Fascism

In the “huh?” category I put the following comments by Hugo Chávez, referring to President Bush’s now infamous words with Tony Blair:

''His cynicism, his class and his fascist personality were unmasked before the world,'' Chávez said. ``He doesn't care about the world, whether everyone dies.''

For anyone who happened to miss it, here is the main Bush comment, with everyone up in arms because he said the word “shit.”

“See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over.”

This comment certainly demonstrates that the president is incapable of using the word “irony” correctly. How it reveals him to be a fascist is less clear. I must admit that the casual use of “fascist” is a pet peeve of mine. Bush has authorized all sorts of objectionable—even impeachable—policies, but I feel like it’s an injustice to compare our situation to Nazi Germany or Franco’s Spain. The word “fascist” has been thrown around so often that it has come only to mean “politician I don’t like.” The word “terrorist” is heading in the same direction.