Who are you going to boycott?

Bookworm writes,

...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:

...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 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.

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.

...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 companies listed below. 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 (click on image to enlarge):



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.