* From: Michael Perelman Might it be more accurate to have said ostensibly fired for their political opinions. Just like no union organizers are ever fired for organizing? Employers can always find some justification.
Lou was making the case that the US is not fascistic; he was correct, but the ideological barriers are pretty extreme. ^^^^ CB: U.S. is not fascist, but it has fascist_ic_ actions. The war on Iraq is fascistic. McCarthyism was fascistic. The U.S. modus operandi is "spot fascism". There isn't full-blown fascism ,but strategically placed fascistic attacks or programs. The murder of Martin Luther King was a fascistic act, for example. Calling it a witch hunt is not accurate. It was an important poltical act that was spot fascism. The U.S. wars on Viet Nam, Korea , Iraq, Nicaragua were fascistic. The U.S. war on Iraq is fascistic, and the left's failure to use that term to descibe it is a failing , a politcal error. Jim D. is not accurate when he says "fascism" is overused on the left. I'm one of the few on these left lists who uses it. There is a majority group on the left here who militantly argue against use of "fascism". In other words, "fascism" is not used by the left, let alone overused, contra what Jim says. There is fear of exaggeration, stated many times by Lou , Jim D. and others; or historical inaccuracy. The other aspect is that Lou , Carrol etc. don't want to call the Republicans in particular fascist because they are concerned that this feeds "ABBism" , turning to the Democrats. So, Lou notes that the Democrats were complicit in McCarthyism. I didn't say they weren't. In fact, I have always said that the Dems started "McCarthyism" before McCarthy ( a Republican). Anyway, fear of turning to the Democrats isn't a completely unfounded reason for Carrol and Lou's not using "fascist". However, they should say it explicitly so it can be argued out. There has to be a measuring of the harm of turning to Democrats balanced against failure to raise warning of fascist danger. There is underuse or non-use of "fascism" or "fascistic" ,by this left ,anyway. So, we have to employ terms like "witch hunt", to fill in the gap. But "witch hunt" is perhaps less accurate than "fascistic". The UCLA situation might not arise to fascistic, but what Lou wants to suggest is the danger of movement in a fascistic direction. But since any form of the word "fascism" can't be used ( because of the factors above) , he has to employ "witch hunt", which is , as evident to anyone, not what is going on at UCLA . McCarthyism-HUAC-etc. was not a "witch hunt"; it was _fascistic_ - not fullblown fascism but "spot fascism", the typical American method in this area. It is not the best rhetorical strategy for left to shy away from any use of the semantic form "fascism", because the U.S. method over the decades has been to use _spot fascism_, and words like "witch hunt" don't convey the full meaning of what the U.S. does.
