Fascism Is The New Black

Note:I'm not sure what happened with this post, but it was originally posted last Thursday. However, I now found that Blogger only saved it as a draft. Is this another in the list of Blogger Beta woes?

Between 9am and 11am this morning, I observed 5 shirts with the German war eagle insignia, which was a popular symbol during WWI. It was later altered in WWII by the Nazis, but most shirts seem to favor the WWI slightly less fascist-correlated emblem. I'm just curious why this symbol seems to have suddenly become trendy. Admittedly, it is pretty cool, but after the associations with white supremacy and other unsavory paradigms, I'm still kind of surprised that anyone would want to wear it. Then again, I realize the sheeple are stupid, and would wear skid-marked panties on their head if they saw some famous person do it first. Unless said person was Tara Reid, because that's probably a weekly occurance for her, and we all know she's not fashionable.

I'm also kind of surprised at the modern American fascination with fascism and retrograde politics in general. It's almost as if we want to go back to this falsely idealized post-Victorian era. Think that democracy in Iraq is a new idea? Wrong. The US set up the government that bred Saddam Hussein in the early 1900s, when it overthrew a dictator and set up a false democracy. Sound familiar? Why we think we're going to succeed where our forefathers completely failed is beyond me. Oh yeah, it's because we have iPods. We totally kick ass because we've got iPods! So nanny nanny boo boo to you, foolish leaders of old!

Maybe it's just me, but when I watch the news (though mainstream's a joke), read blogs, or consult the BBC, it looks like we're setting up a similar situation to what Germany found itself in before it fell sway to the persuasion of the Nazi party. Are we one depression away from becoming a fascist state? Does Halliburton have a contract to sew millions of Star of David and Pink Triangle patches? I know I'm getting a little carried away, but one really does have to wonder.

Update: Since this is posted a few days late, it kind of works that there's a prime example of what I'm talking about. Read this article from the New York Times, and try to not rip your hair out. What the hell happened to critical thinking skills here in the US?