Posted on 11/03/2009 11:03:19 AM PST by My Favorite Headache
I have discussed with Freepers over the last 4 months that I am back in school earning my Masters degree. Today my head about exploded when not only my professor but people (grown adults) said Communism was a fear on paper but never a real threat to the U.S.
Let me give you direct quotes taken from today's lecture.
"Exactly where does communism fit in today's classroom, newspapers, and television sets? It doesn't, only the right wing fringe in this country wants you to believe that is the case, where is the proof?
America feared communism based on it being different than what we believed to be the correct government. It was never a world wide threat and the "red" invasion was nothing more than a fear tactic designed to paint a clear target on a superpower.
Communism, as an ideology, did not present a treat to a democratic U.S. Soviet Russia endangered U.S. interest when the Red Care reflected fears that the Bolshevik revolution in Russia might spread to the United States. They were described by the post as a compound of slaughter, confiscation, anarchy, and universal disorder.
Famous journalist, Ray Stannard reported that Americans were not in favor of the war. National leaders made huge efforts to get Americans to support the way by stating this would be a benefit the economy. This was the US first major military conflict on foreign soil which changed American life. The European powers led to international tensions within Central Powers and the Allies. International Law permitted neutral nations to sell or ship war materials to belligerents. American looked to the war for economic recovery. In mobilizing for the military, the government put the economy at risk to centralized management and develops policies to control public opinion. The Allies were able to buy American goods. The order for steel explosives, uniforms, wheat and other products helped pull the country out of the recession. Due to labor shortages, the war opened the job industry for women and new job opportunities appeared for black women. Issues with the government arose and civil rights were being violated.
The fear of the Bolshevik party was fear of an unknown type of Government and being different than what we viewed as the only type of government that would work. The mounting support in Russia to a communist state worried the country. Personally I don't believe that it was justified. The fear of communism forced us to view Russia as our own great enemy through out the rest of the 1900's. Had we been a little more rational with their government we probably could have gained their trust and worked towards more diplomatic and lest costly solutions throughout the years.
All I heard today was as if Communism is not bad and not what the U.S. Government made it out to be. Tell me where I am going wrong here people. I beg of you. How is it a room full of people are just nodding their heads to this madness?
While partially valid in argument, the truth remains a fact that cannot be disputed thus far by history: Communism, in its absolute form...not some Chinese Communism-Capitalism caricature or form, has never succeeded.
Ask him why Leninism, Marxism, Trotskyism, Stalinism, Maoism, Socialism, Statism, Communism and like ilk killed more than 200 million people last century alone. Then ask him who many hundreds of millions did democracy/capitalism kill of its own citizens in the same time period.
If the ‘sheeple’ do not consider Communism a danger......ask them how many people it killed during the 20th Century.
Since the numbers are "official" numbers from documents and ledgers, the hundreds of millions the book lists are obviously low. The Communist movement was and continues to be the real Holocaust machine.
I would have raised my hand to said “professor” and asked him if he would rather see the USA as a communist country.
Call the guy out.
The best way to attack and disprove the assertion that “communism’s not so bad” is to lay out the pedigree of the ideas behind it and then point out that Communism and its variants have been responsible for more mass murder, atrocity and human misery than any other ideology outside of Islam.
None of that nonsense survives an honest first principles-based debate. That’s why leftists have to shout you down, resort to name calling and other ways to shut you up. They know their ideas are indefensible.
Tell that to the people in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, E. Germany, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Maldovia, etc, etc, etc.... Communist countries had a habit of taking over all neighboring countries- literally, not just on paper. They also had documented plans to continue to expand their influence, through either arms or manipulation. If anything, they were worse than pop-culture makes it out to be. Communists regimes were responsible for far more genocide than any other similar group in our world's documented existence.
Or Kruschev banging his shoe while screaming "We will bury you!"
L
I think I see the disconnect. Communism as an ideology is harmless. Communism in practice is always dangerous because real communism cannot exist. Communism is a Utopian impossibility. Using their own vocabulary, no communist state has ever real evolved past the “dictatorship of the proletariat”, and as we know dictatorships, whether the dictator be one or many protect themselves at the cost of anyone who gets in their way.
For those that do not raise their hand, ask them what their fears are preventing them from taking such action. For those that raise their hands, ask them why they have not yet acted on this preference and still remain in the U.S.A.
What’s that old saying? “The Devil’s best trick is to persuade you that he doesn’t exist.” (actually by French poet Baudelaire, but has been copied numerous times) It’s also interesting to note that Baudelaire refers to the devil as a “she”, but I digress.
I used the numbers game, the dictators game, the economic failure game...they kept coming back to the line “But it did not pose a threat to the U.S. and was trumped up by the U.S.”
Perhaps your professor needs to write a nice little research paper answering my questions above. He could submit his work to FR for a grade.
There’s a reason Lenin told Gorky “Intellectuals aren’t the revolution’s brains, they’re it’s s**t.”
I concur. Get it while you can. Have a copy of it here at work and it drives the statists I work with insane. (That alone was worth the price). I believe it is out of print, but it can be found. Also try Albris.com
Toss in “The Harvest of Sorrow” and “Death by Government”.
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.