Headlines

The Hill

Whole Foods CEO: ObamaCare is “more like fascism”

“Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism,” Mackey said of the Affordable Care Act. “Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.”

The term “fascism” was first used to describe the right-wing regime of Italian leader Benito Mussolini, and was later applied to the Nazis and the authoritarian leadership of Francisco Franco in Spain.

Read the Article

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Trackbacks/Pings

Trackback URL

Comments

Comment pages: 1 2

Fascism? Lol, and the constant rhetoric about Socialism. The relatively young don’t recognize that rhetoric. Its not even understandable by them. Try better and more relevant catchphrases.

tommy71 on January 16, 2013 at 12:20 PM

How about Obamacare Is Teh Suxxor!!1!1!!1!

rockmom on January 16, 2013 at 1:37 PM

How about Obamacare Is Teh Suxxor!!1!1!!1!

rockmom on January 16, 2013 at 1:37 PM

Exactly. He’s saying we should start dumbing down our phraseology even further for the benefit of the young and feeble-minded.

Notwithstanding that this is a bad idea, for modern youth we’d have to dumb it down to the level of Barney & Friends to ‘truly connect’ with them.

MelonCollie on January 16, 2013 at 1:52 PM

Oops. Mackey going off scrip again. Oboobi will boycott Whole Foods arugula in 5.4.3…

AH_C on January 16, 2013 at 2:07 PM

OH NOSE!!! The liberals are going to have to boycott Whole Foods again.

ramrants on January 16, 2013 at 2:11 PM

Sowell has labeled Obama as a fascist. He also made the point that fascism was born of the Left. Progressives started labeling it as right-wing as they tried to disassociate themselves from Hitler’s atrocities.

INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:19 PM

From last June:

Socialist or Fascist?

What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector….

One of the reasons why both pro-Obama and anti-Obama observers may be reluctant to see him as fascist is that both tend to accept the prevailing notion that fascism is on the political right, while it is obvious that Obama is on the political left.

Back in the 1920s, however, when fascism was a new political development, it was widely — and correctly — regarded as being on the political left….

It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced themselves from fascism and its Nazi offshoot — and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling their opponents with these pariahs.

INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:24 PM

Obama’s “Fascism”? Sowell Gives Me Intellectual Cover

More than three years ago [2009], I wrote a column right here at AmSpec that caused paroxysms on the left (and cowardice in some quarters of the right), with Chris Matthews putting my name and some (out of context) quotes on his screen and fulminating against me while Tony Blankley offered his sage assent to the idea that I was an extremist. Entitled “Il Duce, Redux: Fascism’s fascimile, as freedom starts to fade,” the column made the point that on an intellectual level, by very definition, much of Barack Obama’s economic platform was remarkably similar to that of Benito Mussolini’s Italy….

It is thus gratifying today to see the eminent and brilliant Thomas Sowell make the exact case I did three years ago; his intellectual credentials are such that I guarantee Chris Matthews won’t allow himself another public conniption fit.

INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:28 PM

From last June: Socialist or Fascist?
INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:24 PM

It’s silly to get too detailed in an analysis like this. It’s basically getting into a theological argument about someone else’s theology.

Collectivism stopped being a potentially viable economic theory well over a century ago. Since then it’s been a religion. And, as with any religion, its most devout practioners will argue the slightest nuance literally forever.

As heretics to the liberal faith, we need to keep an eye on the big picture: Fascism, Socialism and Communism are nothing but slightly different routes to exactly the same goal. If the government controls businesses, then it’s empty sophistry to say that it doesn’t “own” them. If the government owns businesses, then it will of course be re-distributing wealth. And vice versa: if the government redistributes wealth then it will end up owning all the businesses….

Stalin figured this out a long time ago. In the end, all that matters is centralizing power, so you just use whichever means happens to work best at the moment. For all practical purposes Barack Hussein Obama and all other liberals today are Stalinists.

Liberals will always use whatever propaganda they can think of to whitewash their latest power grab; trying to pretend that THIS TIME they’ve figured out the miraculous combination of Fascism/Socialism/Communism that magically won’t result in Hell on earth this time around. So all we can do is use whichever synonym for that practice they find most offensive at the moment. Here’s a little hint: the louder they scream and the more insane their insults become, the closer we are to hitting the mark.

logis on January 16, 2013 at 2:45 PM

logis on January 16, 2013 at 2:45 PM

I agree with keeping an eye on the big picture, but since Sowell is not only an insightful conservative, but an economist as well, I will defer to his analysis of Obama’s approach to the relationship between businesses and government.

INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:52 PM

There’s also no label more offensive than fascist.

INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:53 PM

Here’s a little hint: the louder they scream and the more insane their insults become, the closer we are to hitting the mark.

logis on January 16, 2013 at 2:45 PM

You think I don’t know that?

INC on January 16, 2013 at 2:53 PM

Comment pages: 1 2