Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "Mary Grabar, The Influence of Howard Zinn’s Fake History | National Leadership Seminar" video.

  1. I'm no huge fan of Zinn, but part of why his message resonates is because our government has a long history of manufacturing consent, and a long history of embroiling us in wars, to the detriment of all but the few who thrive and garner glory during such times. And I'm not talking about fighting men lucky enough to survive the meat grinder of enemy fire. The main flaw I see in the progressive history is that they think it was government that led to the high standards of today. Growth of government isn't a leading indicator of human progress. It's a lagging indicator, made possible by prosperity created without any input from government, causing culture shifts that are always ahead of authorities who pretend to run everything. I'm only chiming in because rejecting the progressive/cultural-marxist cant isn't a blind acceptance of clearly fascist features of our own system. Of course the ones calling themselves anti-fascist aren't concerned about the things I am, except for some intersection with regard to foreign wars of intervention and regime change.
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  2. I would argue that we DID adopt many fascist features in our in our system, in our war on fascism, which continued (albeit at a lower temperature) to a war on communism. War-time relationships between government and industry didn't go away after the original enemy was vanquished. They strengthened, and matured into higher forms of corruption. Government's definitions of "the greater good" were often detrimental to the rights of individuals. Progressives are so right about the machinations of a small number of inordinately rich and powerful individuals and institutions. But they don't want the powers taken away. They just want their guys in charge. They want to give government unlimited powers and believe that the NEXT batch of leaders - the ones THEY put in power - will all be saintly geniuses, in it for the good of all, and unconquerably potent and brave in all matters, large and small. Of course, they never get that, so they're always indignant.
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