The Fascism of American Progressives Is Becoming More Apparent
Recently, the Biden administration has announced the formation of a “Disinformation Governance Board” under the Department of Homeland Security. According to testimony by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to Congress, the board is necessary to counter misinformation and disinformation in the public square. The featured image above is of President Biden’s pick to head the board, Nina Jankowicz.
All this came out during a hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. During this hearing, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ohio) asserted that disinformation is a “huge threat to our homeland.” She also stated that Mayorkas has “noted that it’s a concern of yours at the border with human smuggling organizations peddling misinformation to exploit vulnerable migrants for profit.” She also connected public disinformation to “foreign adversaries attempt to destabilize our elections by targeting people of color with disinformation campaigns.”
It is not at all clear what the powers of this new board will be. However, even if all it can do is to say to the world that I lie because what I assert is misinformation, it can effectively censor me. The enforcement would be left to “cancel culture.” On the other hand, the powers of government agencies tend to grow ever greater under government by the progressive Democratic Party.
How can this new organization possibly be constitutional? At first blush, it seems to be a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Instead of being compatible with any form of democracy, this new organization would seem more suited to a fascist form of government.
What Does Fascism Mean?
The use of the word “fascism” in the title of this essay is used advisedly. It is not being used as a mere slander, as is often the case. Instead, it is entirely descriptive of something that is absolutely true. To justify this assertion, we must agree first of all on just what the word means.
I have argued before that fascism is one of two forms of socialism. The other form of socialism, communism, differs only cosmetically. This conclusion depends on a redefinition of socialism due to the 20th-century Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. The traditional definition is that socialism is where the government owns the means of production. Hayek argued that it makes more sense to define socialism as government control of the means of production. It matters not if private individuals or companies putatively own the means of production if the government completely controls them.
The twentieth-century author George Orwell emphasized one political aspect of fascism. In his iconic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, he imagined a totalitarian, fascist superstate called Oceania. In Oceania, surveillance of the population, with hidden microphones and two-way TV monitors, is used to keep the people under the state’s control. (Add facial recognition technology, and you would have a perfect description of the People’s Republic of China.) In Oceania, the state does everything it can to control the thoughts of its citizens. A major tool used to this end is the Ministry of Truth, which rewrites history to make it compatible with the state’s narrative.
In fact, Orwell’s version of fascism requires a socialist state satisfying Friedrich Hayek’s definition of socialism. Only with state control of the economy would the state have the power necessary to impose its version of the truth.
Reflection on the Democratic Party
All of the previous section seems compatible with the new Disinformation Governance Board. In fact, the Disinformation Governance Board seems eerily similar to Orwell’s Ministry of Truth. To determine what constitutes “disinformation,” one would have to know what the truth is. Who is to determine what is true and what false? A brief consideration of our current ideological conflicts would suggest the answer to this question is widely disputed.
The Biden administration clearly thinks it can be the sole arbiter of truth. Yet, for this progressive Democratic Party to be granted this role, my freedom of thought must be denied. After all, freedom of thought is implied by the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. In its entirety, this amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Yet, if Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board determines that any exercise of free speech by me constitutes disinformation (perhaps in this essay?), it will censor me. Even if the only enforcement is by invoking “cancel culture” (and that is not at all sure), it would seem to be an inherently unconstitutional act.
In any case, the formation of this board reflects very badly on the governing Democratic Party. It seems to be evolving into an increasingly fascist party.
Political Repercussions?
Already, the Democrats have put themselves in the bad graces of the electorate through the many crises of the Biden administration. I have discussed some of these in the following essays:
- What Can the Democrats Do About Joe Biden?
- Biden’s Administration Should Take a Course in Economics 101
- Why Republicans Would Be Better at Governing Than Progressive Democrats
- The Idiocy of Joe Biden’s Climate Plan
- Is a Powerful Counterrevolution Building Against Progressive Elites?
In addition, their war against existing American institutions, aka their culture war, is alienating an increasing majority of the American electorate.
And now the Democrats have confirmed their progression toward a fascist party through the Biden administration’s creation of the Disinformation Governance Board. This is not a new trend. More discussion on the progressive march toward fascism can be found in the following essays:
- Progressives’ Disrespect for the U.S. Constitution
- The Anti-Freedom Bias of Progressives
- Progressives Are NOT Liberals
- Are You Unconvinced Democrats Are Growing More Authoritarian?
- How a Democracy Evolves Into Fascism
- Failures in Progressive Thinking
Progressives can shoot themselves in the foot only for so long before they begin to bleed to death. In the coming midterm elections this November, they are almost certainly going to start bleeding out.
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