Co-opting the language

I want to call your attention to an article by Thom Hartmann entitled "Reclaiming the issues: Islamic or Republican Fascism?" Here's the main point:

Genuine American fascists are on the run, and part of their survival strategy is to redefine the term "fascism" so it can't be applied to them any more. Most recently, George W. Bush said: "This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation."

In fact, the Islamic fundamentalists who apparently perpetrated 9/11 and other crimes in Spain and the United Kingdom are advocating a fundamentalist theocracy, not fascism.

And here's something about real fascism:

As the 1983 American Heritage Dictionary noted, fascism is: "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism." (The US dictionary definition has gotten somewhat squishier since then, as all the larger dictionary companies have been bought up by multinational corporations.)

I'm really sickened by the Orwellian "newspeak" that is practiced by the current administration. It's important that those of us who know what fascism really is state so loudly and clearly.