Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Are Americans Who Admire Socialism and Communism Miseducated or Stupid?
Black Community News ^ | 12/4/18 | Walter Williams

Posted on 12/09/2018 10:15:52 AM PST by Impala64ssa

A recent Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation survey found that 51 percent of American millennials would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist country. Only 42 percent prefer the latter (http://tinyurl.com/ybsejy3f). Twenty-five percent of millennials who know who Vladimir Lenin was view him favorably. Lenin was the first premier of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Half of millennials have never heard of Communist Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1959 and was responsible for the deaths of 45 million Chinese people.

The number of people who died at the hands of Josef Stalin may be as high as 62 million. However, almost one-third of millennials think former President George W. Bush is responsible for more killings than Stalin (http://tinyurl.com/yb43dlhm). By the way, Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, was responsible for the deaths of about 20 million people. The Nazis come in as a poor third in terms of history’s most prolific mass murderers. According to professor Rudolph Rummel’s research, the 20th century, mankind’s most brutal century, saw 262 million people’s lives destroyed at the hands of their own governments (http://tinyurl.com/lu8z8ab).

Young people who weren’t alive during World War II and its Cold War aftermath might be forgiven for not knowing the horrors of socialism. Some of their beliefs represent their having been indoctrinated by their K-12 teachers and college professors. There was such leftist hate for former President George W. Bush that it’s not out of the question that those 32 percent of millennials were taught by their teachers and professors that Bush murdered more people than Stalin.

America’s communists, socialists and Marxists have little knowledge of socialist history. Bradley Birzer, a professor of history at Hillsdale College, explains this in an article for The American Conservative titled “Socialists and Fascists Have Always Been Kissing Cousins.” Joseph Goebbels wrote in 1925, “It would be better for us to end our existence under Bolshevism than to endure slavery under capitalism.” This Nazi sentiment might be shared by Sen. Bernie Sanders and his comrade Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Goebbels added, “I think it is terrible that we and the Communists are bashing in each other’s heads” (http://tinyurl.com/yd4lqxvs).

When the tragedies of socialist regimes — such as those in Venezuela, the USSR, China, Cuba and many others — are pointed out to America’s leftists, they hold up Sweden as their socialist role model. But they are absolutely wrong about Sweden. Johan Norberg points this out in his documentary “Sweden: Lessons for America?” Americans might be surprised to learn that Sweden’s experiment with socialism was a relatively brief flirtation, lasting about 20 years and ending in disillusionment and reform (http://tinyurl.com/lvdwzhr). Reason magazine reports: “Sweden began rolling back government in the early 1990s, recapturing the entrepreneurial spirit that made it a wealthy country to begin with. High taxation and a generous array of government benefits are still around. But now it’s also a nation of school vouchers, free trade, open immigration, light business regulation, and no minimum wage laws.” School vouchers, light business regulation and no minimum wage laws are practices deeply offensive to America’s leftists.

Our young people are not the first Americans to admire tyrants and cutthroats. W.E.B. Du Bois, writing in the National Guardian in 1953, said, “Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature.” Walter Duranty called Stalin “the greatest living statesman” and “a quiet, unobtrusive man.” There was even leftist admiration for Hitler and fellow fascist Benito Mussolini. When Hitler came to power in January 1933, George Bernard Shaw described him as “a very remarkable man, a very able man.” President Franklin Roosevelt called Mussolini “admirable,” and he was “deeply impressed by what he (had) accomplished.” In 1972, John Kenneth Galbraith visited Communist China and praised Mao and the Chinese economic system. His Harvard University colleague John K. Fairbank believed that America could learn much from the Cultural Revolution, saying, “Americans may find in China’s collective life today an ingredient of personal moral concern for one’s neighbor that has a lesson for us all.”

Are Americans who admire the world’s most brutal regimes miseducated or stupid? Or do they have some kind of devious agenda?

COPYRIGHT 2018 CREATORS.COM


TOPICS: Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: socialism; walterwilliams
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-124 next last
One summer many years ago I worked as a go fer at a parts store. One of our regular customers was the go to guy when it came to German cars. We nicknamed him Sputnik, because years earlier he, his wife and then newborn son escaped E Berlin just as the wall was going up. If socialism is such an ideal utopia of sunshine, lollipops and everything wonderful then why wa that damn wall built in the first place? To keep the Mexicans out?
1 posted on 12/09/2018 10:15:52 AM PST by Impala64ssa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

Miseducated or stupid? How about both?


2 posted on 12/09/2018 10:17:50 AM PST by HartleyMBaldwin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa
Some of each


3 posted on 12/09/2018 10:17:54 AM PST by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

“Are Americans Who Admire Socialism and Communism Miseducated or Stupid?”

The real answer is: BOTH.


4 posted on 12/09/2018 10:18:01 AM PST by Innovative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

Yes.


5 posted on 12/09/2018 10:18:07 AM PST by nickedknack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

They have definitely been misdiagnosed and are taking the wrong medications...


6 posted on 12/09/2018 10:18:59 AM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

Miseducated

Their “teachers” should be tarred and feathered all across America.

And in California, too.


7 posted on 12/09/2018 10:19:52 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa
Since the days of LBJ, the children have been brainwashed. They are now the voting adults...and it's only going to get worse. The have nots outnumber the workers.

Read 55 Men and the Constitution by Rodell.

He explains the shortcomings we might attain and it's EXACTLY what is happening and that we were warned.

8 posted on 12/09/2018 10:22:14 AM PST by Sacajaweau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

I”m going with “evil.”


9 posted on 12/09/2018 10:22:49 AM PST by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

In general, these are people who are always told that the government can give you free things, and it doesn’t cost anything. Somewhere around age thirty....some reality sets in and more than half of this bunch then realize that it’s all a fraud.

I think if you’d just require ‘Animal Farm’ to be read around the ninth grade and openly discussed in some high school history class....things would quickly straighten themselves out.


10 posted on 12/09/2018 10:22:52 AM PST by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

Brainwashed by the progressive/socialist (communist) school system, government and media.


11 posted on 12/09/2018 10:22:53 AM PST by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HartleyMBaldwin

How about creeps and scumbags?


12 posted on 12/09/2018 10:22:57 AM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa
Has anyone told them that socialists do not own personal property?

Or, that when the Iron Curtain fell, the people of the Soviet Union did not know the meaning of the word ‘profit’?

13 posted on 12/09/2018 10:23:14 AM PST by donna (When Melania smiles . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

The good news is that the Millennials are getting older. So the indoctrination should be wearing off, albeit slowly.


14 posted on 12/09/2018 10:23:48 AM PST by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Menehune56

Bingo! Think a lot of people can’t be evil? Check out Germany 1935-45.


15 posted on 12/09/2018 10:24:20 AM PST by Williams (Stop Tolerating The Intolerant.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: HartleyMBaldwin

Both and throw in greedy as well. Something for nothing is a powerful lure.


16 posted on 12/09/2018 10:24:25 AM PST by jmaroneps37 (Conservatism is truth. Liberal is lies.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa
There is a powerful tendency in the human mind to believe that the more complex the world is, the more centralized management and design is needed to keep things from falling apart. Spontaneous order is how things work, but people have difficulty grasping this.
17 posted on 12/09/2018 10:25:43 AM PST by snarkpup
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rbg81

“The good news is that the Millennials are getting older. So the indoctrination should be wearing off, albeit slowly.”

We must hope they figure it out before they get real control otherwise they will destroy what’s left and then then wonder what the hell happened.


18 posted on 12/09/2018 10:28:25 AM PST by gibsonguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

They are evil - they wish to do harm because they HATE America, Whites, etc.


19 posted on 12/09/2018 10:29:58 AM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Impala64ssa

Real answer? = Yes & No.
Some are very intelligent people, who do not see the big picture, or the result that awaits this method of governance.
Their most common response is ‘Real Socialism has not been done the right way yet, so THAT’S why it fails miserably everytime it’s attempted in real life.

Maduro is doing it ‘wrong’.
Mugabe did it ‘wrong’
Castro was ‘misinterpreted’.
Lenin & Stalin are being ‘misreported and wrongly vilified’
Obama was ‘Ahead of his time’.
Bernie Sanders was ‘too late to the game and way too nice’.


20 posted on 12/09/2018 10:30:50 AM PST by lee martell (AT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-124 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson