Posted on 09/15/2025 4:45:58 AM PDT by CIB-173RDABN
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, many in the West breathed a sigh of relief. The Cold War was over, the Iron Curtain had fallen, and communism, it seemed, had been defeated. The red flags were folded, the statues of Lenin came down, and the free world declared victory.
But the reports of communism’s death were greatly exaggerated.
Communism, after all, is not a nation or a regime. It’s not a border or a flag. Communism is an idea — and ideas, especially seductive ones, do not die with the fall of governments. Like a parasite, it simply finds a new host.
In fact, communism is perhaps one of the most adaptable parasites in modern history. It changes its name, adjusts its slogans, softens its image, and re-emerges under the guise of compassion, equality, and justice. But beneath its ever-shifting appearance lies the same core DNA: centralized power, government control, suppression of dissent, and a utopian promise that never quite arrives.
Communism rarely walks in the front door wearing a red star anymore. It comes in through the side window, dressed in the language of fairness and social justice. It tells people that profit is theft, that success is exploitation, and that if only the right people had total control, society could finally be perfected.
It offers a seductive vision: a world without poverty, without inequality, without suffering. A paradise on earth — if only we would surrender a little bit of freedom, a little bit of property, and a little bit of control to the state. “Don’t worry,” it says, “we’ll take care of you. Everything will be free.”
But of course, nothing is free. The government has no money of its own. It only has what it takes — from you. What begins as redistribution quickly becomes confiscation. The promise of “enough for everyone” turns into shortages for all. The “equality” that’s promised ends up meaning equally poor, equally dependent, equally powerless.
In the end, what communism delivers is the opposite of what it promises. The dream of universal prosperity becomes the nightmare of forced conformity. The workers are not liberated; they are enslaved — not to a corporation, but to a bureaucracy. The free stuff was never free. The cost was freedom itself.
The tragedy is not just historical. The 20th century saw communism leave a trail of destruction across continents — tens of millions dead, countless lives broken, societies shattered. And yet, despite the blood-soaked record, the idea persists. It appeals most strongly not to the poor — who often know better — but to the comfortable, the idealistic, and the discontented in wealthy societies who imagine that the system is rigged and that utopia is only one revolution away.
And so, the parasite moves on — from Lenin’s Russia to Mao’s China, from Castro’s Cuba to Chávez’s Venezuela, and now to the hearts and minds of young people in the very countries that defeated it.
But here’s the truth that must be said plainly: communism doesn’t fail because the wrong people were in charge. It fails because it is built on a lie — a lie about human nature, a lie about economics, and a lie about power. It assumes people will work as hard for the benefit of strangers as they will for themselves. It assumes planners can replace markets. It assumes that if you just give enough power to the state, the state will use it wisely and never abuse it.
History says otherwise.
So we must stop pretending that communism is a noble idea that was simply mismanaged. It is not a noble idea. It is a dangerous illusion — one that always ends in control, corruption, and collapse.
It may wear a new face in each generation, but it always leaves the same scars.
I expect this is a function of naifs attracted by prospect of free stuff, coupled with ambitious men hoping to ride its banner to personal power. In that respect, much like other ideologies or faiths that garner a significant following.
In that respect, much like other ideologies or faiths that garner a significant following.
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In that you are correct. Basic human nature, free stuff good. I think they all could become harmful to people but it is a matter of scale, communism gets more destructive as it gets larger and gains more power.
“...communism gets more destructive as it gets larger and gains more power....”
Without a doubt.
We now have a major political party totally embracing it to the hilt, and we’re seeing just how destructive they are. Everything the evil basstids have touched, they’ve destroyed...institutions, education, people...the list is loonnngggg.
“Perhaps you and I have lived too long with this miracle to properly be appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”
-Ronald Reagan
Communism is never about the destination.
Communism is always about the journey
The Issue is never the issue. The Issue is always The Revolution.
The dims used to hide their love of communism, but every once in a while, their mask would slip off.
Like when a Soviet leader came to our country or when Fidel Castro came here. The dims and their media went all Elvis fans on them.
I remember when Deng Xiaoping toured the US back in the 80s.
It was like the second coming of The Beatles.
Going through old photos this weekend and saw pics I took in 1962 in Berlin. Both sides of the then being built wall. As a 14 year old milbrat. What I saw convinced me that the socialist/commie way of life wasn’t for me. It was a four hour tour but very eye opening. I still have a map of Berlin laying out the sectors and showing barbed wire dividing and surrounding West Berlin. Scary stuff. Lots of folks have ZERO clue of the reality. They got no idea about oligarchs and brutal regimes.
Ben Bernanke largely undercut any philosophical debate about the isms, be it capitalism or socialism or communism.
There was a time when the debate had some measure of purity. But now Bernanke has exposed the reality that it’s all about that substance that is created from nothingness — Fiat money.
How can there be any debate about how a substance that comes effortlessly from nothing is distributed? You can just create more of it if your particular ideology of the moment isn’t creating the result that you want.
In the USA, Communism lives in government and education - institutions fed by massive government spending and debt.
Indeed, we argue about how to keep the fiat US dollar as the world-reserve currency, and pursue one scheme after another how to place the debt behind USA's massive, permanent budget deficit
All that's doing is maintaining and growing the neo-marxist parasites within our government and country.
Great quote from a great man. I fear that we are nearing the time when we will have to put our lives on the line to protect freedom. I hope and pray it’s not necessary.
“From each according to their abilities, too each according to their needs” is another lie; It is not honest in how this is applied, in that a tyrant will tell you what your “abilities” are, and what your “needs” are.
There is simply no replacement for FREEDOM.
Communism and socialism will always be popular among those who think they can get something for nothing.
The McCarthy hearings were branded by many as a witch hunt but it by God shut communism down in this country for a long time.
I loved Reagan but I disagree with him on one point; He said (and I paraphrase) that ‘the left isn’t evil, it us just that what they think isn’t so’.
-I disagree. The left is evil. There is a spiritual element, and all you have to do is look at the results. And Marx supposedly worshiped Satan, and Communism abhors spirituality and religion.
“”So we must stop pretending that communism is a noble idea that was simply mismanaged. It is not a noble idea. It is a dangerous illusion — one that always ends in control, corruption, and collapse.””
It’s a dangerouns delusion because it relies on human nature being “noble”. And as we have all seen examples of this past week... the human nature of the liberal and radical left is anything “but” noble. It is depraved, corrupt and based in lies and the destruction of ideas other than their own... as well as the elimination of anyone with differing ideas.
My hope is that the death of Charlie Kirk will, among other things, make people more aware of these “human nature flaws” and open their eyes to what we here in America face... as these same flawed cretins seek to either control us or destroy us. I hope and pray that Americans will now realize that we face an enemy far more dangerous that any enemy without. We face an enemy within... pretending to be ‘for’ us... while working against us. The ultimate Trojan Horse enemy. I call them radleft Democrats.
The Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In this expression, the Creator reaches into our world from eternity to endow individual humans with inestimable value. We saw at the Constitutional Convention an understanding that true compassion, true leadership arises from understanding how very few individuals cannot create, encourage, explore, restore, repair, analyze, develop, build, and nurture as they exercise their intangible natural liberties. For all time Americans would be defined as sovereign individuals finding their identity in exercising pre-existing intangible liberties within bounds of voluntary self-restraint and accompanied by the hazards and uncertainties of personal freedoms. This vision was translated into our Constitution, which relies upon fallible individuals to both lead and reside within governments and private institutions committed to promoting human spirituality and rejecting the fiction of infallible human elites determining actions.
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