Posted on 01/28/2019 10:30:54 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
When it comes to understanding the crisis in Venezuela, the new self-proclaimed democratic socialists revert to the old trope of Stalinist era lefties. In the old days of the Cold War, the horror that emerged after the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe—discussed in great depth in Anne Applebaum's Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe—was "explained" in this manner by the fellow-travelers of the Old Left: The purge trials, arrests of dissidents, their torture and years of imprisonment may have been harsh, but were all necessary to preserve socialism and prevent a "fascist" takeover from occurring. And if people they knew to be innocent were caught up in the net, they told everyone they were guilty because the "people's democracies" only arrested the guilty.
In the '60s, the New Left acted in the same way as their descendants, justifying the brutality, the firing squads, and the torture of prisoners engaged in by Fidel Castro's revolution by noting the hostility of the United States to an independent people's revolution against the tyrannical Batista regime. Whatever subsequent infringements on freedom took place, they too were necessary to protect the revolution from CIA attempts to destroy it. Any criticism was unjustified, since it too helped America's imperialist agenda.
The old democratic socialists and social-democrats of that era, however, never went along with that warped logic. True to their belief in democracy as the only system of government worth preserving, day in and day out in their small publications, such as Partisan Review and Dissent magazine, they did what they could to bolster the opposition to Communist tyranny and did not let cries that they were helping "McCarthyism" stop them. So, when it came to the Cuban revolution and Castroism, unlike the New Left, they had no illusions about the supposedly wonderful socialist paradise...
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Fascism and socialism are both totalitarian ideologies, but they are different both in theory and practice.
Three major distinctions that have a bearing on actual practice between the two ideologies are:
1) Marxism is a globalist ideology and Marxist regimes act accordingly. One of the first priorities following the Bolshevik Revolution was to establish the Communist Internationale and foment revolution abroad. Fascism, on the other hand, is nationalistic, and fascist regimes act accordingly. It’s true that Mussolini’s Italy sought to establish imperial possessions in Africa, but it did not have global ambitions and its imperial ambition is not inherently a fascist agendum. Neither fascist Spain nor Portugal was similarly acquisitive.
2) Under Marxism all of the means of production are owned and operated by the state. Under fascism the means of production are largely owned by private concerns and are strictly regulated by the state. Both are planned economies, but the ownership distinction is non-trivial.
3) Marxism is officially atheist and under Marxism religion is either banned entirely or severely persecuted. Under fascism religion is tolerated or even encouraged if it acknowledges the secular authority of the state.
These distinctions are not trivial.
I’m sure you noticed that I revised “socialism” to “Marxism” in making my distinctions. That’s because US progressives have a tendency to include several small, moderately successful, Nordic welfare-state market economies in their ill-informed definition of socialism.
...it will be people like the CNN fake news reporters that will be sent to prison camps.
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If they survive, then perhaps they can write some mea culpa books. Of course, their puppet masters will ban the books.
The little weenie Millenial socialist-wannabes aren’t going to do squat to impose socialism. They don’t have the balls.
For your viewing pleasure, here’s hours of Millennial teat-sucking feminazi weenies getting their socialist asses kicked:
antifa beat down
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=antifa+beat+down
Enjoy...
It should be illegal to march with masks on.
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