[Pontiac]

Potok said Loughner appeared “practically illiterate and quite mentally ill,” but his statements and the books he has cited suggest a “pretty strong anti-government, conspiracy-oriented threat.”

I don’t understand how a man who appreciates The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf being anti-government. Both are pro-big government.

You might say that the man is anti-American government.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I don’t understand how a man who appreciates The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf being anti-government. Both are pro-big government.

As I recall, Marx had a dim view of government. He proposed anarchy. He also opposed property rights. It's not clear in his manifesto to me how he planned to govern a communist state. His communes were to be run by the commune members in some sort of democratic way. Lenin couldn't get Russia working on these policies. Stalin fixed the problem by instituting a select cadre of followers to manage the workers. This brought some success for a short time.

It's my belief that the black market finally brought down the system. No one could ever adequately explain to me how Russians could afford a pair of blue jeans that cost a month's wages (official month rate) often reported in the 1970's unless an underground economy was providing additional income to workers. When the Soviet Union fell, these underground entrepreneurs were ready to set up big businesses in the blink of an eye. The underground economy killed the Soviet Union, not Regan. An underground economy here in America will be the best chance at killing big government. History will repeat.

[gitmo]

I don’t understand how a man who appreciates The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf being anti-government.

I'd like someone to explain something to me. When I was a young'un (early 20's) I met the head of the American Nazi Party and had an hour-long discussion with the guy. I was quite ignorant of politics at the time. I remember he considered himself very conservative (I didn't know what that meant at the time) and I mad the mistake of describing him as a communist. He was adamant that communism and fascism are opposites.

P>Now I understand they are both different implementations of socialism. In communism, the government owns industry and "manages" it centrally. If fascism, individuals own industry but the government still "manages" it centrally. (See Barak Obama).

So why do they consider themselves polar opposites?