"...do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

"For the good of the Air Force, for the good of the armed services and for the good of our country, I urge you to reject convention and careerism..."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Maxwell AFB, April 21, 2008

"You will need to challenge conventional wisdom and call things like you see them to subordinates and superiors alike."
- Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, United States Air Force Academy, March 4, 2011

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Fascism - The Fusion of Mob and Government

Pawnman - Maj Jason P. Williams

Mussolini, the father of fascism who literally wrote the book On Fascism, placed the goals of the state/party over the rights of individuals as all authoritarian systems do.  The defining characteristic of fascism, however, is the takeover of government machinery through the use of a mob and a gang of thugs that intimidates citizens and government officials until, step by step, it is able to begin controlling some government machinery in concert with private company collusion and mob intimidation tactics.  As it begins to spread its power and gain more control of government, it can then give its mob actions official validation and begin to fully control government.  This is how Mussolini, and his temporary German friend, gained power in the 1940s.  Using a mob of Blackshirts or Brownshirts to silence critical opinions in the media, including through violence, and then later with armed agents of the state.

This blog has devoted significant effort to point out fascist attitudes in our military.  While I was active duty the term fascism was seen as "tin foil" or hyperbolic.  This was true even while discussing President Obama lobbying for and signing into law the ability of the president to use the military to arrest Americans citizens without charge or trial, in America, and imprison them without due process.  It was even true when Obama began placing the names of American citizens on an assassination list and then using our weapons of warfare to execute citizens without judicial process.  Not only was pointing out this grievous tyranny subjected to tin foil memes and claims of "crazy" conspiracy theories, many military officers even justified and celebrated the murder of their countrymen.

For example, Major Jason P. Williams, celebrated his government using airpower to murder an American citizen outside a war zone who was posing no imminent threat to anybody and he was part of a larger group of military officers publicly joking about using fighter and bomber munitions on Occupy Wallstreet protestors in a thread that has since been deleted. As a B-1 weapons officer, Maj Williams could have potentially been in a position to carry out such actions himself and so his value system and position is not merely academic.  Further, Maj Williams vocally decried military officers who would refuse any illegal order to deprive American citizens of life without due process as being somehow unprofessional demonstrating the magnitude of his view and he characterized assassinating Americans without due process as simply "doing [your] job" and voicing a dissent as merely "bitching."  His value system is representative of a large portion of Air Force officers today and he is publicly vocal about it.

Well before the current efforts to purge "extremists" from military ranks (extremist being undefined yet fully understood to mean people of a conservative leaning who place the rights of Americans above unlawful edicts of government officials), the value system of military officers has long been fertile ground for the rise of fascism.  Internet and digital mob action has silenced voices of dissent and manufactured the impression of unanimity with regard to fascist values.  University positions have been filled with those sharing Marxist or fascist values that center a target on core American values such as the acknowledgment of individual rights and government limited by our Constitution.  A lexicon of distorted and warped language has been created to further use the internet and academic environments to infuse American minds with anti-American and anti-liberty values that are transparently contradictory.


 
Simultaneously, mobs of Marxists, fascists, and anarchists use this new lexicon of contradictory jargon to justify violence and intimidation mob tactics against speakers on college campuses.  Groups such as Antifa, which operates in Bloomington Indiana where Maj Williams teaches young minds as an AFROTC Detachment 215 instructor, spread the view that America is systemically racist, immorally capitalist, and express the view that core American values of reason and individual rights are relics of an immoral American past that must be done away with and replaced.  The tactics that Antifa employ are the same tactics used by the Blackshirts and Brownshirts from 1940s European history, although their lexicon allows them to deem their actions somehow antifascist.  They frequently espouse violence in response to speech and viewpoints they disagree with.

Our nation is currently experiencing an increased fusion as these fascist forces begin to advance from mob tactics to controlling an increasing number of government levers of power.  This is true in our nation's larger political situation and it plays out in more local arenas in my experience.

For example, consider the merging of military officers I have criticized for fascist beliefs while they wore the uniform coming together with Antifa Marxists on Bainbridge Island.  While they have many surface differences they are united in fascist principles and the drive to silence voices of dissent.  There retired Air Force Lt Col Daniel Tarleton joined a group, and financed an effort to silence protected speech, that included an Antifa convicted felon (who beat his girlfriend with a bat and sent her to the ER after she left a heated argument) along with a prolific Antifa propagandist (who was sued twice for defamation, lost a $5 million defamation suit, and who was ruled a "brazen" and "knowing" liar by the judge) in concert with Brandon Bryant (a man arrested and currently facing a felony jury trial for threatening the mass murder of government officials in Montana).  The group also included a local Antifa activist named Rachael Kentner who praised the Antifa attacker that was shot and killed by police in Tacoma after he launched an armed attack against a government facility.

Air Force Major Jason P. Williams has also participated in this group's efforts to silence voices of dissent across the internet which point out fascist values and actions.  Through his cooperation with Antifa operatives like Rachael Kentner and through his public comments on military message boards, Maj Williams is on the front lines of the effort to demonize traditional American values through his participation.

This merging of violent mob and government that controls the monopoly of violence, using demonization campaigns and intimidation and efforts to silence dissenting views, is a hallmark of the kind of fascism we see in black and white pictures in history books.  While Blackshirts would destroy press equipment and beat up press workers, today's mob primarily seeks to destroy it through online censorship and by equating journalism they don't agree with as "stalking" although they do not hide their approval of violence applied for those same ends.  As I have long maintained, a military uniform is just clothing and does not represent the actual values of the individual wearing it.  Fascist groups throughout history are replete with examples of a fascist exchanging their black shirt for a military uniform.

Un-American values must be challenged while Americans still have any shred of a voice to do so.  Unchecked, fascists will remove that voice.  We should use that voice while we still have it in some measure.

Saturday, April 10, 2021

America is not a free country & "fascism" can no longer be denied

For years I have talked about fascism in America and I've gotten plenty of flack.  Normally from the same kind of people who are fond of "tin foil" insults and memes.  It's not that these people are stupid, it's that they are psychological children.  They don't have the strength to admit the reality they live in, it's too scary, so they lash out against those presenting reality.

But I have been pleasantly surprised to see that people are finally using the fascist label to describe what has happened in America.  Dan Crenshaw is the latest I've seen to use the term and he normally tries to play it as middle of the road as he can.  He's not the only person to accurately use the term to explain what is happening in America.  Thoughtful reformers such as Chris Hedges have long been using the term and even some on a message board of military folks known for defending armed government violations of core liberties are now finally beginning to come to terms with our police abuse crisis and some are even accurately using the f-word.  People are beginning to wake up even though it's late in the game and likely much too late.  But like a one way military mission, we don't peacefully yet passionately fight for the rights of our American countrymen because we think we will win, we fight because it's the right thing to do for our nation and for our families.  And because we have a responsibility to the great Americans who came before us who gave everything to better perfect our union.

Fascism is a troublesome word with many definitions.  When I use the term I mean authoritarianism with the hallmark of using a mob, in concert with government power, to silence others.  I use that definition because that was the key characteristic of Mussolini and his blackshirts, along with Hitler and his brownshirts.  Now, the same people who don't use that word and who love "tin foil" insults will be quick to point out that if you mention Hitler you've lost the argument.  That's not because they are morons (although many of them are and are only repeating what they've been told and parroting the responses of others online) but it's because, again, they can't handle reality.  The world is safe and government can never do that again they would claim.  Because that's how history and human works, obviously.

The mob today doesn't just include Antifa and BLM thugs burning down buildings, murdering people, and terrorizing towns and cities in concert with their fascist allies in government, it also includes corporate America.  The fusion of corporate power and government power to crush dissent.  We see that today with AOC using government thugs to intimidate an innocuous critic, thanks to Twitter supplying that critic's personal information.

There is no more slippery slope argument.  The United States of America is a fascist police state and it has been for some time now.  I have experienced it up close and personal on several occasions and others are increasingly experiencing it as the curtain is being pulled back across our society.  But it will get worse and more overt.  Our economy will collapse, there is no doubt about that.  And China's control over our nation, our corporations, and our government is concerning.  Our nation isn't even in the top five of the most free nations and has a negative trajectory while economics continue to decline.  The economic and social soil of America today is as fertile a place as ever to usher in an era we've only seen in black and white photos from 1940s Europe.  We will continue to see, I fear, this more overtly as time goes by.  AOC is leading the charge on that front but she's not alone and it's not a partisan issue despite political talking heads.  Human nature cares not for a D or R label and fascism loves any and all pretense that allows it the control it desires be it the threat of Islamic terrorists, white supremacist bogeymen, illegal immigrants or drugs.

As bleak as it is, real Americans regardless of their political leanings don't utter "pick your battles" as a justification for cowardly refusing to fight against the odds.  Instead they saddle up and move the ball inches forward so the next actual American can move it a bit further.  They do it because they take responsibility for their nation gifted to them by greater men and women from generations past.  And they do it at great personal sacrifice because that's just what it takes.  Deeds not words.

There is no America to move to if we lose this imperfect and yet once-great nation.  This is it.  So get to work.