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.
Ping.
I have one and, like you, I love to drag it out read aloud when my show biz friends start rhapsodizing about Marxism.
Read “The Gulag Archipelago”.
My uniform experience has been that any person who apologizes for Communism secretly wishes to rule you.
Heck, ask them what they think the word communism means: The political system of the communist bloc was not communism, it was called socialism back then. Today you often meet idiots claiming “that was no socialism what they had there,” but back then, everybody still knew what “socialism” means: The state controls the means of production. They had that. Communism, on the other hand, was the mythical final state of the world once the entire planet had adopted socialism: The “contradiction” between socialism and capitalism would be over and a “dialectical” transition would be made to a sort of Eden where all “contradictions” are resolved and everybody was going to be happy and gay until the end of days. That is what drove the communists, that is why they were so eager to take over the world, by hook or crook, no matter the cost, no matter how many people they had to murder on their journey to paradise.
From the Gulag to the Killing Fields: Personal Accounts of Political Violence and Repression in Communist States (Paperback)
by Paul Hollander (Editor) 1933859490
Oh, the argument that Communism was never a therat to the US can be easily countered by this: "So - we should not have intervened against the Nazis because at the time, they didn't present a threat to the US?
More embarassing questions: Furthermore, what is the appropriate response to an evil and inhuman regime? Do you even admit to the existence of evil? When it comes to mass murder, where's your threshold for condemnation? Define servitude for me. Do you believe that some have a right to dictate the terms of existence to everyone else? To whom does your life belong?
Watch 'em squirm.
Very true, I believe they are vicariously thrilled by the concept of being able to slaughter their enemies in wholesale quantity as well.
A bunch of chickens*** neck shooters like Che.
My uniform experience has been that any person who apologizes for Communism secretly wishes to rule you.
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.......and need a ‘Daddy’.
BINGO!
We had the bomb first, and means to deliver it. They must be big fans of Curtis LeMay and Bernard Schreiver. ;)
One infallible sign of someone who is a True Believer in such nonsense is the frequency of the occurrence of words such as "could" and "would." It's the sign of speculation on the basis of a set of unexamined premises, and speculation makes for creative ideology but lousy politics.
You can't talk someone out of that sort of wishful alternate narrative. They'll either come to an epiphany on their own or insist on believing it even as they're being led to the wall to be shot. Don't let them get to you.
“The ghoulish fantasies about butchering political opponents is overflowing at that toilet.”
are overflowing, that is...
I believe the vicarious thrill of which you speak is real. It is, I think, a manifestation of a sense of personal impotence, if not outright failure. There is a reason Hitler ended up the way he did, and Mao, too. People of limited intellect who nonetheless manage to secrete it behind a facade of personal bravado and superficially compelling rhetoric ought always be treated with the utmost suspicion. Like a certain President I might mention.
Our founders believed that man was imperfect and that laws would be established to protect individuals from outlaws and our government.
Communism espouses a "perfectabiltiy paradigm" thus we have "The Soviet Man" and the "Aryan Race".
Today we can see the same views being espoused by the Democrat Party.
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