dangerous.

Back in the days of the Weimar Republic, right wing para military groups, the biggest called the Freidkorps would murder socialists and leftists because they mistakenly thought they were supporters of the liberal regime.

If we keep getting equated with liberals and their stupid 'capitalism with a friendly face' policies, our oppositions will fall on deaf ears to a fascistic mob that's ready to lynch someone.

[RadioRaheem84]

The right indoctrination in the US can be a subtle thing. The social-studies and history books are presented with a lot of loaded language that suggests positive connotations for the US' founding and role in the world; likewise, the same kind of slanted language subtly (or, at other times, obviously) devalues other systems, in particular, anything to do with revolutions that aren't libertarian or rightist. When twentieth-century history is even briefly discussed at all, we tend to get a lot of supposed "facts" about how the USSR equals gulags and a bloodthirsty Stalin, and about how the people's hero Kennedy saved us all from crazy Fidel and his nukes. Everything we hear about capitalism gets couched in "buzzwords", loaded terms like "freedom", "liberty", "democracy" and the like; meanwhile, we never hear them use similar positive language to describe anything related to Communism. They do not teach that part with words like "equality", "camaraderie" or "compassion", just gulags and dictators and nukes.

Agreed. What I never understood is why someone like George Washington is seen as a revolutionary hero in this nation but not Che Guevara. I am one of those that agree that Che was a bit more totalitarian than other socialist revolutionaries but he overthrew a corrupt government to try and establish a constitution that guaranteed the rights of all people of all creeds and of all races. Washington on the other hand crushed rebellions and mutinies, before and after the war, presided over the abuse of loyalists, and helped establish a constitution that rejected the rights of every non-white land owning merchant in the country. Most of the rights we gained since then were in opposition to the founders initial framework!

[mikelepore]

I do hate the nazis, but "book burning" suddenly came to my mind as a very cool idea :thumbup1:

The publishing company would love it if you would purchase a lot of copies of the book at $25.95 each and then burned them.

[Tatarin]

punista, send me the book. My toilet paper is running out.

[ArrowLance]

I'd like to learn something.. the tactics of indoctrination in US. How do people fight against it? And what is even more important question - do ordinary people even realize the propaganda that is brought upon them?

As indoctrination was very closely related to right wing ideology during 20th (and 21st) century, is there any tangible - even remote - possibility of United States having a far right leadership at some point in the future?

Although Fascism still maintains capitalist mode of production, many sources claim that capitalist elite does not benefit from it that much, at least not as much as from free exploitable market.
Does that mean that capitalist leaders, such as in US, will nurture right wing up to the point where it is safe to call it "just patriotism", being careful not to overflow into fascism?
Or could fascism be a possible solution for further declining markets?

Accidentally I found a book cover while browsing, just the cover speaks volumes about horrible indoctrination, read the bottom, apparently its just one of the series of "child training tips", now that's just sad.
I do hate the nazis, but "book burning" suddenly came to my mind as a very cool idea :thumbup1:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511lm5gcCnL.jpg

Wait, Che Guevara is liberal now?

[Uncle Hank]

Wait, Che Guevara is liberal now?
Liberal, communist, they're all radicals if they're not with me, don'tchya know? IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT THEN YOU CAN JUST GIT OUT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT0OqHr3wHQ&NR=1).

[Manifesto]

The symbolism on the cover makes no sense to me. Since when do Liberals like Che and apparently only Republicans can love America? Conservatives think they have the moral high-ground? LOL and no we should not burn books except for Ayn Rand that is.

[Rusty Shackleford]

America is not Fascist, it has gone on the path towards fascism a tad bit, but generally, the american right is very liberal (economically). they usually wont stand for ANYTHING that is unconstitutional. Also, patriotism goes not just to hating commies and socialists but is also about hating Nazism, fascism, and also monarchism.

[RadioRaheem84]

I never thought that Fascism would ever take the form of Nazism. But I could see it take the form of a pretty authoritarian President like Putin or perhaps a more behind the scenes Pinochet style junta. People would know that the nation is rounding up dissenters but would either be too afraid to say anything or willfully look the other way because of their irrational hatred toward "liberals", i.e. "socialists, communists, progressives".

People will do anything for stability. In this nation though people will do anything for both stability and a chance to love and be proud of their nation again.

You'd be surprised as to how many Americans admired the Franco Regime in Spain. The Franco regime was less "fascistic" in the sense that it wasn't dogmatic like Nazism and faux-nationalist like Mussolini. It was a genuine caudillo state that promoted the throne and empire of Spain, Catholicism, and anti-Communism. There are a section of Americans that like 'benevolent' dictators like this. They liked the Shah of Iran, Batista of Cuba, Pinochet of Chile, The Generals of Greece, Musharef of Pakistan and Franco of Spain.