I just got ticked off enough to call into a radio show (again), this time national host Jerry Doyle. He was ranting about how George Bush backed off from the term "Islamic Fascists". While I wouldn't credit Bush with backing off because the term makes absolutely zero sense (probably more to appease the Saudi's), that doesn't change the fact that the term makes absolutely zero sense!!!
Fascism is a political and economic system that is Nationalist, Socialist, Imperialist and Militaristic, among many other things. A core tenant of the Fascist movement was that you would control the people by controlling industry. Fascism was created by industrialized civilizations in the 20th century. The Islamic terrorists and governments barely even qualify to be on par with the 18th century (and arguably the 8th), much less the 20th. How can you control people through industry when you have barely any industry!? Not to mention that Islamic Fundamentalism is centered around a religion, not a nation.
But we don't like Fascists! So, we'll call anyone we don't like fascists, regardless of what the actual meaning of the word is. The alarming thing is that was pretty much what Jerry Doyle said when I was on. He even asked if I was in the military, and pointed out that someone who WAS in the military said they were fascists, so they must be. Seriously. He said we can't pick over the meanings of words while the enemy gets stronger. Sure, let's just call them "Islamic Bananas", cus hey, words don't matter.
I think this "Islamofascist" thing is rather telling. The folks using this word (mostly conservatives) care only about the effect the word has on people listening to it, not the truth or defining things accurately or anything like ration thought. What's important is that when you hear the word you think "Oh no! Another Hitler! Lots of new Hitlers!", and subsequently stop thinking about anything and just call for more troops and more war. Because we all know where appeasing Hitler got us.
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