Originally published at: Bizarre Arkansas senator gets personal with witness and asks, "Do you have a penis?" | Boing Boing
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Seems to me this obsession mostly boils down to wanting to treat people differently based on their gender, and this whole trans thing throws off their game. The idea of simply treating people the same regardless of their gender simply cannot penetrate their brains for whatever reason.
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Full video here. The twitter snippet starts at 10:57:10 AM on the full video.
Which comes from the “10:00 AM” video link on this page: https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Calendars/Meetings
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"No, but I know how to live without one. "
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Partly.
The fascist playbook also needs to create group adhesion by finding a powerless outside group to demonize. Nazi Germany wouldn’t have flown, politically, without scapegoats, and Europe was already a mostly anti-Semitic place.
Forty years ago, publicly reviling gay people was cool, and could be used as a rallying point. The fascists have lost that group as a target, and need others. This is where trans people come in.
Lawrence Britt’s “14 Characteristics of Fascism” is an opinion and, as I understand it, not considered a necessary checklist of political science. But it’s a good starting point for understanding fascism.
Hating Trans folk is part of characteristics 2, 3, and 5, and probably others too.
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Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. -
Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, and long incarcerations of prisoners. -
Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists… -
Supremacy of the Military
Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. -
Rampant Sexism
The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation. -
Controlled Mass Media
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation or by sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Government censorship and secrecy, especially in war time, are very common. -
Obsession with National Security
Fear of hostile foreign powers is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses. -
Religion and Government are Intertwined
Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions. -
Protection of Corporate Power
The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. -
Suppression of Labor Power
Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed . -
Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. -
Obsession with Crime and Punishment
Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. -
Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. -
Fraudulent Elections
Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
ETA: list source here.
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We very much need to get past the idea that these are just ignorant hicks. They are a part of a major political party who have gone full on fascist. We won’t fix this problem by assuming that they are dumb. They know what they’re doing and they are not going to stop until this is a one-party, fascist nation.
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Why? Do you need one?
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“Do you?” is my favourite riposte.
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Have a feeling his wife might.
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Imagine she’d then asked him to “prove it.”
I mean, I don’t want to see it, but I’d like him to experience at least a fraction of the discomfort he’s putting others through.
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Or, as Sophia Vergara once quipped:
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“Well to tell you the truth in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself.”
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“Hey, Vasquez…”
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Exactly what I thought of when I saw the headline.
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That so few Americans realize how fully this list aligns with the statements, policies and practices of today’s GOP is all the evidence anyone should need that the “mainstream media” is not “liberal.”
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Uhm, should I find it concerning that the modern GOP checks every single item on this list? Or that the UK Conservatives check most (they don’t need fraudulent elections because the FPTP system is already favouring them and they only disdain some art and intellectualism).
ETA: I should maybe add that the Tories are of course trying to import US style voter suppression masquerading as Voter ID laws. So maybe that item should also be checked off the list
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I answer "Why? Do you want to f*** me? There is no other reason that it should make any difference to you.
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