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November 29, 2018- by Steven E. Greer
Dinesh D’Souza’s pro-Trump filmed called “Death of a Nation” hit Netflix, so I watched. It has its good moments and bad. Overall, it is worth watching.
The first half or so of the film explains well what exactly “fascism” is and how it was a leftist, liberal, or progressive movement by socialists. It makes comparisons to the current political climate of intolerance by the left against any speech that does not conform (e.g. Twitter censorship).
Mussolini in Italy started the term and concept of fascism as a socialistic way for the state to rebuild the country and provide jobs after the Great Depression (started by American capitalists on Wall Street). Fascism placed the state above the individual. Communism was another form of socialism becoming popular.
Soon later, Hitler created the Nazism (a term formed by combining the words nationalism and socialism) movement as a close relative to Mussolini’s fascism. Again, the state was the priority in Germany. Individuals were supposed to conform or else be met with violence.
Hitler in Germany and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the United States were elected at the same time. FDR, the liberal progressive also forced to turn to state jobs programs after the Great Depression, studied and admired Mussolini’s fascism.
American Democrats, led by FDR, were the liberal progressive party. They even admired Hitler until the atrocities of the death camps were uncovered. Then, a massive propaganda campaign obfuscated the meaning of fascism and claimed that it was a conservative right movement.
The modern far-left that is “resisting” President Trump is using the same tactics as the fascists of the WW2 era used, the film points out.
The film also traces the roots of slavery and racism in this country. Plantations were an industry supported by both the Democrats in the North and the South. Racist Democrats in New York City supported the Confederacy.
The KKK was the military muscle of the pro-slavery Democrat movement. Democrats Woodrow Wilson revived the KKK in the 20th Century.
Hitler’s racism was taken from the United States’ own eugenics movement. Eugenics was started by liberal progressives thinking they were making a better world by weeding out the bad strains.
The film explains how urban neighborhoods resemble plantations in many ways. It shows how Reagan and Trump did not run on any pro-slavery or racist agendas, in contrast to Democrat presidents before them. Even Hillary Clinton, who was mentored by racist KKK-member Strom Thurmond, and Bill Clinton, spoke well of Thurmond at his funeral and downplayed his KKK past.
The film features an interview of “alt-right” poster-child Richard Spencer. It makes the point that he is nothing but a liberal progressive fascist being used by the propaganda TV as a tool to smear Trump and the populist movement.
But the film starts to get really corny and pandering toward the end. Long scenes of choirs singing patriot songs seem like parody.
The film fails when it portrays the U.S. as some saintly entity that has done no wrong. It makes no effort to explain how crony capitalism via Wall Street criminals has repeatedly destroyed the global economy, giving rise to fascists angry at the income inequalities. Hitler rose to power when the people of Germany were unemployed and upset. The current fascists are 30-something’s who never got jobs in their 20’s due to the Financial Collapse of 2008.
Unhappy gullible radicals do not exist in a vacuum.
Corrupt capitalism and the military-industrial complex has caused great harm to the world, more than fascism, yet this film ignores that. Fascist movements throughout history have been caused by capitalism run amok. This film would have been better if it had acknowledged that.
All in all, Death of a Nation is worth watching. It is not nearly as good, however, as D’Souza’s “Obama’s America” that caused President Obama to use corrupt federal prosecutors to jail him on some campaign financing law violation.