UPDATE: On the day I got off the 29-day ban I posted a link to this blog – and got an 89-day ban. I’m now on Facebook under the name “Wayne Stephens.”
UPDATE: I seem to have been paroled early. No explanation I’m just back on my primary Facebook account on 10/30/22.
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
― Benito Mussolini
That’s it, the quote above. That’s what got me a 29-day ban on Facebook. For “hate speech.”
Let me back up a bit. I was commenting on a thread which I can’t even remember now but it was about corporate and political power and how hard it was to tell the difference anymore.
So I commented that there’s a name for it – and gave the above quote.
Next thing I knew I got a notice that the comment had been hidden for “hate speech” and would I like to appeal?
So I thought OK, a robot probably picked it up on a keyword search and automatically responded. I appealed, expecting it to be kicked upstairs to a real human who would realize I was posting a definition of fascism by the most reliable source possible, the man who invented the term, in a context that clearly showed disapproval and say sorry.
Next thing I know is I copped a 29-day ban. For “hate speech.”
Wait a minute! Isn’t disapproval of mega-corporations supposed to be a left-wing thing?
And puh-lease, if you don’t think Facebook is not-so-subtly trying to steer the national conversation leftward feel free to call me a “conspiracy theorist.”
So what’s their problem with me calling out Fascism? Seeing as how I provided a definition of the term and didn’t just sling it as a casual insult?
Fascism started out as an offshoot of socialism. But because Musolinni was such a pain in the rear he couldn’t get along in any party he wasn’t head of he was booted out of the Italian Socialist Party and founded his own.
About this time large corporations had come to dominate the economic landscape and while leftists hated those rat fink capitalist exploiters they kinda liked the way they had things organized.
So they thought, “Hey let’s just combine them so the right people are in charge and we’ll run everything!”
Joy forever unconfined!
To that end Musolinni invented another word, “Totalitarian.” Which he defined as, “Everything within the State. Nothing outside the State. Nothing against the State.”
The Fascist economic program might be described as “the world as a department store” (the actual title of an early 20th century utopian proposal) complete with health insurance and pension plans – plus a national greatness ideology and a cult of youth.
The latter is where Fascism came to be thought of as right-wing in America. Partly as a nasty word for leftists to call conservatives, but there is the germ of an idea there.
But I think there is a crucial difference. Fascist national greatness ideology was imperialist and expansionist. They set out to conquer some underdeveloped countries for no other reason than they thought that’s what great nations do.
In America the national greatness ideology seems more likely these days to be more isolationist in terms of immigration, trade, and foreign wars. And they’re more likely to be geezers than youthful.
All of which is my long-winded way of getting back to why is Facebook so sensitive about the F-word?
I dunno. Maybe it hits too close to home.
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