Posted on 09/09/2023 8:51:42 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
“Because the Collective took everything, all property — our house, our farm — everything became property of the State. Everything in your life, you had to do how they said to do it. The Communists ordered everyone to think what they thought. There was no freedom of speech. There was no freedom of anything. If you said something the Communists didn’t like, you were arrested and sent to prison.”
Dan Novacovici, Political Prisoner In Romania
This section relies upon standard definitions, drawn from Merriam-Webster’s English Dictionary, to provide comparative descriptions of communism, socialism, Marxism, totalitarianism, democracy, and capitalism:3
Communism: a totalitarian system of government in which a single-party authoritarian state eliminates private property and owns and controls the means of production. It is the final stage of society in Marxist theory, in which the state has withered away, and economic goods are distributed equitably.4
Socialism: a political and economic system in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. This includes government or public ownership and control of major parts of the economy, including industry. Under Marx’s theory, socialism is a stage of society between capitalism and communism that is distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.5
Marxism: Karl Marx’s political, economic, and social theories of communism, including the ideological belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there will eventually be a society in which there are no classes. It calls for the dictatorship of the proletariat until the establishment of a classless society.6
Totalitarianism: a political system in which individuals and society are completely submissive to an all-powerful state that is administered by an authoritarian, or undisputed, leader.7
Democracy: a form of government in which the people choose their leaders by voting in elections and power is exercised by the majority, either directly or indirectly, typically through a system of representation.8
Capitalism: an economic practice characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods (those goods used to produce other goods, not those purchased directly by consumers), by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market without government control.9
Republic: a form of government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to the people and the rule of law.10
The Bill of Rights ratified in December 1791 lists 10 statements on natural rights, civil rights, and individual liberty:
1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
2. A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
3. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
7. In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.11
Marxism is the squirrel we watch while our nation devolves into a fascist oligarchy.
I’d like to see America go full Pinochet at this point.
Fascism is directly derived from Marxism. Same goals, same methods.
Democracy: a form of government in which the people choose their leaders by voting in elections and power is exercised by the majority, either directly or indirectly, typically through a system of representation. …Interesting. That is not how Woodrow Wilson saw democracy.
… (I)t is very clear that in fundamental theory, socialism and democracy are almost, if not quite, one and the same. They both rest at bottom upon the absolute right of the community to determine its own destiny and that of its members. Men as communities are supreme over men as individuals. …And since communists always preach democracy until they are in power, then it stands to reason that democracy per se must also be collective and totalitarian and that Wilson was right about democracy and socialism actually being “one and the same”.
p
You are correct. In a democracy, if 51% of the voters decide to send the 49% to the oven’s, then that’s that.
In a Constitutional Republic, certain things are excluded even if a majority wants them.
Yeah. At some point, anyone paying attention would have noticed that the dictatorship of the proletariat was never going to relinquish the power that they had. Marx didn’t seem to understand the human animal.
To achieve his goal, Marx required two things: First, the total annihilation of all opposition, the downfall of all existing governments, all economies and all societies. “Then,” he wrote, “I shall stride through the wreckage a creator!”That excerpt is from the same book that contained the 45 communist goals for the USA that were entered into the Congressional record back in 1963. Like O’Brien said in 1984, nobody ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it, indeed; and criminally-conditioned men will be the least inclined to relinquish power and the most inclined to abuse it to hellish degrees.
The second thing he needed was a new kind of human being.
He visualized a regimented breed of Pavlovian men whose minds could be triggered into immediate action by signals from their masters. He wanted a race of men who would no longer depend upon free will, ethics, morals or conscience for guidance. Perhaps, without quite realizing it, Marx was setting out to create a race of human beings conditioned to think like criminals.
Producing such a race had been the dream of power-hungry men for more than 4,000 years. Nimrod had projected the design, Plato polished it, Saint-Simon sublimated it — now Marx materialized it.
Today, this breed of criminally-conditioned man walks the earth in sufficient numbers to conquer countries or continents, to change laws and boundaries, to decree war or peace. …
— The Naked Communist, Introduction, “The Rise of the Marxist Man”
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