BoycottTheBoycotters

#BoycottTheBoycotters — Kellogg isn’t the only one to call you “fascist”

DECEMBER 8, 2016 BY BOOKWORM 46 COMMENTS

I have a new battle cry:  #BoycottTheBoycotters! Thanks to Breitbart, Trump voters are well aware that Kellogg, rather than marketing its product to all consumers, has declared that roughly half of America’s consumers are “deplorable” and has declared a boycott against them.

I know that sounds rather strong, but that’s exactly what’s going on when a corporation publicly announces that it will take an affirmative stand against that portion of its customers who dared to vote for a candidate that the corporation does not support. What’s worse is that, as of today, another 150 193 American companies have joined in Kellogg’s decision to boycott American consumers. (Scroll down to see a list of those companies.)

These boycotting corporations feel justified in doing what they’re doing because they’ve bought into the “Trump = Hitler” hype, with the subtext that Trump supporters are a nascent Wehrmacht or Gestapo. My guess is that the corporations succumbed to this primitive, ignorant argument because they’re headed by people who went to American colleges, which have become places that preach totalitarian propaganda, rather than knowledge.

Don’t be one of those ill-informed people who can’t distinguish people who seek totalitarian control from those who crave individual liberty. Here’s the quick down and dirty on fascism — who is and who isn’t. (Hint: Trump and his supporters are not; Progressives are working hard to travel down that road.)

There’s only one thing you need to remember about political systems, which is that there are only two kinds: Those that vest more power in the state (statists) and those that vest less power in the state (individualists). Every political system, no matter the name given, falls along that continuum:

[Close it up again]

On the far left side, you’ll find Caesar, Henry VIII, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-Un, Castro, Mao, etc.  Slight to the left of center, you’ll find Western Europe and, just a teeny bit to the right of Europe, you’ll find Obama’s America. Every one of the people, continents, or nations I’ve named lives somewhere on the totalitarian side of the political continuum.

On the further right side of the continuum, you’ll find America’s Founding Fathers and the Constitution. Trump supporters revere the men and the document. They dream of a nation that stops short of anarchy but that allows individuals maximum liberty. They want a smaller government that, simply by virtue of its limited size, has limited control over each individual’s ability to make his own choices and live his life as he sees fit. In other words, Trump supporters are on the opposite side of the continuum from totalitarianism.

The above information ought to end the whole stupid discussion about Trump supporters inaugurating a Fourth Reich. The reason that the ignorant can’t figure this out is because of a nasty little linguistic trick American communists pulled, which was to make “fascism” synonymous with the political “right.” The logic is that, since American Republicans are right wing, they must be fascist. No. Here’s a short history lesson explaining why this is wrong:

To begin with, the terms “right wing” and “left wing” are meaningless and should be obsolete. They refer to France, back in 1789, when Louis XVI’s supporters in the National Assembly sat on the president’s right and the revolutionaries to his left. We are not in France in 1789. Moreover, that archaic division ignores the fact that both the left and the right in France were totalitarian in nature. Both wanted complete control; they just had different visions about the nature of that control.

“Fascism” first gained political traction in Italy, where Mussolini defined it to mean “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” Boom! Statism writ large. Fascism is on the Left side of the continuum.

At this point, savvy readers will have noticed that fascism sounds remarkably like communism:  It’s all about the state, not about the individual.  The difference between the two ideologies is that in communism the government nationalizes private property, whereas in fascism the government does not nationalize it, but nevertheless completely controls it.

For ordinary citizens, the difference between communism and fascism is like the difference between wearing ugly stainless steel handcuffs and stainless steel handcuffs with some sparkly rhinestones. The citizens are still wearing handcuffs because the state is still calling the shots. It’s just that in the fascist state, at least before the state really gets the bit in its teeth, there’s an illusion that things are nicer. A cartoon about the difference between communism and Bernie’s beloved “democratic socialism” (i.e., non-nationalist fascism) makes the point:

Communists and fascists hated each other in the 1920s through 1940s not because they were diametrically opposed ideologies, but because they were similar ideologies fighting for the same slice of pie. Both are statist belief systems that reject individual liberties. When they’re not fighting each other for power, they’re inclined to support each other, as was the case with Hitler and Stalin, right up until Hitler decided he wanted Stalin’s territory too. Likewise, in Spain, there was a bloody civil war not because communism and fascism are natural enemies, but because they were jealous rivals both seeking the throne.

History has shown that, on the hardcore statist side (whether communist, fascist, social democrat, theocratic, etc.) two bad things invariably merge: (1) the all-powerful governments are unable to view their citizens as individuals with hopes, dreams, loves, hates, and souls and (2) the individuals controlling these totalitarian governments are prey to grandiose delusions and paranoia. Hitler and Stalin both went after their own people vigorously.  The only reason Hitler got the headlines is that he tried to bring all of Europe under his control. Had he been more discreet, as Stalin was in the Ukraine or in the gulags (or as Mao was in his closed kingdom), Hitler’s fascist, genocidal state could have still been going well into the 1980s.

After World War II, American communists needed to distinguish statist communism, which they supported, from statist fascism, which they never liked and which Hitler’s megalomania and race hatred had turned into a dirty word to everyone. What better way to do that than to attach to conservatives, those who cherish individual liberty, the “fascist” label, a label closely associated with Hitler, the ultimate madman? It didn’t matter that the label was completely inapposite. The only thing that mattered was that it stick, along with all the ugly associations surrounding it.

So, now we’re back to America in December 2016:  Which is the party that uses government to dictate all aspects of people’s lives, from the insurance they must buy, the products they must sell, to the ponds on their own property that they must cede to federal control? Which is the party that wants the government to butt out? Which is the party that doesn’t trust the people and wants to disarm them? Which is the party that believes that the people have the right to keep arms to defend themselves, including defending themselves against their own government? Which is the party that recently tried to legislate away the First Amendment? Which is the party that fought that legislation?

If you answered that the Democrat party is the party that constantly seeks to extent government control over American citizens and that the Republican party is the party that wants to shrink government control and power, congratulations! You have figured out that neither Trump nor his supporters are fascists. Shrinking government power is the antithesis of fascism.

If you managed to arrive at any other answer, a lump of coal to you:  You are a statist (certainly a Progressive and possibly a neo-fascist), and you are profoundly ignorant. At a guess, you probably graduated from an American college or university within the last 25-30 years.

That college degree may also mean that you occupy a decision-making role in one of the 159 194 companies listed below (current as of 4:30 p.m. 8:00 a.m. on 12/9). As of today, these companies have stepped forward to boycott liberty-loving Americans on the ignorant, spurious ground that those same Americans who voted for the small-government candidate are fascists who need to be driven out of the American marketplace (clicking on image will take you to a new page with an enlarged version).

[UPDATE: The above list is an easier-to-read version of the Google Docs list assembled by Sleeping Giant, which is using its Twitter account to shame companies into boycotting Breitbart and other “racist” websites — and they’re boycotting these sites because according to Sleeping Giant and its Stasi members, any site that supports Trump is by definition a site that’s defined by racism, bigotry, homophobia, and all the other Leftist sins. If you support Trump, you’re guilty of those sins too. You might want to check Sleeping Giant’s own Google Docs list because, in the sixteen hours since I put up this post, they’ve added almost 40 new companies that have agreed to boycott conservatives by not advertising at Breitbart.]

Don’t just glance at that list and forget about it. To preserve American liberty, we need to teach a lesson to ignorant companies that believe they’re fighting for freedom by aligning with totalitarian statists who want to destroy those Americans who revere the Constitution (the most liberty-oriented document ever written) and who desire small government and individual liberty.

For me, no more Kellogg’s cereal, no more Cost Plus runs, no more jaunts up to Napa or Sonoma County generally, no more Bob’s Red Mill grains, no more Grammarly (my grammar’s better anyway), no cheap New Egg electronics (my computer still has some life in it), the San Diego Zoo is closed (I’ve seen it enough anyway), and no skiing in Squaw or Alpine (not even to watch the kids). I’m done with that part of corporate America that has insulted me and insisted it no longer needs me. Well, let’s just see who needs whom.

#BoycottTheBoycotters.

UPDATE:  Unlike President-Elect Trump, I’m not a very adept Twitter user. When I chose the hashtag #BoycottTheBoycotters, I didn’t realize that it’s an existing hashtag for another cause I enthusiastically support:  Boycotting those companies that join in the antisemitic BDS movement. Yay!