At the risk of instigating further #fediblock, some recent brigading toward our instance had got me wondering: How do some of the Fedizens here define 'fascism'. For me at the very least, my understanding of what is fascist follows the dictionary definition of it. Totalitarian system of governance characterized by by radical nationalistic rhetoric which runs contrary to the principles of protected human rights, fairness and equity. Where a single leader or state party with unchecked power can exert laws and policies. Often done at the expense of historically marginalized groups that do not fall within the scope of their established beliefs, aims, and policies of the party or leader that governs over it. Sometimes, I struggle to understand why some people may attribute edgy humor to living under the regimes of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Sadam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. I'm aware that some may engage in risk assessment using behavior pattern matching to map known unsavory behaviors to particular terms which serve as warning indicators. Something that when I became aware assisted in giving context to many of my previous interactions I have had on the internet. But surely as one of the foremost intelligent species in the animal kingdom we can recognize that diluting these terms can serve to minimize any genuinely harmful behaviors associated with them and in doing so allow those behaviors to persist unchallenged. Just seems crazy to me, as surely most of us in the western world have heard at some point through their childhood a variant of the boy that cried wolf, and yet the very same thing seems to continue happening. #askfedi, #askmastodon, #pol, #politics, #sociology.
