Fascism?

I've heard several liberal bloggers say that the current political atmosphere in the U.S. is like the beginnings of fascism in Germany. I responded by shrugging it off as nutty. After all, a country who's democratic spirit can survive the Alien and Sedition Acts and the Espionage and Sedition Acts can survive anything, right? I'm still not seriously worried for America's future, but I saw two things today that sent shivers down my spine.

First, Andrew Sullivan discovers a new children's book called "Help! Mom! There are liberals under my bed!. Some claim it's a joke, but Amazon.com has plenty of evidence of people taking it seriously. My response: note the new low to which the "liberals are evil" right has sunk, and move on.

Then, I return to Atheism Presupposes Theism and see this:

Even if the atheist, in his debate with the Christian, assumes the "possibility" that God exists in order to judge whether the Bible is God's word, he still reasons in a circle. This is because, on the Christian position, God is not subject to "possibility," but is Himself the very author and determiner of possibility. The Bible does not teach that "possibly" God exists, but that He certainly does. If the atheist assumes it's possible that God does not exist, then for the atheist it's possible that the Bible is not God's word. But this is assuming in advance the very thing he needs to prove, since the Bible claims it is, in fact, God's word.

I don't know if this is the "Christian position," but there really is no non-circular way to reject it. Sanity requires rejecting any system that declares it mustn't be questioned. I know of no way to refute such beliefs. Such mental gymnastics are reminiscent of the doublethink of 1984, yet it goes beyond Orwell's wildest nightmares.

But this guy's just a nut right? I wish that were the case. The philosophy of the APT blogger isn't all that far from Answers in Genesis' Ken Ham, Intelligent Design godfather Philip Johnson, or Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost, a blog that comes in two places after Andrew Sullivan on the TTLB ecosystem.

These are just two recent instances an allied pair of political movements in the U.S. today. On the one hand, a philosophy that might by called "conservatismism" for its fetishizing of the word "conservative," whose main goal is not about policy but destroying all perceived enemies. On the other, a fundamentalist movement that represents not just on modern discoveries and morality, but on the concept of rationality itself. I repeat: they aren't going to destroy America. But its a frightening alliance none the less.