The Null Device

We all live in a fascist regime, a fascist regime, a fascist regime...

An interesting article titled The Rise of American Fascism. No, it's not about the PATRIOT Act and FOXNews, but starts over 100 years ago with the introduction of the Pledge of Allegiance, and goes on to the massive popularity of the Ku Klux Klan (who, back then, were mainstream in the way that Bill O'Reilly is), the epidemics of lynchings, the eugenics movement, internment camps, various Red Scares, the influence of the likes of Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, multinational corporations having a bob each way during WW2: (via gimbo)
Ford had developed a "Sociological Department" for his company, the goal of which was to "put a soul into the company." Ford told the head of the department that he wanted him to, "put Jesus Christ in my factory." In order to qualify for the $5 a day wage that Ford was offering a worker had to submit to corporate surveillance of his lifestyle by the Sociological Department. Employees were subject to home inspections, had to prove they were sober, prove they regularly saved a portion of their paycheck, and prove that they were not "living riotously," which included activities such as gambling or staying out late.
The article puts the 1950s as the time when "America would truly became a fascist country in both the economic and social sense":

This last change to the pledge is very symbolic of the finalization of the fascist state in America. During the 1950s, as happened in Italy and Germany, the barriers between Church, State, and Corporation had all been broken.

In 1956 Congress changed the national motto from "E Pluribus Unum" to "In God We Trust", and "So help me God" was added to federal oaths (despite the fact that the Christian Bible clearly states not to swear on God or any other person, place, or thing when taking an oath. Matthew 5:33-37, James 5:12).

All of this is exactly the same type of thing that took place in Fascist Europe, and just as in Europe these were changes that were not forced upon people by the State, but they were in fact supported by the people out of the increasingly conservative social climate.

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