In Case It Was Unclear, This Is Fascism

Fascism has a number of defining characteristics including dictatorial powers, oppression of opposition, strict governmental control over the populace, and strong governmental control of the economy. All four characteristics were present in the executive ordered issued by Joe Biden this afternoon:

In an address made from the White House on Thursday, Mr Biden directed the Department of Labor to require all private businesses with 100 or more workers to mandate the jab or require proof of a negative Covid test from employees at least once a week. The order will affect around 80m workers.

Dictatorial powers? Biden issued this order by himself through an executive order. Oppression of opposition? This order is a direct attack on individuals who haven’t received one of the available COVID vaccines. Strict governmental control over the populace? If order every person who works for an arbitrarily large company isn’t strict government control over the populace, I don’t know what is. And finally strong governmental control of the economy? Biden just ordered every business with more than 100 employees to either force their employees to get a COVID vaccination or subject them to weekly testing.

Proponents of democracy should be appalled by this. Congress didn’t propose this. It didn’t debate this. It didn’t pass this. It didn’t get to say a goddamn word about this. It was a single man using a tool that I and every sane person has been warning about for ages: executive orders. An executive order is the antithesis of democracy. It creates dictatorships.

Those who claim to fight for the poor and downtrodden should be appalled by this. As Glenn Greenwald noted, this order is going to hurt the poor and downtrodden much more than the well off. And before somebody brings up the fact that COVID vaccines are free (and by free I mean paid for by the federal government with tax money and printed dollars), everybody knows that. The individuals in lower income brackets who haven’t received a COVID vaccine know that. They haven’t chosen to forego the vaccine because they’re ignorant of the cost. But they have chosen to forego it and that makes this order a direct attack against their autonomy.

Advocates of body autonomy should be especially appalled by this for obvious reasons.

In fact anybody who isn’t appalled by this is a fascist. They might not realize they’re a fascist, but they are one.

That ends my rant.

In case my feelings on the matter are unclear, I will close by giving my opinion on the COVID vaccines. If you want one, get one. If you don’t want one, don’t get one. It’s your body. You should be the only person who decides what to put in it.

2 thoughts on “In Case It Was Unclear, This Is Fascism”

  1. If Americans were a little more well-educated about their polity, the response would be dead simple: ignore it. Executive orders are instructions from the Chief executive to hir employees, the worker bees of the Executive Branch. They cannot apply to non-employees of the EB because that would make them ‘laws’, and laws do not come from the President, they come from Congress — only.

    IF (and that’s a big ‘if’) there is large-scale pushback, that’s going to make Biden’s unemployment numbers skyrocket, and all we need is one case to go before a judge arguing that the President lacks authority to make law, and the whole matter blows away.

    ‘Revolution’ is getting to look better and better with each passing day.

  2. Great rant, and great first comment. It’s little statements like these that keep my cautious optimism toward the destiny of humanity going. All we need to stop fascism is a strong opposition, no matter how outnumbered we may seem. At the end of the day, courage and idealism always trump totalitarianism. It’s a rule of nature, as well as metaphysics.

    I especially enjoyed your completely neutral and truly liberal summation. Do as you please, I will neither force you nor stop you. If I may suggest a small addendum: As long as you don’t try to take away my freedom.

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