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.
Just as "anarchists" advocate for socialized medicine.
It isnt that Liberals are ignorant; its just that they know so much that isnt so.
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'.
I've often said there's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
Man is not free unless government is limited.
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.
When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
Today there is a wound in our national conscience. America will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our Creator is denied to the unborn.
Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution.
Abraham Lincoln recognized that we could not survive as a free land when some men could decide that others were not fit to be free and should therefore be slaves. Likewise, we cannot survive as a free nation when some men decide that others are not fit to live and should be abandoned to abortion or infanticide. My Administration is dedicated to the preservation of America as a free land, and there is no cause more important for preserving that freedom than affirming the transcendent right to life of all human beings, the right without which no other rights have any meaning.
I sympathize. I did my undergrad studies at U.C. Berkeley back in the '80's and had to listen to this crap all the time. Amazingly enough, you could actually find a few conservatives in the political science and rhetoric depts who knew the score on communism and acknowledged that it was a bad. It's depressing that the same sterile debates continue in our colleges. Academia is really hopeless.
I would definitely look at the book about the Venona transcripts. The book goes into the archives of the Soviet Union and gets the goods on a number of Cold War "heroes" of the left (Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs, et al) and shows that they really were spies and worked to overthrow the U.S. Gov't. The game really is up when you get them talking about the Rosenbergs; one of their sons recently threw in the towel and stated that he now believes his parents were spies.
Another place to look would be the archives of William F Buckley's old show, Firing Line. You can watch the old footage at the Hoover Institute website HERE. These same issues were debated 30, 40, even 50 years ago. Buckley in his prime was a master of eviscerating apologists for the left. It's a real treat to see level of debate on that show. Do a search of the word "communism" and you will find plenty of material.
Those old Firing Line shows are as addictive as FreeRepublic.
The best example of how dangerous the Communists were to the USA is in the newspapers and other organs of opinion at the time.
When Nazis signed the Non-Aggression pact with the Soviets, US Communists were against any intervention in Europe against the Nazis. This was reflected in the newspapers and even the movies of the time. AFTER the Nazis invaded the USSR, they were for intervention and this was, again reflected in movies, newspapers, and forums.
Communism was always a threat to this country and remains so today.
Oh, great, two weeks of sobbing material.
He ended up going into arts management and promoting rock concerts. He had great stories about Frank Zappa.
Three words: Cuban Missile Crisis
Ask the booger eating moron why JFK was willing to start a shooting war with the USSR over the nuclear missiles in Cuba, if the USSR was no threat to the US?
Mark
And don't forget that the communist supporters in the US were AGAINST going to war against the NAZIs until Hitler violated his anti-aggression pact with "Uncle Joe" and opened the "Eastern Front."
Mark
I think every demagogue comes to a point in his career where he has to make a decision - will he carry the consequences of his idealogy out to their logical conclusion, or will he back down. We’ve all seen what happens when they decide to go forward damn the consequences.
Has the Mabus reached the decision point? What will he decide?
Maybe your esteemed professor thinks they were just kidding, or trying to make their movement sound more impressive than it really was, but those rascals sure managed to stir up a lot of mischief in every corner of the world.
Also, note the belief of socialists that even workers would resist the movement toward communism, due to their false consciousness, and would have to be forced into accepting it, even against their stated will.
Ask him why the Commies built their walls to keep people in while we have to build one to keep them out.
I said "Whatever" and paid it no mind.
My coworker saw it, and blew up. Started screaming and yelling, really getting violent. Another guy and I had to each grab an arm, and haul him off before he got arrested.
Once we got the guy away from the office, into a coffee shop, and calmed down a bit, he filled us in. I had always thought that the guy was from Thailand, but I was wrong.
Turned out he was from Cambodia. His english always got bad when he got excited, but as near as I could tell... His father was a medical doctor who was killed early on in the purges. He and his mother were smuggled out in a shipping container to London (I think) via Singapore. I'd guess that he'd have been 6 or so...can't imagine making a trip like that at any age, never mind as a small child. He had no idea what happened to the rest of his family.
It was an experience that, for me at least, really sharpened the effects of communism. It's one thing to read a book, or to cluck our tongues sympathetically here on FR....and quite another to talk to someone who has first hand experience. I think that anyone who wants to laud Communism should talk to my co-worker (or someone like him) to get the REAL story, not some academic claptrap.
Just my $0.02. For what it's worth.
Some of it is simple rebellion against authority. Same in the 60s I suppose — the commies were happy to utilize the hippie movement to further their plans. They’ll think its fun until Barack puts a shovel (or a gun) in their hand and tells them to start digging.
The Communist world was a quite capable threat, as they had millions of men under arms, advanced weaponry, and nuclear weapons.
Moreover their stated intention was the Communist overthrow of all capitalist systems by invasion or subversion.
So in terms of BOTH capabilities and intentions; the Communists were a very real threat to not just the USA, but to the entire non-Communist world.
That’s why I tell them, you can call it cotton candy it’s still the same vile idealogy.
I think you also have to ask yourself how this instructor will grade. Does he want you to learn his leftist view of reality and spit it back on the exams and thereby get an A or B? That is usually the case.
These academic settings, completely controlled by the left, are not open to open thinking, inquiry or actual scholarship. They give you the sheepskin to use to then go out and do actual open thinking, inquiry and scholarship.
If you get crappy grades or poor advancement potential because you are interfering with brainwashing of the young, then you will never go out to help un-indocrinate the adults.
We have lost the battle for the academic playing field and we can’t self-destruct while trying to get through that mine field. Leave the guy a lot of “face” and you can let him know you are his intellectual equal in a way that doesn’t kill your course grade.
Listen to this crap I’m havig to deal with on FB:
“If you can’t see why Obama’s election was a moment of true progress for our country, especially coming out of the BUSH years, I don’t know what to tell you. Don’t blame our situation on those currently in power, those who are handed the unenviable job of getting us out of the mess caused by the hubris of the 90’s-early 2000s Republican party. Blame this on the group that spews nothing but hypocrisy, invokes religion to get ignorant people to support the most unethical actions and attitudes, and frankly works only in the interest of the status quo...which has been pretty shameful in terms of health care, education, war policy, social equality, etc. The Republican Party works to keep archaic social structures in place—i.e. rich white men in power.
If you dig really deeply into the rationales behind right-wing supporters’ points of view you will find things that are very ugly, very bigoted, very selfish, and very sad to acknowledge. Obama’s election was a watershed moment precisely because it represented a rejection of hateful and reactionary values. Although the results may not be obvious to all immediately, the election of Obama was a hopeful glimpse into a future America, a country where the old prejudices no longer hold sway, and where this idiotic conception of individualism that seems to be so popular among a certain section of the populace right now, this fantasy that each person is an island unto him or herself, will finally cease to be a major strain of thought in our national political forum.”
The hubris of the 1990s. So was the boon of the 1990s the Republicans' fault?
Or maybe he thinks that the same Clintonistas that ran things in the 1990s will somehow be different running things in the Obama White House (a lot of names returned).
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