Political Interest wrote:Westerners today are so liberal and individualistic
That's completely false. If that were the case, the dominant political parties would be libertarian. In actual reality they're mostly "social democratic" - that is, left leaning, sometimes with some conservative ideas attached(these ones that like to call themselves "conservatives"/"republicans" and so on - despide still leaning heavily towards the left)
Political Interest wrote:But, unlike fascists I doubt we support violent expansionism or racism.
Racism is not a characteristic of fascism in general but rather a particularity of nazism. Neither is military expansionism - which is something that large powers tend to do in general, regardless of their political stances
It is true however that fascists are in love with some deplorable concepts similar to racism but based on nationality rather than race. It's also true that many fascists are also racist, although fascism doesn't necessarily entail that.
Political Interest wrote:You cannot, in 2018, accuse a conservative of being a fascist, when he would be considered liberal by the standards of 70 years ago, certainly not very conservative, let alone part of the far right. It just goes to show how the culture has shifted that a normal conservative can be called far right.
Of course you can! Conservatives still hold lots of backward ideas and values: they still want the death penalty in effect, they'd ban abortion, pornography, sex ed., they want disproportionate sentencing, they want to give lots of powers to the police, prosecutors and judges, etc.
Fascism is about:
- giving a lot of power to the state
- regulating most aspects of public and private life
Ideas that conservatives are fond of(as longs as the legislation suits their values)
The US nowadays already is a fascist/totalitarian state heading for full totalitarianism - the evidence is everywhere:
- the number of criminal laws/deeds that have been criminalized exploded in the past few decades(there's are so many laws, no one knows how many they are - yet people are expected to obey them)
- the rate of incarceration (2nd largest on the planet, per capita)
- the percentage of people with a criminal record
- the percentage of people that have been arrested at least once
- the power of the police and their lack of accountability
- the absolute or near absolute immunity and impunity with which prosecutors and judges act, being fully protected even when they commit grave abuses, knowingly and in bad faith