Fascist This, Fascist That: "Friendly Fascism"

It would be fascism with a smile. As a warning against its cosmetic façade, subtle manipulation, and velvet gloves, I call it friendly fascism. What scares me most is its subtle appeal.

- from Bertram Gross's Friendly Fascism, former presidential advisor to Truman and Roosevelt, as quoted in John Whitehead's Government of Wolves

It's so hard to call our present system "fascism," for all the usually negative connotations. "Friendly Fascism" at least acknowledges the subtly of our present creeping totalitarianism. And it is "ours," whether we like it or not.

Happy Independence Day. And read the Declaration - and not just the blasé preamble "meme."