Fascism Does Mean Something Specific

And that isn’t just any old private organization. Where I draw the line is when that organization begins to act on behalf of foreign governments against the potential sovereignty of the specific country in which they reside.

One thing you’ll often get by talking to older generations of tech people who have retired, sometimes they’ll tell you not to trust private organizations. But the problem I way worse than that now.

Case in point, most people I know IRL don’t trust Amazon. And yet it is Amazon that has become a de factor monopoly like organization, as far as how things are purchased. But the problem goes way further than any specific company.

We need something more than just removing our trust. But in a way that doesn’t actually leave us worse us as a country ( see Breadtube and Comicsgate like organizations like this that actually do more harm than good ). And that’s kind of my problem with “anything private is fascism” types.

You can point out fascism all you like, but at some point we need to stop pointing out fascism, and actually remove the amount of power fascism provides. Specifically, the benefits of not being regulated as private entities that act in spite of governments. Government organizations regulate other government bodies at times. A private organization like this, no matter their rhetoric, is not “Left-Wing”.

But the problem is current activists had made fascism mean such a loose variety of different things, once we actually have fascism most people will ignore it, and not see it as a form of fascism. And you have social media website that take advantage of this kind of rhetoric that doesn’t hurt their bottom line. You even have parts of the fediverse, that act on behalf of foreign governments now.

Under Fascism, you have more to worry about than just potential security issues in software. We see this fascism in organizations that claim to have left-wing values, and yet enjoy the benefits of private organizations that aren’t as regulated as government entities in the US.

Critical Theories, and others of their ilk, if anything has made this situation worse. Sure, China and other countries might be communists, but you still would not want websites acting on their behalf. And I feel like the progressive stack, by complaining about Russia Gate, ignores this very real problem. The US being a profound hypocrite on the world stage does not change this particular reality.

We need to be against foreign influence in other countries, and our own, regardless of whether they call themselves progressive, communist, or fascist. Or, my fear, a mixture of all these in a profoundly authoritarian way.