Posted on 02/06/2020 5:58:00 AM PST by Kaslin
Last week movie director Oliver Stone told the television programRussia Today that America is now “the evil empire.”
This is in reference to President Reagan’s famous remark in the mid-1980s that the Soviet Union was “the evil empire.” Reagan got a lot of flak from the left for saying that. But Reagan was right. The USSR put to death tens of millions of human beings in order to force the country into communism.
Oliver Stone was bemoaning the “economic censorship” he claims to have experienced at the box office by ordinary Americans who don’t care to see some of his movies bashing America and all it stands for.
One of Stone’s biggest beefs is that both major political parties sanction wars and more wars.
Although he didn’t finish his thought, the Oscar-winning movie director essentially called for America’s demise: “Empires fall. Let’s pray that this empire, these evil things…because we are the evil empire. What Reagan said about Russia is true about us.”
It is not a news flash that Oliver Stone is not a fan of America. But to call America “the evil empire” is a new one. I agree with Reagan, not Stone.
In the 20th century alone, the Communists killed some 100 million (some say as high as 130 million) human beings, many of them their own people.
In every country where they’ve seized power, these atheistic regimes have declared war on the Church of Jesus Christ. Lenin ordered 70,000 churches to be destroyed. He wrote in his famous essay, "Socialism and Religion:" "We must combat religion---this is the ABC of all materialism and consequently Marxism."
In 1925, the Soviets founded the League of Militant Godless (LMG) to eradicate all religion; by 1941 it disbanded in failure. Despite all the crushing, brutal attacks, they could not eradicate Christianity.
Ukraine is constantly in the news because of the impeachment trial winding down in the Senate as of this writing. Many people seem to forget that Stalin forced starvation on millions (3.5 to 8 million) of Ukrainians in the 1930s, to force them into communism. We don’t know ultimately how many Ukrainians he killed, even though he boasted to having killed ten million of them, because he had the census workers shot.
The Communists killed Christians in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, and every other place where they have ascended to power. In some cases (though not all) the Church of Christ has survived these attacks and is the stronger for the persecution.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the great intellectual and Nobel-prize winning Russian author, said in his bookThe Mortal Danger(1980): "It is no accident that the Soviet Union has made no effort more concentrated and ferocious in sixty years than its attempt to eradicate Christianity, and yet they have proved incapable of destroying it.”
No wonder Reagan called the Soviet Union, “the evil empire.”
Meanwhile, virtually every time America has gone to war, it was either to fight for her own freedom or to win freedom for others. Even the Vietnam War, in which Oliver Stone served his country, was geared toward helping the southern portion of that country not fall into the Communists’ hands…which did happen after we pulled out. And millions were killed consequently.
Ironically, the kind of atheistic politics extolled by the Communists Stone apparently admires are leading us down a dark road—though I doubt it’s the one Stone has in mind. It’s a road of turning our back on God.
Solzhenitsyn spent about a decade in the Soviet gulag (sentenced for an oblique criticism of Stalin, not even by name). Years later, on June 8, 1978, he delivered the graduating speech at Harvard.
He was booed for saying that all our problems (including Communism) get back to forgetting God and that we must turn back to Him. Christian author and pastor, Dr. Erwin Lutzer says that Solzhenitsyn confided in a friend that that negative response at Harvard “hurt him more deeply than his suffering in the Russian gulag.”
Lutzer comments on the incident, “He understood more clearly than our self-styled intellectuals that when God is irrelevant anything is permissible.”
To whatever extent America has gone to the dark side, it is because we have driven God out of the public square. As a society, we are reaping the consequences of that.
In his Farewell Address (1796), George Washington declared, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
America is far from perfect, and we do need to get to God. But at this point, we are far from being “the evil empire.”
No... That would be the democratic party...
Dear oliver, are there not enough communists and communist journalists to support people like you in America? I’ve heard for decades Conservatives are a minority in America ....
No. Next question, please.
If you think so..then leave.
‘Last week movie director Oliver Stone told the television program Russia Today that America is now “the evil empire.”’
I believe the Democrats, abortion up to 9+ months is OK, and most of Hollywood celebs are the major part of Satan’s Army in this Republic.
Not that I agree with Stone, but I think we're approaching the same number of abortions in this country.
The irony is, Stoned probably thinks abortion is one of the few good things about America.
I forget who said, “To learn who is your master, determine who you can not criticize.” Anyone can criticize Trump and live. Heck, they are likely to get a book contract worth millions. But say something bad about Putin or Xi and you are likely to be shot answering your front door or to die in prison.
A joke Reagan told. An American and Russian talk. The American says, “We have political freedom. I can march into President Reagan’s office, bang on his desk and say, ‘Mr. Reagan, I do not like the way you are running this country.’” The Russian says, “We too have political freedom. I can march into Gorbachev’s office, bang on his desk and say, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, I do not like the way President Reagan is running his country.’”
• A combination of a rational metaphysics and rational epistemology produces a rational ethics. Two virtues of a rational ethics are justice and productiveness. America, despite its flaws, was the greatest country on earth when it was founded. Over the years it has proved to be the most productive country on earth and it corrected its flaws. For these reasons it deserves to be admired and appreciated, not hated and condemned, just because it was not perfect when it was founded.
• great economic power
• great military power
• great founding documents: Constitution, Bill of Rights, & Declaration of Independence
• great traditional institutions (that leftards are destroying)
great ethical and political principles, ideals, & values that leftards are destroying (reason and rational virtues, God and God-given natural rights, freedom, private property, divine absolute morality, individualism, egoistic personal pursuit of happiness, consent of the governed, no need for a king or dictator, checks and balances, division of power, prohibition of initiation of force, capitalism)
Common complaint from talentless hacks who make boring anti-American movies.
People, to this day, criticize our involvement in Vietnam. As flawed as was our methodology, the American soldier was all that stood between the South Vietnamese and Outer Darkness. And when we left, the communists came in, not to conquer, but to annihilate.
I knew refugees from all over South East Asia. It was like that in Laos and Cambodia, as well as South Vietnam.
When America ceases to exist, the world is going to feel a similar impact. In North America, for example, our new dictators will have messycan names and will have gotten their start by pushing dope.
That is not a question where a yes or no answer will suffice.
Just consider the recent evils tolerated in this country:
Abortion resulting in 10s of millions of babies killed
Women desensitized to the sanctity of life growing inside of them
Protection of lawbreakers including murderers and rapists
Rampant pornography and the glorification of indecency
Promotion by many leaders and even churches of perversion of numerous varieties
God always has a remnant of true followers of Jesus Christ
But we live in a wicked generation
So I am not going to answer with either a yes or no
One of my great grandfathers, suffering at the time from cancer, was mercilessly beaten to death by Stalin’s goons in the NKVD. The rest of his family, except for my grandfather and one of his brothers, were trapped in what was effectively the world’s largest open air prison, A.K.A. the USSR, for 75 years. The USSR is the very definition of an “evil empire.” His statement makes me want to punch the SOB in the mouth.
Oliver Stone is dead wrong about both the USSR and the USA. This country is quite clearly not perfect, but it offered both refuge and opportunity for tens of millions of people - and continues to do so. I haven’t noticed that we’ve murdered tens of millions of our fellow citizens recently - unlike the USSR. People are free to leave if they would like - unlike the USSR and its empire. People are free to practice their religion - or not - as they see fit - unlike the USSR.
I will give Stone credit for volunteering to serve in Vietnam, and for the valor that he demonstrated there. Really - he absolutely deserves kudos for that. But for a child of privilege to turn on his country (like John Kerry) is the most cowardly and hypocritical act imaginable. He did some worthwhile things, but most of the rest of his life proves him to be an utter scumbag.
“Common complaint from talentless hacks who make boring anti-American movies.”
There, fixed it for you.
Amazing how he bemoans our economic system, but still wants to make a lot of money. Smarmy, f’ing hypocrite.
Significant improvement.
Thank you!
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