I find myself considering "Citizens United" in a new light. When the government and supreme court ruled that corporations have the same rights as people I think at that point we actually became a fascist nation. Why do I think this? Fascism as originally conceived and pushed by Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler was the partnership and melding of corporations and government.
I am considering that if Corporations have the same rights as people in a country that is supposedly WE THE PEOPLE and a representative government then that would give Corporations power over the government. It would by extension become fascist in nature.
Communists and Marxists will attack the behavior and problems as though they are Capitalist in nature. I have argued for some time that the problem is not Capitalism. The problem is Crony Capitalism, or Corporatism. I also have pointed out that cronyism also infects and corrupts Communist, Marxist, Socialist, etc. movements just as handily. I actually would argue it is easier to do in those systems since things are centralized.
Citizens United needs to be abolished.
Corporations should not have the rights of people.
They are NOT people despite the arguments of proponents that they are people.
People cannot swap bodies. People cannot act without their actions being their responsibility.
People die and they are gone.
Corporations may be momentarily OWNED by people but they are not PEOPLE.
They also should have NO say in elections or the ability to influence such things.
Proponents for Citizens United will say they should be able to do these things.
This in reality means that those that own shares in a corporation are given MORE power than other people. Why? As a citizen you can vote. You have a limit on how much you can donate to political campaigns. However, corporations have different limits, and they can do in kind donations by their actions. So if you are a shareholder you effectively have the same rights as a citizen AND the additional abilities granted to you by the corporation.
This is not representative. It is corrupting. You should NOT be given additional rights beyond other citizens because of your ownership or investment in a corporation.
Corporations initially were intended to be short lived. They occurred for large limited projects such as building an arena. People could form a corporation to pool their resources and complete a large project.
I seriously think it can be argued that when Citizens United was passed we threw the doors wide open to fascism within the United States.
It should be noted that this is not just a United States problem...
I'm really surprised you drew two lines, one fascistic, and one marxist, but never let them cross. However, let me see the pen. X. There.
The point where they cross is called the "Nationalization of Industry," where the "people" are the "government" and the "people" have seized the "means of production."
Thus, the government owns the means of production.
X
In reverse, the corporations own the government.
Thus, the corporations own the people.
So I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm just saying that left/right is a lie. Only centralization of power is the truth here.
But I would go further when it comes to defining fascism then, and claim that fascism has two definitions: One that you used, and one that I'll explain here:
Fascism is related to the fasces, the object. An axe. This axe is specifically made to be both strong, and flexible. Flexible because it is made of multiple rods bound together, and strong, because it is made of multiple rods bound together. Yup. Bind together multiple, discrete, interchangeable parts, and then you have yourself an axe that can chop through anything and anyone.
Sounds good, if you like imperialism. But what is this axe made of?
It's made of disparate groups, corporations, politicians, media outlets, random voting blocs, and anyone you can coerce, force, brainwash, buy, or convince to join. And anyone who doesn't join you gets censored or eliminated, by the end of it all.
In today's world, they call this "intersectionality."
Or perhaps they call it "corporations are people."
Either way, your essay points to the simple truth: Corporations and governments are not people. They are their own entities, and exist for their own benefit and according to their own will. Thus we suffer.
I kind of did. I spoke of cronyism and pointed out how it is actually easier to do in Marxism due to it being centralized. Essentially fascism is an aspect of Cronyism.