The spectre of communism is haunting the US

[Powerogue]

Well I do agree with the notion that people are forgetting the past. Mainly the writer of this article forgetting how combining tragic circumstances and fearmongering aimed at christians have allowed our country to nudge in the direction of a theocracy before, and shouldn't be allowed to do so again.

It basically read like "look at how evil our political opponents are. They're basically the Soviet Union. We need to stand behind GOD!" (because that worked so well during the Red Scare...)

I still remember watching the propaganda from that era. If someone spends too much time inside rather than out socializing, or they don't go to church enough, they might be a communist! Make sure to turn them in!

[Realitytrembles]

So people who have watched society screwed over by an economic system that treats people as nothing more than investment potential have a negative opinion of that system? I'm shocked, I tell you.

Best system is the Nordic model (without their guilt/self-hate that lets in people who don't share their values).

[Haven]

People managed to live and even be happy in Soviet Union. Normal ordinary people. Besides, communists launched the first man into space and did much more, that society had the ability to dream big. A shame that the biggest dream was a mirage.

[Realitytrembles]

People managed to live and even be happy in Soviet Union. Normal ordinary people. Besides, communists launched the first man into space and did much more, that society had the ability to dream big. A shame that the biggest dream was a mirage.

Honestly, Haven, I think the best society is one that takes the best parts of capitalism (individual initiative,personal property rights, etc) and the best parts of communism (concern for the community as a whole) and combines them. I think democratic socialism is that compromise.

To me, pure capitalism is inhumane, and pure communism is unrealistic.

Love the avatar, BTW. That game kicked butt.

[Haven]

Honestly, Haven, I think the best society is one that takes the best parts of capitalism (individual initiative,personal property rights, etc) and the best parts of communism (concern for the community as a whole) and and combines them. I think democratic socialism is that compromise.

To me, pure capitalism is inhumane, and pure communism is unrealistic.

Love the avatar, BTW. That game kicked butt.

And I wholeheartedly concur. And yes, that game was the stuff.

[melodramocracy]

Who writes this tripe?

Newsflash: we embrace various elements of communism already. Public schooling, medicare, social security, on and on. To ignore any of that, or strive to remove it as some fragment of a libertarian wet dream would be asinine, and rather disastrous.

Recognize the benefits where applicable, realize where there are shortcomings of democracy and capitalism itself, and adapt. Thankfully we do seem to do that as a society, though at a much slower pace than necessary.

[Deleted]

The "everything on the left of the political spectrum must be communism" is getting old.

[Incredibale]

Communism gets awfully little criticism in MSM considering its kill count being vastly higher than Nazism's. Maybe it's because the left in the west has more in common with it than they admit to?

[Wyrt]

Ah, America, where anything slightly left of extremely far right is considered communism.

[Elegiac]

Communism gets awfully little criticism in MSM considering its kill count being vastly higher than Nazism's. Maybe it's because the left in the west has more in common with it than they admit to?

Largely because the 'communist' regimes weren't actually communist.

[Glorious Leader]

Who writes this tripe?

Newsflash: we embrace various elements of communism already. Public schooling, medicare, social security, on and on. To ignore any of that, or strive to remove it as some fragment of a libertarian wet dream would be asinine, and rather disastrous.

Recognize the benefits where applicable, realize where there are shortcomings of democracy and capitalism itself, and adapt. Thankfully we do seem to do that as a society, though at a much slower pace than necessary.

We also tend to absorb the worst parts of capitalism. Actually the institutions you described (which arent particularly communist by the by) are under constant attack. Mostly by those same libertarians whos ideology would have been relegated to the dust bin of history except for the extremely wealthy that keep it supported. The kochs mostly but not exclusively. Ayn rand is a good example. An awful author, laughed at by continental philosophers but since she pushes a convenient ideology for the wealthy she manages to maintain a position in american intellectual discourse. Shes trash.

On an ideological level their needs to be a conversation about what should be treated as a good or service to be sold on a market for profit and what shouldnt. I dont think education, healthcare, labor and the media should be treated as commodities and sold on a market because that perverts these institutions.

[Cybran]

People managed to live and even be happy in Soviet Union. Normal ordinary people. Besides, communists launched the first man into space and did much more, that society had the ability to dream big. A shame that the biggest dream was a mirage.

People did that in spite off communism. Your and mine country could have been better off without it.

It was a system that bred laziness and nepotism.

[Xeones]

Who writes this tripe?

Newsflash: we embrace various elements of communism already. Public schooling, medicare, social security, on and on. To ignore any of that, or strive to remove it as some fragment of a libertarian wet dream would be asinine, and rather disastrous.

Recognize the benefits where applicable, realize where there are shortcomings of democracy and capitalism itself, and adapt. Thankfully we do seem to do that as a society, though at a much slower pace than necessary.

I know propaganda would tell you they are the same, you're confusing communism with socialism. Communism is the state owns everything.

[Glorious Leader]

I know propaganda would tell you they are the same, you're confusing communism with socialism. Communism is the state owns everything.

In practice this may be the case but in principle their is no state under communism. It withers away in the classic marxist conception. The "anarcho" capitalists have a similar idea. If you read someome like rothbard it reads like marx.

[Xeones]

In practice this may be the case but in principle their is no state under communism. It withers away in the classic marxist conception. The "anarcho" capitalists have a similar idea. If you read someome like rothbard it reads like marx.

Principals are irrelevant. It's literally impossible to have a system with no state. Without a state you lose the ability to prohibit the creation of new states. What is relevant is reality, where communism is a tool for dictators.

[Glorious Leader]

Principals are irrelevant. It's literally impossible to have a system with no state. Without a state you lose the ability to prohibit the creation of new states. What is relevant is reality, where communism is a tool for dictators.

That same argument can be applied for any ideology. They are all open to abuse by the strong in the name of whatever. The pinochet government brutalized chile in the name of markets and freedom. The worst soviet commissars became enthusiastic capitalist supporters over night. It was simple an estimation of where power was.

[Sunseeker]

And what's your point? Liberty, freedom, the constitution and our rights mean nothing if we're poor, starving and jobless. That's why people start looking to alternative ideologies in the first place: because the ones that everyone claims are making us great have a very limited definition of who counts as "us".

[Calfredd]

Socdems are taking over!!! We need a new McCarthy.

So more nothings to be paranoid about?

[Incredibale]

Largely because the 'communist' regimes weren't actually communist.

I honestly thought people stopped saying that childish bullshit when they graduated high school. Guess I was wrong.

Do we need another hundred million dead so you can obtain your beloved true communism?

[Kontinuum]

Largely because the 'communist' regimes weren't actually communist.

Real capitalism has never been tried

LUL