I always say it's important to understand that totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism are different but related evils. Sadly, we have a great teachable moment. This is totalitarianism: ideology permeates every fact of life, what you DO matters less than political loyalty.
The frenzy of the past week built on the coronavirus panic to produce the worst state of totalitarianism America has seen in a century. EVERYTHING is hyper-politicized now. You can't order a meal online or read a videogame review without getting hit in the face with BLM messages.
Your email inbox is probably filled with messages from every company you've ever dealt with, declaring their fealty to the new dominant BLM ideology. It doesn't matter how trivial the company is. Everyone and everything is political now. It's round-the-clock and everywhere.
The coronavirus panic folded into the BLM hysteria to create this perfect storm. Rarely has a more totalitarian idea been expressed than: "Forget the deadly pandemic we destroyed the economy to contain, THIS political movement is more important than millions of lives."
I'm not really paraphrasing there, by the way. Democrat officials across the land, including some of the sternest Lockdown Forever enforcers, are literally saying - in exactly those words - that politics are more important than health, so march, rally, and riot!
Many of the same officials spin on a dime and insist the lockdowns are still in effect for activities they disapprove of. We must still have mail-in voting. No, you can't go to church. No, we can't have political rallies EXCEPT the BLM ones. Only those are pure and virus-free!
Notice that a key element of BLM propaganda is the enforced suppression of all other ideas. The visual symbol is a black square, a void, the negation of all other thoughts and all inconvenient questions. Silence and kneeling are demanded to demonstrate submission.
As always, the totalitarian ideology warps reality itself. The lives of black people murdered in the riots DON'T matter. Private property suddenly doesn't exist and no one should expect government to defend it. Contrary ideas are viciously suppressed, as at the New York Times.
The NYT scandal is instructive because of both excuses offered for retracting the Cotton op-ed. The paper officially stated it wasn't "fact-checked," but could point to no inaccuracies. The newsroom radicals who managed to shut down free speech claimed their lives were in danger.
Both of those are totalitarian ideals to the CORE. Versions can be found in every fascist system, past and present. The Truth is whatever the Party says, all contrary ideas are lies that must be suppressed, and violating Party orthodoxy is a crime against The People.
Chinese fascism, for example, is VERY big on the New York Times principle that ideas counter to Party orthodoxy are security threats that must be harshly dealt with in the name of public safety. "Picking quarrels and starting trouble" is the all-purpose dissent-crushing charge.
Of course the modern wave of American totalitarianism feels totally justified and righteous. Totalitarianism always does. It always arrives in a wave of tent-revival righteous fury. It's presented as necessary to correct injustice and inequality, to give voice to the oppressed.
Consciousness must be raised, you see. Awareness must become universal. Everyone needs to understand there is only one correct view of this vital issue. Passivity is not allowed - everyone must get involved. Dissenters must feel marginalized and isolated.
The totalitarian ideal must not be diluted in any way. The slogans and symbols must be kept pure. For example, try saying "all lives matter" right now. You must accept the implicit premises of totalitarianism, its full ideological payload, as well as its explicit words.
Totalitarianism usually has advocates who think they can keep it from sliding into authoritarianism and fascism. They're wrong, and history proves it, but they think THEY will be the special ones who defy history and make totalitarianism into an instrument of justice and freedom.
It never works that way. It can't. Once you accept the totalitarian premise - everything is political, everyone must think the "right" way, no one should be allowed to say the "wrong" things - you move inexorably to compulsion. It never ends with one issue.
The people who gain power with totalitarian methods will never, EVER be satisfied with winning a single political argument. They always have more ideas to enforce. They will never relinquish their power and sink back into obscurity. The body of compulsory Truth grows ever larger.
And if the totalitarians are the champions of absolute Truth, why shouldn't they use force to impose it? Why should anyone be allowed to speak Lies that harm The People? If every part of life is politicized, that means everything is settled by POWER. We vote, and then we ACT.
Totalitarianism isn't really about rallying support. It's about marginalizing dissent. The goal isn't to attract and energize supporters - it's to demoralize and isolate dissenters. Once they are isolated, the temptation to crush them becomes irresistible. /end
