Virus dangerous enough for criminals to be released but safe enough for schools to open :o:

I hate to burst your bubble, but the average American doesn't believe statues of famous abolitionists should be torn down by mob rule. The average American might support taking down confederate statues, but not through mob rule.

I will concede that the average Democrat and average Republican are too much of a pussy to do anything about it though.

I imagine it was real fascists and not BLM protesters who tore down a ****ing Frederick Douglass statue.

No, because we're not schizophrenic.

Is there a 'Godwin's Law' for 'fascist' and 'fascism' yet? If not, I propose that one be instated. With all the useless ways in which the term is thrown around these days, Mussolini deserves a little more attention.

P1: What do you think about Kanye's campaign?

P2: Are you kidding? He's literally Mussolini!

P1: You think? What are his policies on train schedules?

P2: Haven't you been paying attention? He's vehemently pro-train, and plans for them all to be totally punctual!

P1: Yikes, really? You might be on to something here.

I never said anything to the contrary.

No they don't. The average American is like dude up there and thinks taking down statues in general is fascist with out any sense of the irony.

I disagree. The average American is too testicle. All testicles. Cowardly weak American testicles

My apologies Lucem, I may have misinterpreted your original post - you said:

"Believe it or not this is the average American. This is what they believe."

You were instead referring to your belief that the average American believes that the protesters should be, as MidnightRambler put it, "utterly crushed"?

I don't think the average American could give a half-assed definition of what 'fascism' means.

I use the legit definition.

A dictatorship based on nationalist, racist, sexist, classist, and bigoted values.

You hardly have to turn on Trump. It's with us or against us. There are countless examples of this.

Even as far as token blacks go, they'll sooner pick a straight laced Ben Carson type, not a rapper

Feel free to quote this post and rub it in in the future if I'm wrong but yeah... President Kanye isn't happening.

All they would have to do is play his music videos as attack ads and he's sunk in the GOP primaries. And for kicks, sprinkle in the "George Bush doesn't care about black people" clip.

I don't want to rub it in your face. I want you to rub it in my face.

The 'legit' definiton according to whom?

Oxford defines fascism as "An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization."

Merriam Webster defines fascism as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition"

Dictionary.com defines fascism as "a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."

British historian Roger Griffin coined the term 'fascist minimum' in his book The Nature of Fascism, a set of minimum conditions that a political movement or government must meet to satisfy the quality of being fascist. If historians could agree on something like this, it might be more useful than our current hodgepodge of definitions.

Many think 'fascism' is inextricably linked with 'corporatism', but your definition doesn't require corporatism. Some believe that 'fascism' is inextricably tied to far-right ideologies, but others believe it better suited to simple authoritarianism, of any political root.

So depending on one's definition, Nazi Germany was fascist, Imperial Japan was fascist, Israel is fascist, the modern US is fascist, the early US was fascist, the Soviet Union was fascist, pre-communist China was fascist, and modern day China is fascist.