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Originally posted by marksman41:

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Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

Communism cannot be separated from oppression; in fact, it depends upon it. In the communist society, the collective is supreme. Personal autonomy is nonexistent. Human beings are simply cogs in a machine tasked with producing utopia; they have no value of their own.

It's interesting to me that the very generation of people that are so pro-Socialist don't understand that it is the exact opposite of how they were brought up - special snowflakes constantly reassured of their unique individuality and rewarded with trophies for losing. Their desire for a Socialist overthrow only makes sense if we understand that each of them thinks that they will be in a position of power and will be a decider for the rest of society. Thank goodness most Progressives are so obnoxious and obvious. Makes it much easier to avoid or marginalize them.

Please do not use the term 'thought' or 'thinks' when referring to the current generation. They are incapable of rational thought and function only on personal feelings and group think. Its what makes them utterly worthless.

When I was in my early 20's, I traveled for two months through Communist countries in eastern Europe. That first-hand experience changed my life.
Just after the Berlin Wall came down, I took my two boys to travel in eastern Europe, so they could hear (and often see) what life had been like for people living there.
One Polish man told them they should realize that socialists are working toward the same end as at the communists.
Then a West Berlin economist told them he hoped socialists would not be tarred with the same brush as communism.

Reading what passes for educated opinions among today's college youth, and knowing it is reflecting the indoctrination by their professors, I have concluded that this is literally the most dangerous problem faced by the United States in the future.

If one does not trust individuals to make decisions for themselves, and instead believes that only the government can properly make decisions to guide the masses, then where exactly does one propose to find the individuals to compose said government?

The very notion of collectivism is self-contradictory. The mob is not wiser than the sum of the individuals that comprise the mob.

This girl was born and bred in the midwest US. She has no first hand knowledge of the subject. With all due respect, she knows no more about communism than the goofs that attend Harvard with her.

The article would carry much more weight if it had been written by someone who had suffered under Romanian communism, like her father or, bet yet, her grandfather.

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Originally posted by LoungeChair:
This girl was born and bred in the midwest US. She has no first hand knowledge of the subject. With all due respect, she knows no more about communism than the goofs that attend Harvard with her.

The article would carry much more weight if it had been written by someone who had suffered under Romanian communism, like her father or, bet yet, her grandfather.

Why does she need 1st hand knowledge if it to understand it? I would like to live in a world where nobody has first-hand knowledge of it.

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Originally posted by LoungeChair:
This girl was born and bred in the midwest US. She has no first hand knowledge of the subject. With all due respect, she knows no more about communism than the goofs that attend Harvard with her.

The article would carry much more weight if it had been written by someone who had suffered under Romanian communism, like her father or, bet yet, her grandfather.

I have no "first hand knowledge" of living under the Soviet thumb....

But, my grandparents came from Poland and Lithuania and told me about the Stalinist regime. In the early 50's, one of my neighbors escaped from Poland before the Iron Curtain came down. He told us what it was like to live under Communism.

In the late '50's the Army sent me to Korea. South Koreans told me what the Communists did to anyone who spoke out against NK or Chinese beliefs.

During my days in Miami in the mid 60's, I worked for and with Cubans who escape from Castro. My GF at the time and her parents escaped from Hungry in 1956 as Soviet tanks rolled in.

When I lived in Reading Pa, I knew Germans who escaped from the Russians. One of my best friends and her mother got out of Czechoslovakia 1968. She told me her father was killed by Russians.

All I heard was the same message about the evil of Communism.

But, as I stated at the beginning I don't have "first hand knowledge".

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Originally posted by sjtill:...Reading what passes for educated opinions among today's college youth, and knowing it is reflecting the indoctrination by their professors, I have concluded that this is literally the most dangerous problem faced by the United States in the future.

Bulls eye.

I teach at two public colleges in Silicon Valley. In a recent faculty/staff opening training day one of the college Pres' hand picked student commented "it is more important in college to gain and use political clout than it is to gain marketable skills'. Much of public ed today is a massive brainwashing operation.

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Originally posted by lkdr1989:
In my opinion, these 3 books should be mandatory reading for high schools:

• KOLYMA The Arctic Death Camps - Robert Conquest
  
• The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  
• Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar - Simon Sebag Montefiore
  

Not easy reads but well worth it.

My wife has a soviet birth certificate.....she is as much a libertarian as I.....as are most I have met in Ukraine.....except for those midan assholes....they want Eurosocialism.

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Originally posted by LoungeChair:
This girl was born and bred in the midwest US. She has no first hand knowledge of the subject. With all due respect, she knows no more about communism than the goofs that attend Harvard with her.

The article would carry much more weight if it had been written by someone who had suffered under Romanian communism, like her father or, bet yet, her grandfather.

Do you really think that a person who grew up in a household where the parents had to flee an oppressive communist regime has no more knowledge of the perils of communism than a typical US liberal who was raised being schooled that socialism/communism is good and ethical and capitalism is evil and is destroying the world?

I strongly disagree with that position. I think this writer 'gets it' in a way few in the United States could.

You'd think these idiots would learn from what happened to other idiots who go off to explore or provide aid to some shit hole country.

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Originally posted by bigdeal:

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Originally posted by pbslinger:
Wisdom and writing ability beyond her years. Communism would be great if people didn't possess corruptibility. They do, so it can't work.

Wrong. Dead wrong. Communism will never work because it runs completely and totally counter to basic human nature. People are hard wired to be 'individual' with individual needs and goals. The collective concept of communism is antithetical to that basic reality.

"Communism will never work because it runs completely and totally counter to basic human nature." Kind of like the existence of perfect humans incapable of corruption. I said communism can't work due to human nature also. I think we agree vehemently.

I believe the youth of today and their perspective on Communism and socialism are the result of 100 years of Progressive indoctrination and conditioning. We have been treated to one well meaning but captivating Communist principled program at a time until we are just a toggle switch away from a revolution. We are here because Communism and little brother Socialism sound good to the emotionalist and ignorant youth. What makes this a dangerous condition is that these same youth are too proud and erroneously convinced of their own erudition to learn the details of what they endorse/promote. Better to deny or ignore the fatal ramifications.

To the casual observer, Communism (from here on I'll reference Socialism implied with Communism) sounds great; even Christ-like. It proposes a society where all are equal in an egalitarian sense. It claims there will be no more poor because there will be no more rich. All share what there is to consume all share the burden of production. The devil is in the details though. The Communist plan cannot happen voluntarily because of human nature. Since we are inflicted by varying degrees of self interest, avarice, envy, greed, covetousness, pride and resentment, we engage in comparative participation. We see what we produce relative to what others do and lose our initiative. Lost initiative translates to reduced participation which is self perpetuating and contagious. Eventually govt. has to compel participation and prevent escape to liberty and/or resistance. The element that destroys charitable principles and deforms Christian alms into Communism is compulsion. That is the detail the youth of today do not appreciate. More precisely, they do not appreciate others' liberty.

I have heard many times that Christ was a Communist in His teachings. This is either a misunderstanding of Christ or an out right lie. Above all else, Christ left free will to the individual allowing them to choose to follow rather than compelling and captivating. So I understand why certain promises of Communism sound appealing to the naïve/ignorant, where the complicit/propagandists have won is in omitting the value of the details. I'm not sure those already sold on Communism can be corrected. We must start now to teach the next generations the truth. The most natural and free economy in the world is the voluntary and equitable transfer of value between two or more parties; otherwise known as true capitalism.

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Originally posted by LoungeChair:
This girl was born and bred in the midwest US. She has no first hand knowledge of the subject. With all due respect, she knows no more about communism than the goofs that attend Harvard with her.

The article would carry much more weight if it had been written by someone who had suffered under Romanian communism, like her father or, bet yet, her grandfather.

There are some things you don't need first hand experience with to know it's not good.

Had cadre once who told us about the important of cover under fire:

"Okay now. I've never been shot but judging from the fags who I did plug, it looked like it really fucking hurt. Point is, I don't need to get shot to know how much it hurt so you need to take cover when taking fire..."

This would be easy, get a vocal group to participate in a communism experiment so that they understand the agenda they are really pushing. Once they agree do the following:

1) Take their cell phone, lap top, and any music devices
2) Cut off access to their money for the duration of the experiment
3) They are allowed to drink a watered down coffee or water
4) Their meals will be as follows, every day
a) Breakfast - Oatmeal
b) Lunch - a ham sandwich
c) Dinner - A thick piece of corned beef and a potato
5) Move them into a low rent room, with a bed, a chair, a radio that plays propaganda and little else
6) Take all of their clothing and give them a pair of loose jeans, a denim shirt, and cheap shoes, all the same for everyone
7) Tell them that the party has decided that they are not college material. Give them all manual labor jobs for the good of the people. Pay them $10 per day, $6 are immediately deducted as taxes
8) They work 6 days a week, and spend the day off learning about how great the party is and taking tests to assure their loyalty

See how long that lasts....

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Originally posted by darthfuster:....To the casual observer, Communism (from here on I'll reference Socialism implied with Communism) sounds great; even Christ-like. It proposes a society where all are equal in an egalitarian sense. It claims there will be no more poor because there will be no more rich. All share what there is to consume all share the burden of production. The devil is in the details though....

I have heard many times that Christ was a Communist in His teachings. ....The most natural and free economy in the world is the voluntary and equitable transfer of value between two or more parties; otherwise known as true capitalism.

Seems to me there are two fundamental differences between a true Christ-like society and socialism. A Christ-like society is voluntary and all efforts are motivated by love. Socialism/communism is forced and the motivation is greed -- what's in it for me. Add to that unrighteous dominion, it is human nature for those with power to abuse that power.

Christ tells people to give. Not take by force. Like all Great lies, equating Socialism with charity is a perversion if a good thing to something slightly easier

Man’s creator was, essentially, libertarian. We are born free of most instincts, and free to overcome almost all of them. (There are only two political philosophies. One believes in as little restriction as needed for society to survive. The other is based on permitting as little freedom as is required for society to survive.)

The thing is, they’re the same society, but the totalitarian one always fails to death

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Agree with both of the above.

The irony is that the very liberals who think communism is cool, would be the first to be sent to the gulag after the regime cracks down on academics. They should research what happened to academia in Russia after the 1917 revolution.

Its likely not so much that they really think communism is so great, but rather they despise the idea of having to compete in a capitalist system. Its a generation of entitled pussies.

Good article, but it's not about communism. It is really about Bolshevism, and there is a huge difference between the 2.

Even Soviet Russia admitted that it never achieved Communism. It was using Marx-Leninism (Bolshevism) as a political ideology to run (control) the country, replacing the Aristocracy with the Party.

Communism, as an economic model, will not really be achieved until we automate much more of our current economies. We're getting there. At some point, 1/2 the people will not be able to find paying work due to massive automation. So how do these people live? We just kill them as idle surplus?

This really goes against the primary survival instinct. Revolutions start when people are hungry. Why do you think we have all these social programs; especially food stamps and food bank?

We'll get to some form of economic communism, but not in most of life our time. The current political socialism is just a stop gap to deal with our march to more automation in arriving a communism.

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Originally posted by GWbiker:
A link to what those College age snowflakes should read... This is the real Communism:

http://gulaghistory.org/nps/do...gulag-curriculum.pdf

Holy cow. A must read. I’m on page 50 of 64. I could see these tactics used today.