You seem to have gotten stuck on the italics key, John...

There was a statement a while back to the effect that American conservatives see "all forms of authoritarianism as the domain of the left"...that is, fascism, Stalinism, communism, etc...

Well, I know that's how they see it. I lived in Skaneateles, New York once, after all, and I personally knew otherwise rational people who thought the US government had been taken over from within by communist operatives.

However, because American conservatives see it that way doesn't make it so. Why wouldn't they think so? That's what they've been taught from birth. I remember my "social studies" classes in Skaneateles, New York. I was encouraged every day to hate communists with all my heart and soul, and to hate anything "leftist".

Communist conservatives suffer from a similar fallacy. They think that all forms of authoritarianism and oppression emanate from the right. Why wouldn't they think so? That's what they've been taught from birth. Same story...different version.

It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

The fact is, authoritarianism can function with equal effect either under a right-wing or a left-wing power structure.

In a right-wing power structure, rich men and their bought politicians (also rich men) used hired thugs, police, and soldiers to beat up and kill striking workers...from the 1800's right through till the mid-20th century. That was during the long and bloody formation of workers' unions in the developed world. Those unions secured basic human rights that we now all take for granted.

In a left-wing structure, monolithic governments have repeatedly used soldiers and police (official thugs) to do exactly the same thing.

They have both done it with equal gusto and similar effect.

What difference does it make if the thug's paycheck was signed by Joe Walton or Joe Stalin...to the striking worker who is shot and carted away to the graveyard?

Authoritarianism thrives on both the right and the left. In both cases it does so at the behest of the privileged few who control...the system, the money, the resources, and the firepower.

If someone beats me up and kills me for no good reason but to feather his own nest at my expense, what do I care if he is funded privately or by the state?

- LH