drewmckinney.net

Fascism, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is “A philosophy or system of government that is marked by stringent social and economic control, a strong, centralized government usually headed by a dictator, and often a policy of belligerent nationalism.” I mention this because I believe that we are living in a fascist state and our dictator is none other than the boy-president, George W. Bush.

Earlier today on The Progressive I read about a high school student that was investigated by the Secret Service because of an anti-Bush photo that he’d taken for a class project. Seems that the teacher wanted the students to take photos to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights and he was trying to show his right to dissent. Some nosy asshole that worked in the photo lab of Wal-Mart (I’ll save my rant on them for another time…) called the cops and they in turn hauled in the Secret Service. All of this because the student had taken a picture of himself giving a thumbs-down to a picture of George W. Bush. Okay, the picture of Bush was hung on a wall with a red thumbtack through his head. OH MY GOD!!! Call the Army and have them get the nukes ready, a high school student has taken a picture from a magazine and hung it on a wall!

Ever since September 11 (hey, if the president can invoke it all the time then I guess I will) our country has become a nation of sniveling cowards that have nothing better to do than spy on each other while we root out the “terrorists.” It’s a good thing that Wal-Mart is on the case, I can sleep easier at night knowing that our domestic security is in the hands of teenagers and pensioners.

“…Government that is marked by stringent social and economic control…” Our system is supposed to be a democracy, where the goals of social control are determined through legislation by elected representatives, thus enjoying a measure of support from the population. What’s happening though is that corporate interests are controlling the media, advertising, and public relations, leaving most people horribly uninformed when it comes to making decisions that affect the lives of everyone in the nation. Companies like Clear Channel monopolize the local media and shut down anyone that might have a dissenting point of view, such as what happened to Howard Stern. I’m not a fan of Stern but I do believe that he is entitled to his opinion without getting sacked, regardless of how much he voices disapproval of Bush.

“…Belligerent nationalism.” All you have to do is listen to the president to get an idea of his belligerence. He makes statements like, “If you’re not with us then you are against us.” He defies the U.N. and goes to war with a country whose leader he has a personal grudge with and then refuses to apologize for his actions. Belligerent? You be the judge.

So where does this leave us, four years after the tragedy of the World Trade Center? Is having Wal-Mart spy on us making us as a nation any safer? Is the arrogance of this administration helping to build relationships with the rest of the world? How many of our rights are we willing to give up before we put our foot down and declare that we won’t take it anymore? I am sick of getting pushed around by rich old guys whose only concern is to make even more millions of dollars then they already have. Get smart America, vote these assholes out of office. It can be done.

update (10/15/05): Cory over at BoingBoing posted about this as well.