I am so busting up laughing. Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins (for some reason I love the gamer-dude middle name, with quotes and everything) has posted a smug response to my recent blog post I Remember Why I Don’t Like Mashable That Much. I’m off my rocker! I’m Leftarded!
First of all, I love the picture of you hanging out with a good-looking African American friend, apropos of nothing. Mark, did you think I meant “racist” when I wrote “fascist”? Because I sure don’t think you are racist. But your subsequent struggle, real or feigned, to understand the term “proto-fascist” that I applied to you leads me to believe that maybe you didn’t quite get the gist of what I was writing.
First of all, FASCIST: (n). I don’t know, somebody who likes authority, likes to tell others what to do, likes to be part of the herd, feels profoundly uncomfortable with progressive impulses, worried about appearing weak, concerned about purity in both the abstract and actual, yadda yadda yadda.
Next, PROTO-: on the way to becoming; early-stage; preliminary; yadda yadda yadda.
Can you really not put those two together and grasp the meaning? If you’re not yet a full-throated, gesticulating Mussollini, you’re trending that way. There’s nothing Orwellian about the phrase – it’s meaning is exactly what you would deduce if you knew what the terms actually meant in common usage.
My evidence to support said conclusion? This is a blog, not the Washington Post. Based on your blog posts and comments on Mashable and elsewhere, I’ve drawn my own conclusions. Let others decide what they will. 🙂
Mark, the fact that you put up a response on your personal blog leads me to believe (a) I hit close to home and (b) thou doth protest too much, methinks.
The Pursuit of a Life 
Nah. Just an easy target to make fun of.
I’m capable of linguistic analysis. The fact that I’m not a leader of a country nor do I propose limits on freedom or speech sort of make your allegation a little silly.
Your title for me went right along with all the other stuff the Jonesies called me (my favorite was “neocon media whore”).
What’s silly is you still not understanding what fascism means. Inigo Montoya makes second appearance to gently chide you 🙂
Right. You pegged me. I don’t know what fascism is.
Funny thing, your Inigo reference, since you’re the one calling a *blogger* a fascist, a term generally reserved for folks who support a corporate government. You throw the word around as if *you* actually know what it means, yet you seem unaware of the stark and subtle implications of the word.
Do you know the entirety of my political leanings, or do you simply infer that I’m for a fusion of corporation and government based on an post I wrote about two other bloggers’ altercations?
Mark: When in a hole, stop digging.