Naglinator, on 27 April 2017 - 10:41 AM, said:
It's funny how your first link still has DICTATORIAL leader as needed for fascism. If anything, clans are a limited franchise democracy(by the way, as I know you don't know, almost all democracies are limited by franchise). Khans are elected(usually) by bloodnames warriors. They intern lead the military government. Depending on the clan, episicially Star Adder, Wolf to name a few, the civilians have their own internal governments. Every castes has 20 ranks which intern govern themselves. Adders have the adjunct, blah blah.
Also, if you botherd to read your precious wikipedia, fascists states are a mix of PRIVATE and PUBLIC property and industries. Thought they both try to meet the demand of the state the private industries are still quite private. The US total war in WW2 isn't very much different then how the Germans ran their economy. I'm not going to get into the Clan economics but they are VASTLY different the mussonli's Corporatism and the Third Way of {Godwin's Law}. For the first time in blood wolfs life, he was semi right. They are much more of a socialist/communist economy. Again, communism isn't a form of government so the military rule of the clans DOESNT take away from the communism.
So the clans lasted 300 years prior to the IS introduction. Bondsmen were exclusively warrior caste member who essentially switched sides after a defeat. During the short time of clan history which we now call Revival(2 years) The clans kept this practice against captured freebirth scum soldiers of the IS. They did not REALIZE that this was seen as slavery. To clan warriors it is an honour not a mark of servitude. So some clans stopped this practice, some kept it. To say ALL clans are SLAVERS because of the actions of a few is to us the Kuritans as the only example of how an IS house is. So please don't use childish words like slavers or fascists without using them right. Almost EVERY great house is totalitarian when it comes to government if you want to be picky, and while ANYONE in clan wolf COULD become Khan... only a Davion will rule House Davion. Mertiocracy vs. Aristocracy. Or i can be a child and be like "Clans are {Godwin's Law}'s, IS is like Space America". **** facts right?
Ok, first, the clanners used bondsmen as slaves, they just dressed it up in culture. Theres no saving that. 2nd, dont feel too bad, no single faction is all golden and wonderful, not even the davions. Every faction is led by a *****. Thats the glory of battletech, there are no 'good' people. Its all different shades of grey. For example, Im sure the jags thought turtle bay was a morally justifiable kinda thing.
As for clanners specifically, the whole freebirth-trueborn relationship (racism in space) is just too much for me, phelan kell and aiden pryde are cool outliers, but that clan-wide relationship between the two groups is just too much to me.