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The Devil and Karl Marx
Townhall.com ^ | September 16, 2020 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 09/16/2020 5:50:52 AM PDT by Kaslin

Paul Kengor is a professor of political science at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He has just published "The Devil and Karl Marx," a careful look at the diabolical side of Karl Marx. The book has come out during an important time in our history since so many Americans, particularly our youth, have fallen for the seductive siren song of socialism taught to them by the academic elite.

"The Black Book of Communism," edited by Stephane Courtois, details the Marxist-Leninist death toll in the 20th century. Here is the breakdown: USSR, 20 million deaths; China, 65 million; Vietnam, 1 million; North Korea and Cambodia, 2 million each; Eastern Europe, 1 million; and about 3.5 million in Latin America, Africa and Afghanistan. These figures understate those detailed by Professor R.J. Rummel in "Death by Government." He finds that from 1917 until its collapse, the Soviet Union murdered or caused the death of 61 million people, mostly its own citizens. From 1949 to 1976, Communist China's Mao Zedong regime was responsible for the death of as many as 78 million of its own citizens.

The world's intellectual elite readily focus on Adolf Hitler's murderous atrocities but ignore those of the world's socialists. Mao Zedong has been long admired by academics and leftists across our country. They often marched around singing his praises and waving his little red book, "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung." President Barack Obama's communications director, Anita Dunn, in her June 2009 commencement address to St. Andrews Episcopal High School at Washington National Cathedral, said Mao was one of her heroes.

Whether it's the academic community, the media elite, stalwarts of the Democratic Party or organizations such as the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, Green for All, the Sierra Club and the Children's Defense Fund, there is a great tolerance for the ideas of socialism -- a system that has caused more deaths and human misery than all other systems combined. Today's leftists, socialists and progressives would bristle at the suggestion that their agenda differs little from those of Nazi, Soviet and Maoist mass murderers. Keep in mind that one does not have to be in favor of death camps or wars of conquest to be a tyrant. The only requirement is that one must believe in the primacy of the state over individual rights.

Kengor highlights another feature of Marx ignored by his followers. This feature of Marxism should be disturbing to Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who said that she and her fellow organizers are "trained Marxists." I wonder whether she shares Marx's views on race. Marx's son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, was viewed as having Negro blood in his veins. Marx denigrated him as "Negillo" and "The Gorilla."

Marx had similar hate for Jews. He referred to his fellow socialist labor organizer Ferdinand Lasalle as a "greasy Jew," "the little kike," "water polack jew" and "Jewish n----r." In 1844, Marx wrote an essay titled "The Jewish Question" in which he asks, "What is the worldly cult of the Jew?" His answer: "Haggling. What is his worldly god? Money."

Down through the years, leftists made a moral equivalency between communist/socialist totalitarianism and democracy. W. E. B. Du Bois, writing in the National Guardian (1953) said, "Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature." Walter Duranty called Stalin "the greatest living statesman ... a quiet, unobtrusive man." George Bernard Shaw expressed admiration for Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith visited Mao's China and praised Mao Zedong and the Chinese economic system. Michel Oksenberg, President Jimmy Carter's China expert, complained that "America is doomed to decay until radical, even revolutionary, change fundamentally alters the institutions and values," and urged us to "borrow ideas and solutions" from China.

Kengor does a yeoman's job of highlighting the evils of Marxism. The question is whether Americans will heed his lesson or fall prey to the false promises and live the horrors of socialism. By the way, while Sweden and Denmark have a large welfare system, they have market economies -- not socialist economies, as some leftists claim.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: books; joebiden; karlmarx; marxism; walterewilliams; walterwilliams; waltwilliams

1 posted on 09/16/2020 5:50:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

If there is one historical figure I wish I go back in time and kill in the womb, it would be Karl Marx.


2 posted on 09/16/2020 5:51:44 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: dfwgator

It wouldn’t do any good. The argument between believers in private property and communal party is thousands of years older than Marx, and if he hadn’t breathed new life into the idea, someone else would have.


3 posted on 09/16/2020 6:05:49 AM PDT by Nabron
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To: Kaslin

‘Useful idiots’, under Communism, once no longer useful, have a helping hand in their .... expiration!


4 posted on 09/16/2020 6:06:20 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: dfwgator
As a Lutheran I feel partly responsible for the creation of this monster. The story goes that his father was a Jewish businessman who had to hide his identity and pretend to be Lutheran to avoid persecution. Marx resented this throughout his life which may have added to his hatred toward the sytem.

I would love to piss on his grave

5 posted on 09/16/2020 6:07:38 AM PDT by Archie Bunker on steroids (We have a crime problem not a police problem)
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Comment #6 Removed by Moderator

To: Kaslin

There is something very diabolical about Democrat Catholic Governors and mayors.. Pappy Francis has been down right giddy over the union of communism and Rome.. My guess is, the union took place when that ‘Temple to the Serpent’ was erected, within the confines of the Vatican.


7 posted on 09/16/2020 6:14:00 AM PDT by Just mythoughts (Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?)
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To: Kaslin

Satan was the accuser and so was Marx. Both are totally destructive, totally wrong sighted and have left a path of miser in their wake.


8 posted on 09/16/2020 6:14:08 AM PDT by BEJ
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To: Kaslin

Marx correctly identified some serious problems with capitalism in the early Industrial Age (child labor, dangerous mining practices, etc). But his solution turned out to be even worse, causing many many times as many innocent people’s deaths. Which happens most of the time when a few people take too
Much power in a society. Usually this happens when governments get too much power over their subjects. It is correct that Government has to be strong enough to prevent or stop extremely dangerous people. But such a government has To have a lot of power to go this, by definition. And is therefore a danger in of itself. The worst cases are when dangerous people seize control of those powerful governments ( thinking soroznazi and his puppets like Pelousy Harris Schitt Obama etc). We’ve been taken to the very brink of disaster again now with the DdemocratNaziCommie Burn, Loot, and Murder riots in our streets.


9 posted on 09/16/2020 6:32:12 AM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, they are excreted. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: Nabron

Yeah, like his pal, Engels.


10 posted on 09/16/2020 8:03:07 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs. I)
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To: dfwgator

Can I help?


11 posted on 09/16/2020 11:01:12 AM PDT by Wiser now (Socialism does not eliminate poverty, it guarantees it.)
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To: dfwgator

“If there is one historical figure I wish I go back in time and kill in the womb, it would be Karl Marx.”

I thought you were gonna say Yoko Ono! lol only kidding


12 posted on 09/16/2020 11:03:06 AM PDT by ProudVet97
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To: Nabron

Heck, technically he wasn’t even the one who brought new life into that idea, it was Rousseau and maybe Voltaire.


13 posted on 09/30/2020 3:08:08 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: dfwgator

Looks like his attitude towards blacks and Jews was handed down to current day Dems who grovel over them from a very safe distance.

If they interact with blacks, it is usually at a country club where they don’t make eye contact when asking them to buff their shoes...’Chop-Chop!’ then engage in racial jokes with a reverend in the foursome while waiting for the shoes.


14 posted on 09/30/2020 3:37:21 AM PDT by Sgt_Rutter (Obama didnÂ’t build his $100+ million fortune...we dii)
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