Viewing Democracy

ADDED 10/03/2018

Living in the shadow of Breivik: why 22 July could be the anti-fascist movie of our times

FROM 10/03/2018 | New Statesman

BY Paul Mason

In Paul Greengrass’s new film, the Anders Breivik trial becomes a metaphor for how the far right today is using and undermining the rule of law. KEYSTONEUSA-ZUMA/REX Malign world view: the extreme-right terrorist Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 fellow Norwegians on 22 July 2011 On 22 July 2011 the fascist activist Anders Breivik shot to […]

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ADDED 10/02/2018

I JUST VISITED LULA, THE WORLD’S MOST PROMINENT POLITICAL PRISONER. A “SOFT COUP” IN BRAZIL’S ELECTION WILL HAVE GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES.

FROM 10/02/2018 | The Intercept

BY Noam Chomsky

PRISONS ARE REMINISCENT of Tolstoy’s famous observation about unhappy families: Each “is unhappy in its own way,” though there are some common features — for prisons, the grim and stifling recognition that someone else has total authority over your life. My wife Valeria and I have just visited a prison to see arguably the most prominent […]

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ADDED 09/28/2018

‘Far right’ groups may be diverse – but here’s what they all have in commo

FROM 09/27/2018 | The Conversation

BY Daphne Halikiopoulou

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Far right parties and groups have been enjoying increasing support across Europe. Such parties have performed well in recent domestic elections, often occupying second or third place – and in some cases joining governing coalitions. Examples include the French Front National (FN, now Rassemblement National), the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), the Austrian Party for Freedom (FPÖ), the […]

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ADDED 09/27/2018

Supreme Court disenfranchises 3.3 million voters, 11 days before election

FROM 09/27/2018 | BrasilWire

BY Brian Wier

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On September 26, the Federal Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of 3.3 million registered voters who did not attend a special electoral review between before a deadline of May 2018. Most of those canceled did not register their biometrics, which became mandatory in 1,248 cities, unevenly distributed around the country, and concentrated in the traditionally left voting North East. The move has […]

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ADDED 09/22/2018

Trumping Europe? Steve Bannon’s manufactured ‘movement’

FROM  | Nation of Change

BY Derek Royden

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The economist and political theorist Murray Rothbard, generally credited as one of the founders of right-wing libertarianism in North America, was also, somewhat contradictory, enthusiastic about McCarthyism. His support wasn’t predicated on the fervent anti-communism of William F. Buckley and other standard bearers of what was then called the New Right, but instead due to […]

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Defining Fascist, Illiberal and Authoritarian

In our global slide toward despotic unaccountability, three words act as the primary signifiers of the changes in governing and political norms at work around the globe. The words are fascist, illiberal and authoritarian.

Let’s take a look at the dictionary definition of each.

Fascist: 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.

Illiberal: Opposed to liberal principles; restricting freedom of thought or behavior.

Authoritarian: Favouring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. Showing a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others; dictatorial.

Whether we’re talking about Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro, Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin or Daniel Ortega you see aspects of each these dangerous modes of social control being normalized and, in many instances, enacted through executive or legislative means.

While it is natural to be most alarmed by the rise of neo-fascist political parties in Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweden, France, and the UK, perhaps a more dangerous trend is the emerging religious authoritarianism infecting Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism. In India, Modi’s BJP has actively encouraged ethnic cleansing campaigns by Hindus against Muslims in northern states. In Israel, Netanyahu successfully passed a new law elevating the citizenship rights of Jewish Israelis over those of Muslims. In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has given tacit approval to Buddhist death squads attacking Muslim Rohingya villages. Across the Middle East, leaders leverage the Sunni/Shia divide to redraw national boundaries resulting in the refugee crisis in Europe. In the United States, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are rushing the decisive Christianist candidate onto the nation’s Supreme Court. In Brazil, the leading candidate in October’s presidential election is an open supporter of military dictatorship is supported by 90% of white Catholic and Evangelical voters.

Any of these political-religious movements could result in illiberal, authoritarian or fascist governing regimes. Adding the accelerant of religious dogma any of these are much more likely to spread across national boundaries and endanger regional or even global peace.

ADDED 09/14/2018

Our new international movement will fight rising fascism and globalists

FROM 09/13/2018 | The Guardian

BY Yanis Varoufakis

Our era will be remembered for the triumphant march of a globally unifying rightwing – a Nationalist International – that sprang out of the cesspool of financialised capitalism. Whether it will also be remembered for a successful humanist challenge to this menace depends on the willingness of progressives in the United States, the European Union, […]

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ADDED 09/13/2018

It happened there: how democracy died in Hungary

FROM 09/13/2018 | Vox

BY Zach Beauchamp

The Hungary-Serbia border runs through a wilderness, tall grass flatlands ringed by imposing clusters of trees and thickets. When I visited a stretch of the Serbian side on a sunny day in June, the landscape would have been lovely — had it not been for the gigantic barbed-wire fence running straight through the middle of […]

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ADDED 09/12/2018

A new illiberal world order is taking shape

FROM 09/12/2018 | Gulf News

BY Fawaz Turki

The cruelty took place in the distant past. Tour the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American history in Washington (this columnist’s hometown for the last 45 years) and there you will stumble upon a slave narrative from 1848 that is part of the Weeping Time exhibit, documenting the tragic history of enslaved children being separated from their enslaved […]

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ADDED 09/12/2018

Inside the Sweaty Glasgow Gig Using Hip-Hop to Resist the Far-Right

FROM 09/12/2018 | Noisey

BY Jonathan Rimmer |

It’s a typically grey Saturday evening in Glasgow’s south side, where punters are beginning to drift towards the many local boozers. McNeill’s sports bar, with its shabby exterior and tinted windows, would ordinarily look like the most unremarkable of all, but for the incongruous banner pinned to the top of the stairs – black and […]

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ADDED 09/12/2018

FASCIST FEST AS TRUMP’S AMERICA MEETS MODI’S HINDUS

FROM 09/12/2018 | South China Morning Post

BY Rohit Chopra

The recent World Hindu Congress in Chicago, an attempt to endow the intolerant majoritarian philosophy of Hindutva with international legitimacy, couldn’t have chosen a better time to bring the party to the US. Socialism, the saying goes, subjects art to politics, while fascism is guilty of the opposite. The goal of the extreme aestheticisation of […]

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ADDED 09/11/2018

E.U.’s Leadership Seeks to Contain Hungary’s Orban

FROM 09/11/2018 | New York Times

BY Patrick Kingsley

BRUSSELS — As Prime Minister Viktor Orban steadily established an “illiberal state” in Hungary, dismantling the country’s checks and balances, stacking its constitutional court with loyalists and creating a template for other far-right leaders, a powerful group of European politicians took note. And said little. Mr. Orban is now seen as a threat to Europe’s mainstream leadership, […]

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