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Why is communism rising again?
I just finished Sean McMeekin's Russian Revolution and it was well-written and fast-paced. But depressing--because there were so many points between 1905 and 1920 when the Bolsheviks were on the verge of being wiped from history, only to be saved-at every point--by the venality, stupidity and conniving of their enemies, from the aristocrats to Kerentsky to the SDs to the Whites to the Western Allies. What an awful bunch. Posted by: JoeF. at November 06, 2022 11:25 AM (mR6Gs)Comment: What if the Russian Revolution had never happened? Or was stopped in its tracks? Of course, we live the really real world and the Russian Revolution happened, causing incomprehensible suffering, misery, and death for the next 100+ years. It's still going strong in some form or another...Based on the results of this past Tuesday's election, I have to wonder - - Did Communism win? Is humanity doomed to make the same mistakes over and over and over again? How many more people have to die before this insidious ideology is refuted for all time? Some of "Perfessor" Squirrel's questions are pertinent to Sean McMeekin's new book:
I have to wonder - - Did Communism win? Is humanity doomed to make the same mistakes over and over and over again? How many more people have to die before this insidious ideology is refuted for all time?I think that this is one reason that the book under discussion here was written. I'm not sure that this question has been answered.
In the current issue of the New Criterion, Gary Saul Morson assesses it “the best short history of communism I know.” It may be the book of the year. I invited Professor McMeekin to write something for us to bring it to the attention of our readers. Professor McMeekin writes:
My new book is To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. As implied in the subtitle, one of the claims I make in the book is that Communism did not really die off with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 or the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and not only in the literal sense that avowedly Communist governments still exist in China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos, and only slightly less avowedly one-party Communist regimes in Cambodia and Cuba. Rather, I argue that certain practices common to Communist regimes have endured, thrived, and spread to many once-free countries in the West, above all in the realms of government surveillance, CCP-style “social credit” systems, “cancel culture,” and forms of public and private (or semi-private) censorship which grow more blatant all the time. The Covid-19 lockdowns, from forcible government shutdowns of business to censorship of Youtube videos and the shutdown of government-critical Twitter accounts, to travel and work restrictions on the “unvaccinated,” were the most obvious example of this, but lately one can hardly miss the tsunami of news headlines about threats to shut down Twitter (now X), arrest or silence Elon Musk, or the sentencing of UK citizens for offensive social media posts. Indeed, since I finished drafting this book in spring 2023, the warning about creeping threats to freedom of speech in the US and western countries in my epilogue has proven, if anything, to have undershot the mark. Nonetheless, I understand that drawing these historical comparisons can be unsettling. . .There have been objections to his approach.
Like all historians, I am writing at a particular moment in time. If I were writing the history of Communism in the 1970s, when the Soviet Union was surging ahead in geopolitical competition with the USA, winning new client states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and American allies like Britain were descending into quasi-socialist stagnation owing to excessive state intervention in the economy, I likely would have focused more heavily on the woeful economic performance of Communist regimes, as many people – including, famously, CIA analysts – were then under the impression that fully state-planned economies could produce better growth and performance than freer ones, and it would have been necessary work to interrogate their claims against the historical evidence.
For a western historian today, what really stands out from the history of Communism are the eerie echoes in contemporary practices of the hysterical moral-terror panics of the Stalinist Great Terror or China’s Cultural Revolution, the bright red “denunciation boxes” the CCP provided citizens to denounce class enemies and wrongthinkers, or the “unofficial collaborators” the East German Stasi relied on to snitch out neighbors and even family members. . . Of course, few of us today can imagine suffering the worst forms of Communist repression. . . But we should still be aware of relevant historical parallels. How many of us expected in the early days of the World Wide Web that the range of acceptable opinion would radically narrow rather than expand on the Internet, or that a speech platform like Facebook (as Mark Zuckerberg just confessed) or Twitter/X (until Elon Musk bought it and restored transparency) would cooperate with the U.S. government in censoring speech? Freedom of speech and assembly, once bedrock principles of American public life, seem to be hanging by a very thin thread. I have written my history of Communism with this in mind, and I hope readers will approach it in the same spirit of curiosity – and urgency.
The verdict is in: freedom is clearly better. So why is communism making a comeback? This question frames Sean McMeekin’s impressive new book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. It’s a wonderful read by an engaging writer with a deep knowledge of the relevant history. The 462 pages fly by. Readers may feel a certain dissatisfaction at the end, however, reflecting that they understand the first rise of communism considerably better than the second. This is understandable; like everyone else, McMeekin may still be reeling a bit from the geopolitical twists and turns of the last two decades. Who does understand this with confidence? What McMeekin can offer is a re-examination of communism’s history, with an eye to spying those genetic elements that have given it such unexpected longevity. It’s something.
Given the chance to reorganise society in Munster, one Anabaptist sect, led by a former baker of Dutch origin named Jan Matthys, began by cleansing Catholics and Lutherans, then seized all the gold and silver in the town, looted Catholic monasteries of their wealth, abolished money, and declared food stocks common property. The radical new social order was enforced by terror, with public executions of critics, and by the edict that all houses keep their front doors open, so as to ensure that no private space be allowed for dissent. In this frenzied atmosphere of enforced social conformity, all books other than the Old and New Testaments were banned, and then collected and burned in great public bonfires. Matthys’s ever-more-radical Anabaptist commune lasted about six weeks, until the tyrant of this theocratic utopia was cut down in battle and dismembered in early April—on Easter Sunday—with his head erected on a pole above the town to discourage future radical experiments.The accounts of impressions of Columbus concerning his first encounters with inhabitants of the New World are interesting. You may want to read the entire excerpt. What do you think? For some reason, the guy Tim Walz chose to design Minnesota's Ethnic Studies program for its school system keeps coming to my mind.
Comments
(Jump to bottom of comments)1
I'll go let 'em know.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at September 28, 2024 11:20 AM (O7YUW)
Posted by: Zombie Vladimir Lenin! at September 28, 2024 11:22 AM (uxCna)
3
I thought communism was toast. Guess I was wrong.
Posted by: international Toaster Conspiracy at September 28, 2024 11:23 AM (CV8a5)
4
It's not. But they teach marxism in all the best schools, including middle schools, as a way to hide the fact that fascism is the norm.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:24 AM (2l8ZD)
5
Under Communism, there will only be one kind of toaster, Comrades, and you will like it!
Posted by: Zombie Bernie Sanders! at September 28, 2024 11:24 AM (uxCna)
6
Under Communism, there will only be one kind of toaster, Comrades, and you will like it!
Along with only one kind of deodorant!
Along with only one kind of deodorant!
Posted by: Zombie Bernie Sanders! at September 28, 2024 11:25 AM (uxCna)
7
Thx K.T. Reading about the Russian revolution and civil war is an interest of mine. The thing that cracks me up and goes along with JoeF post is that the Bolsheviks were kind of surprised that they managed to take power. All others on the left weren't prepared or didn't think the time was right so the Bolshevists said "we got this _ and the rest is history
Posted by: Smell the Glove at September 28, 2024 11:26 AM (RTfY1)
8
Because under Communism, everything will be free, you can work or not work anytime you want, you can be supported for years while you write your novel, and you'll be given a farm if you want to farm!
Posted by: Idiot College Student! at September 28, 2024 11:27 AM (uxCna)
9
The Houthis lobbed at least one missile at Israel a while ago. No reports of damage
Posted by: Smell the Glove at September 28, 2024 11:27 AM (RTfY1)
10
5 Under Communism, there will only be one kind of toaster, Comrades, and you will like it!
Posted by: Zombie Bernie Sanders!
Can you even get a decent bagel in Vermont, Bernie?
Posted by: Zombie Bernie Sanders!
Can you even get a decent bagel in Vermont, Bernie?
Posted by: Poppy Seed, Salt, Onion, Etc. at September 28, 2024 11:28 AM (CV8a5)
11
Because under Communism, everything will be free, you can work or not work anytime you want, you can be supported for years while you write your novel, and you'll be given a farm if you want to farm!
There are numerous people who actually believe this.
There are numerous people who actually believe this.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:28 AM (uxCna)
12
Along with only one kind of deodorant!
Posted by: Zombie Bernie Sanders! at September 28, 2024 11:25 AM (uxCna)
I got some fancy deodorant that was being advertised on the internets.
Made my pits red and sore. Proctor and Gamble product never did that, but I've vowed not to buy P and G product if I can avoid it.
Come on, capitalism, be better.
Posted by: Zombie Bernie Sanders! at September 28, 2024 11:25 AM (uxCna)
I got some fancy deodorant that was being advertised on the internets.
Made my pits red and sore. Proctor and Gamble product never did that, but I've vowed not to buy P and G product if I can avoid it.
Come on, capitalism, be better.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:28 AM (2l8ZD)
13
A part of it was incorporated into Academia when the "Frankfurt School" brand of communists were allowed to emigrate to the USA, and setup shop at Columbia and elsewhere. Marcuse, Horkheimer, Adorno, et al. Kicked out of you know where by you know who in 1930s.
They expressed their gratitude by immediately setting about destroying the existing society. And there is no escaping the straight line from there to here, almost 100 years later. The Soviet Union died, but ironically their mind virus has not and is no longer a fringe long-hair worldview, but has been codified into law and policy and federal education programs and popular culture. They did a few tweaks along the way - replacing "Race" where "Class" struggle might have been used, but the technique is the same.
Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
What could go wrong?
They expressed their gratitude by immediately setting about destroying the existing society. And there is no escaping the straight line from there to here, almost 100 years later. The Soviet Union died, but ironically their mind virus has not and is no longer a fringe long-hair worldview, but has been codified into law and policy and federal education programs and popular culture. They did a few tweaks along the way - replacing "Race" where "Class" struggle might have been used, but the technique is the same.
Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
What could go wrong?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:29 AM (R3wAr)
14
Resource Depleted Seattle Police Department Won’t Respond to Burglary Alarms Anymore
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I'm sure this'll work out well.
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I'm sure this'll work out well.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:31 AM (L/fGl)
15
Heads of tyrants stuck on a pole in the town square? I see no problem here.
Posted by: PabloD at September 28, 2024 11:31 AM (DDP4b)
16
The verdict is in: freedom is clearly better. So why is communism making a comeback?
1) Some people are really, really stupid and think they'll get all the free sh*t.
2) Some people are really, really venal and plan to take advantage of the first group to take all their sh*t.
1) Some people are really, really stupid and think they'll get all the free sh*t.
2) Some people are really, really venal and plan to take advantage of the first group to take all their sh*t.
Posted by: Oddbob at September 28, 2024 11:32 AM (/y8xj)
17
Communism is a heresy. It is a religion and trying to refute it with facts and logic is a loser's game.
It can only be defeated with spiritual warfare, and the increasing secularlzation of "conservative" movements is why it is winning.
Communism has never been stopped in its tracks by secular liberal democracies, it was halted the same way all other heresies were - with faith. Reagan and Thatcher had a powerful ally in St. JPII, and that allowed them to harness Western economic strength and military might to bring down the wall.
We celebrated this by embracing sodomy, decadence and materialism, and here we are.
It can only be defeated with spiritual warfare, and the increasing secularlzation of "conservative" movements is why it is winning.
Communism has never been stopped in its tracks by secular liberal democracies, it was halted the same way all other heresies were - with faith. Reagan and Thatcher had a powerful ally in St. JPII, and that allowed them to harness Western economic strength and military might to bring down the wall.
We celebrated this by embracing sodomy, decadence and materialism, and here we are.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 11:32 AM (llXky)
18
All others on the left weren't prepared or didn't think the time was right so the Bolshevists said "we got this _ and the rest is history
The amazing thing is that central Saint Petersburg is basically unchanged from 1917, so you can still see all the locations where the February and October Revolutions took place.
The amazing thing is that central Saint Petersburg is basically unchanged from 1917, so you can still see all the locations where the February and October Revolutions took place.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:32 AM (uxCna)
19
Communism is evil. Satanic.
Destruction of the family.
Destruction of God.
Destruction of the soul.
Envy Jealousy Sloth Lust
Inversion of the Good and beautiful.
Fatima warned about the errors of Russia.
Because communism is evil, it will always be with us and it always needs to be fought. Our times are quite evil, and thus...communism gains a foothold.
We are losing this war, and won't win until we return to Gods fold.
Destruction of the family.
Destruction of God.
Destruction of the soul.
Envy Jealousy Sloth Lust
Inversion of the Good and beautiful.
Fatima warned about the errors of Russia.
Because communism is evil, it will always be with us and it always needs to be fought. Our times are quite evil, and thus...communism gains a foothold.
We are losing this war, and won't win until we return to Gods fold.
Posted by: Derak at September 28, 2024 11:32 AM (vjxXT)
20
because we forgot that marx preceded lenin and stalin, they sought non violent means to the same end, indoctrination was the way in Western Europe, where it didn't take, because people on their own, would not come to this conclusion so Lenin invented the Vanguard the elite that would guide the proletariat to the right choice,
the Social Revolutionaries and before then the Peoples Will sought to over throw the Czar by Force, Lenin saw from his exile in Zurich that would not work,
the Social Revolutionaries and before then the Peoples Will sought to over throw the Czar by Force, Lenin saw from his exile in Zurich that would not work,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:33 AM (PXvVL)
21
I'm interested to read it. I wonder what his angle is.
Mine is this: Leninism was always the wrong approach to international socialism, but the fastest method. It fell apart in the 80s. But during its apparent successful period, the socialists in the West pursued the right approach - the long, slow grind of Gramscian and Frankfurt School institutional subversion, which the Leninists were happy to foster abroad, but not at home.
Essentially, the candle that burned brightest flamed out, while the embers the Communists lovingly tended in the West eventually became the fire we're living in today.
Mine is this: Leninism was always the wrong approach to international socialism, but the fastest method. It fell apart in the 80s. But during its apparent successful period, the socialists in the West pursued the right approach - the long, slow grind of Gramscian and Frankfurt School institutional subversion, which the Leninists were happy to foster abroad, but not at home.
Essentially, the candle that burned brightest flamed out, while the embers the Communists lovingly tended in the West eventually became the fire we're living in today.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:33 AM (awTae)
22
Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail: “It Could Really Happen - He Wants To Be A Dictator”
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Well, you've got to admit, Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes are jokes.
-
Well, you've got to admit, Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes are jokes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)
23
What was the fellow who was asked, "What is it like to kill a human being?"
He answered, "I don't know. I've only killed communists."
He answered, "I don't know. I've only killed communists."
Posted by: Brewingfrog at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (s/iIU)
24
Tearing down the Berlin Wall didn't let freedom into Russia as much as it let communism lose on the world. Same with opening China to the west.
The seeds of the communist movement we are now living through were planted years ago. Yuri Bezmenov never got the recognition he deserved. He predicted all of this decades ago.
The seeds of the communist movement we are now living through were planted years ago. Yuri Bezmenov never got the recognition he deserved. He predicted all of this decades ago.
Posted by: JackStraw at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (LkLld)
25
Why does it not die out? The complex answer is that atheists believe they can outdo God and create heaven on earth, if only they can control every action of every person. The short answer is greed.
Communism and it's half-baked brother socialism are almost entirely fueled by greed. Take what you want, and pay what you want. It is why every socialist system is ultimately doomed to institute slavery, strip the land, and then collapse. Then, like locusts, the perpetrators move on to a different functioning society and begin to steal from it as well.
Communism and it's half-baked brother socialism are almost entirely fueled by greed. Take what you want, and pay what you want. It is why every socialist system is ultimately doomed to institute slavery, strip the land, and then collapse. Then, like locusts, the perpetrators move on to a different functioning society and begin to steal from it as well.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (/5iXv)
26
Why doesn’t Perfesser Squirrel and the Ace Brand Moron Team have links to Amazon for books. (That can earn the blog a little cash).
Insty does that, and every week there are excellent books that can be linked for fun and profit….
Yes, I hat Jeff Bezos too. Doesn’t mean this isn’t an obvious way to support the blog and Ace’s shelf hobby.
Insty does that, and every week there are excellent books that can be linked for fun and profit….
Yes, I hat Jeff Bezos too. Doesn’t mean this isn’t an obvious way to support the blog and Ace’s shelf hobby.
Posted by: Justin Pinochet Castreau at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (l5yVc)
27
The problem is that democracy doesn't give the elites enough power.
You had Fran Leibowitz, a member of the cultural elite if there ever was one, saying that Biden should simply abolish the Supreme Court.
They are getting more and more blatant about their intention to establish a dictatorship.
You had Fran Leibowitz, a member of the cultural elite if there ever was one, saying that Biden should simply abolish the Supreme Court.
They are getting more and more blatant about their intention to establish a dictatorship.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (uxCna)
28
because of the self inflicted errors that mcmeekin notes, the Soviets succeeded, but they had a harder time in Germany for instance, the Social Democrats which share roots with Marxism were in charge, actually the Catholic Center, but Briening was discredited by the Depression,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (PXvVL)
29
Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
What could go wrong?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:29 AM (R3wAr)
I never did make myself learn about the various socialist philosophies, and always assumed the power structure would adopt whatever language they needed, to progress toward power consolidation.
And in modern day, I don't think the various adherents to the various philosophers much care. They borrow the slogans and phrases, and as you say, none of it means anything to the people, it just sounds nice.
I still say all of it amounts to fascism.
Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
What could go wrong?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:29 AM (R3wAr)
I never did make myself learn about the various socialist philosophies, and always assumed the power structure would adopt whatever language they needed, to progress toward power consolidation.
And in modern day, I don't think the various adherents to the various philosophers much care. They borrow the slogans and phrases, and as you say, none of it means anything to the people, it just sounds nice.
I still say all of it amounts to fascism.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (2l8ZD)
30
Rafal Gan-Ganowicz
Posted by: PabloD at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (DDP4b)
31
He answered, "I don't know. I've only killed communists."
Posted by: Brewingfrog at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (s/iIU)
Rafal Gang-Ganowicz.
Posted by: Brewingfrog at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (s/iIU)
Rafal Gang-Ganowicz.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:36 AM (awTae)
32
Like America,German politics are similarly at a cross-roads, as the Green Party leadership resigned en masse, and the party switched to a close the borders stance. The German people are done with migrant crime and harassment of young women, and recent elections make their wishes clear: close the borders and eject illegals.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:37 AM (fW52N)
33
Gan-Ganowicz. Stupid autocorrect.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:37 AM (awTae)
34
Great content K.T.
I love fall weather and that’s what it felt like here this morning
I think communism makes a comeback because it’s rooted in mankind’s original sin in Eden. Adam and Eve lived in a literal paradise and yet Satan was still able to convince them it was “unfair” (why can’t you eat the fruit from that tree? God’s keeping something from you…
. Modern progressives, including our neo-communists like AOC and the cackler for that matter) are just the latest utopians…. They happen to make distinctions on race and gender lines rather than class, but it’s still the same stinky ideology…
I love fall weather and that’s what it felt like here this morning
I think communism makes a comeback because it’s rooted in mankind’s original sin in Eden. Adam and Eve lived in a literal paradise and yet Satan was still able to convince them it was “unfair” (why can’t you eat the fruit from that tree? God’s keeping something from you…
. Modern progressives, including our neo-communists like AOC and the cackler for that matter) are just the latest utopians…. They happen to make distinctions on race and gender lines rather than class, but it’s still the same stinky ideology…Posted by: LinusVanPelt at September 28, 2024 11:37 AM (6RwsA)
35
Totalitarianism has many disguises.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 11:38 AM (i0F8b)
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:38 AM (L/fGl)
37
The author of Len ( a former Stalinist byt) thought writing after the Russian Communists collapse thought Communism has failed and should be forgotten.
I wrote in my review the Cultural Marxists are willing to try again.
I wrote in my review the Cultural Marxists are willing to try again.
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 11:38 AM (fwDg9)
38
Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail: “It Could Really Happen - He Wants To Be A Dictator”
Communists have already killed comedy
Communists have already killed comedy
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 11:39 AM (FfSAJ)
39
Fran Liebowitz, is she still alive,
now Putin is not a Communist, if he was he would much more support in the West is he an authentic culture warrior, he knows the Wests cultural contribution has been thin gruel at Best poison at worst,
now Putin is not a Communist, if he was he would much more support in the West is he an authentic culture warrior, he knows the Wests cultural contribution has been thin gruel at Best poison at worst,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:39 AM (PXvVL)
40
Ah, the Anabaptists of Muenster. Great story. You have to be serious badboys for the Catholics and Lutherans to JOIN FORCES to get rid of you.
Posted by: no one of any consequence at September 28, 2024 11:39 AM (+H2BX)
41
The German people are done with migrant crime and harassment of young women, and recent elections make their wishes clear: close the borders and eject illegals.
No problem, we'll just ban the Alternative for Germany party, and things will go on unchanged.
No problem, we'll just ban the Alternative for Germany party, and things will go on unchanged.
Posted by: The German Establishment! at September 28, 2024 11:39 AM (uxCna)
42
Communism was an actual ideology. I think we're beyond that now. Any coherent set of ideas is something that the vast majority of people now would find incomprehensible.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:40 AM (nv4jJ)
43
Fatima warned about the errors of Russia.
Because communism is evil, it will always be with us and it always needs to be fought. Our times are quite evil, and thus...communism gains a foothold.
We are losing this war, and won't win until we return to Gods fold.
Posted by: Derak at September 28, 2024 11:32 AM (vjxXT)
---
The Russian Orthodox Church was reduced to an arm of the state by Peter the Great, who refused to allow a Patriarch of Moscow to be appointed when the post fell vacant. His successors continued the practice, resulting in what was effectively a state church, depending on the monarchy, unresponsive to the people.
The Bolsheviks allowed a Patriarch to be appointed, which quieted Church objections until it was too late, and by then the peasants were burning the churches rather than defending them.
Now look at Spain. The Catholic Church was independent, and provided a rallying point against the Reds. Just as in Russia, the Marxists went on a killing spree, burning churches, lynching clergy (a higher percentage of Spanish clergy were killed than Russian - that's how bad it was).
The Church's response? A Crusade. Spain holds.
Because communism is evil, it will always be with us and it always needs to be fought. Our times are quite evil, and thus...communism gains a foothold.
We are losing this war, and won't win until we return to Gods fold.
Posted by: Derak at September 28, 2024 11:32 AM (vjxXT)
---
The Russian Orthodox Church was reduced to an arm of the state by Peter the Great, who refused to allow a Patriarch of Moscow to be appointed when the post fell vacant. His successors continued the practice, resulting in what was effectively a state church, depending on the monarchy, unresponsive to the people.
The Bolsheviks allowed a Patriarch to be appointed, which quieted Church objections until it was too late, and by then the peasants were burning the churches rather than defending them.
Now look at Spain. The Catholic Church was independent, and provided a rallying point against the Reds. Just as in Russia, the Marxists went on a killing spree, burning churches, lynching clergy (a higher percentage of Spanish clergy were killed than Russian - that's how bad it was).
The Church's response? A Crusade. Spain holds.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 11:40 AM (llXky)
44
Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail: “It Could Really Happen - He Wants To Be A Dictator”
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Well, you've got to admit, Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes are jokes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)
The funny thing is, I pay some attention to the actual comedy business, and none of them seem to be all that concerned about it. Most of them avoid politics altogether.
Except the dinosaurs, who cling (bitterly?) to the notion that teevee is the pathway to comedy stardom. The actual comedians now view teevee comedy platforms as a joke.
-
Well, you've got to admit, Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes are jokes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)
The funny thing is, I pay some attention to the actual comedy business, and none of them seem to be all that concerned about it. Most of them avoid politics altogether.
Except the dinosaurs, who cling (bitterly?) to the notion that teevee is the pathway to comedy stardom. The actual comedians now view teevee comedy platforms as a joke.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:41 AM (2l8ZD)
45
Fran Lebowitz. Gross. What a pig.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:41 AM (awTae)
46
The amazing thing is that central Saint Petersburg is basically unchanged from 1917, so you can still see all the locations where the February and October Revolutions took place.
Posted by: The ARC of History
Much of Russia is like that. The only enduring structures were built before the revolution; they will outlast all of the Soviet era shoddy constructions.
Posted by: The ARC of History
Much of Russia is like that. The only enduring structures were built before the revolution; they will outlast all of the Soviet era shoddy constructions.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 11:41 AM (/5iXv)
47
Ever since Wilson, America has has a technocratic political impulse that is little distinguishable from fascism. Totalitarians are taking advantage of that thinking, and are wearing the skin suit of the Democrat Party.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:42 AM (GzV24)
48
45 Fran Lebowitz. Gross. What a pig.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:41 AM (awTae)
------------
She was going to make me a pot.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:41 AM (awTae)
------------
She was going to make me a pot.
Posted by: Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman at September 28, 2024 11:43 AM (+o2mc)
49
You look at the hagiography of John Reed, the man got things wrong at a spectacular level, he would not learn from his mistakes from allies like Emma Goldman,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:43 AM (PXvVL)
50
Freedom is hard.
Being a slave is easier.
Being a slave is easier.
Posted by: The Man from Athens at September 28, 2024 11:44 AM (jxVvT)
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:44 AM (L/fGl)
52
Meanwhile, Rashida Tlaib shows the picture of the Israelis blowing up Nasrallah's bunker, and had this to say two hours ago:
Our country is funding this bloodbath. Sending more of our troops and bombs to the region is not advancing peace. The U.S. government are conspirators to the war criminal Netanyahu's genocidal plan.
Not a word about the death of Nasrallah.
Oh, and she's whining that although there are still commercial flights out of Beirut, the tickets are too expensive, as her constituents flee Lebanon.
Our country is funding this bloodbath. Sending more of our troops and bombs to the region is not advancing peace. The U.S. government are conspirators to the war criminal Netanyahu's genocidal plan.
Not a word about the death of Nasrallah.
Oh, and she's whining that although there are still commercial flights out of Beirut, the tickets are too expensive, as her constituents flee Lebanon.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:45 AM (uxCna)
53
The Church's response? A Crusade. Spain holds.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 11:40 AM (llXky)
Yup. It's why I am heartened to see the rejection of the "church of nice". We need something far more "muscular" to get us out of this mess.
A clear unequivocal stand for the Truth. Evil must be vanquished. No other way.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 11:40 AM (llXky)
Yup. It's why I am heartened to see the rejection of the "church of nice". We need something far more "muscular" to get us out of this mess.
A clear unequivocal stand for the Truth. Evil must be vanquished. No other way.
Posted by: Derak at September 28, 2024 11:46 AM (vjxXT)
54
Professor Jimbo has the best, most entertaining summation of the Russian Revolution on YT:
Part 1 of 3 here: https://tinyurl.com/4jmj2fxe
But even he can't make it entertaining in certain parts it's so fvcking depressing.
Part 1 of 3 here: https://tinyurl.com/4jmj2fxe
But even he can't make it entertaining in certain parts it's so fvcking depressing.
Posted by: McLurkerson at September 28, 2024 11:46 AM (CjgNg)
55
You look at the hagiography of John Reed, the man got things wrong at a spectacular level, he would not learn from his mistakes from allies like Emma Goldman,
Hey, he managed to get buried in the Kremlin Wall, the only person from Portland, Oregon to do so.
Hey, he managed to get buried in the Kremlin Wall, the only person from Portland, Oregon to do so.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:46 AM (uxCna)
56
Wait. I though she died in a Kiln explosion?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:46 AM (R3wAr)
57
37 Lenin
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 11:47 AM (fwDg9)
58
I’ve never heard Joy Behar say anything remotely funny. Wanda Sykes can be occasionally amusing but she’s mostly raunchy and a very mediocre comedian….. if Trump starts throwing comics in prison they’re safe; the line is long and they’d be near the back if they’re in it at all….
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at September 28, 2024 11:47 AM (i5Vkf)
59
Communism was an actual ideology. I think we're beyond that now. Any coherent set of ideas is something that the vast majority of people now would find incomprehensible.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:40 AM (nv4jJ)
---
What is an ideology but a faith? Why do we make this artificial distinction between religion and politics? The one informs the other, and Communism openly seeks to supplant all other religions with itself.
The reason Communism survives is that Western elites bought into was that there was some sort of tangible line between ideology and faith, and that faith should be kept quiet, not expressed in public or in schools.
But people are spiritual animals, so when Christianity gave ground, the Marxists heretics were ready to take it.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:40 AM (nv4jJ)
---
What is an ideology but a faith? Why do we make this artificial distinction between religion and politics? The one informs the other, and Communism openly seeks to supplant all other religions with itself.
The reason Communism survives is that Western elites bought into was that there was some sort of tangible line between ideology and faith, and that faith should be kept quiet, not expressed in public or in schools.
But people are spiritual animals, so when Christianity gave ground, the Marxists heretics were ready to take it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 11:47 AM (llXky)
60
A Crisis of Competence in the U.S. Military
-
Leave Bearclaw alone!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:38 AM (L/fGl)
I watched the Jack Ryan movies this past week, and got to the Ben Aflac version. I seem to recall at the time, they said the movie changed the bad guys from muslim terrorists (?) to neo-nazis. Which wasn't the silliest thing about the movie.
For those of you who haven't seen it, *Spoiler Alert* the Russians think the Americans started it, the Americans thought the Russians started it, and it was those pesky nazzies! At one point, the Rooskies launch a conventional missile strike from planes, and they totally surprise an aircraft carrier, hitting it but not sinking it.
Huh? You had no warning? You just saw the planes, saw the missiles launched, and THEN you thought you might want to take defensive action?
But yeah, no. Maybe that's our modern military. They're doing DEI training with some tranny officer below deck, while the bad guys are approaching with sincere intent.
-
Leave Bearclaw alone!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:38 AM (L/fGl)
I watched the Jack Ryan movies this past week, and got to the Ben Aflac version. I seem to recall at the time, they said the movie changed the bad guys from muslim terrorists (?) to neo-nazis. Which wasn't the silliest thing about the movie.
For those of you who haven't seen it, *Spoiler Alert* the Russians think the Americans started it, the Americans thought the Russians started it, and it was those pesky nazzies! At one point, the Rooskies launch a conventional missile strike from planes, and they totally surprise an aircraft carrier, hitting it but not sinking it.
Huh? You had no warning? You just saw the planes, saw the missiles launched, and THEN you thought you might want to take defensive action?
But yeah, no. Maybe that's our modern military. They're doing DEI training with some tranny officer below deck, while the bad guys are approaching with sincere intent.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:47 AM (9mG4Y)
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:48 AM (L/fGl)
62
Ever since Wilson, America has has a technocratic political impulse that is little distinguishable from fascism. Totalitarians are taking advantage of that thinking, and are wearing the skin suit of the Democrat Party.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:42 AM (GzV24)
The fatal flaw of America has been the lust for money. It has made us the best for a time. And now the worst.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:42 AM (GzV24)
The fatal flaw of America has been the lust for money. It has made us the best for a time. And now the worst.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:48 AM (nv4jJ)
63
for example the Constiiution of 1940 was certainly Cuba's contribution to Social Democracy, some wise men sadly contributed to it both parties tried to strive to fulfill it,
the Orthodox and the Authentics, but it was a pipe dream,
the Orthodox and the Authentics, but it was a pipe dream,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:48 AM (PXvVL)
64
52 Meanwhile, Rashida Tlaib shows the picture of the Israelis blowing up Nasrallah's bunker, and had this to say two hours ago:
------
Dear Mossad:
Do it. Do it now. Tlaib. That's where your next pager needs to go.
------
Dear Mossad:
Do it. Do it now. Tlaib. That's where your next pager needs to go.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 11:48 AM (awTae)
65
Fran Liebowitz is the living embodiment of the phrase "that is so stupid only an intellectual could believe it"
Posted by: Smell the Glove at September 28, 2024 11:49 AM (RTfY1)
66
Communism is the surest way for evil to seize and hold power. When you look at the leaders all they want to do is exercise power against their enemies and communism encourages that. It's why evil people like Hillary should never be given power.
Posted by: Beckoningchasm Phone at September 28, 2024 11:49 AM (0kMM3)
67
Is Travis Kelce A Cautionary Tale For American Men Everywhere?
-
Don't stick your dick in crazy?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:44 AM (L/fGl)
They're both gay, so I doubt there's been an dick sticking.
Everyone knows that. Come on, man. Or as Travis prefers, cum on man.
-
Don't stick your dick in crazy?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:44 AM (L/fGl)
They're both gay, so I doubt there's been an dick sticking.
Everyone knows that. Come on, man. Or as Travis prefers, cum on man.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:51 AM (9mG4Y)
68
Would the emasculation of both Protestant and Catholic churches (and it sounds as if some of the Synagogues are a bit sketchy, too, if comments here are any indication)
.... was this the natural order of things, or was there a little help along the way? I always found it "interesting" reading period political pieces clearly vette through the spook agencies of the day, lamenting how much power organized religion had in America. The "religious" folks had to be neutered, at least politically. They didn't get around to producing actual Eunuchs until just a few years ago.
The Pervs first tried to get traction with "UniSex" fashion in the US in the early 70s, along with everything else, but it didn't get anywhere. They took notes, though.
.... was this the natural order of things, or was there a little help along the way? I always found it "interesting" reading period political pieces clearly vette through the spook agencies of the day, lamenting how much power organized religion had in America. The "religious" folks had to be neutered, at least politically. They didn't get around to producing actual Eunuchs until just a few years ago.
The Pervs first tried to get traction with "UniSex" fashion in the US in the early 70s, along with everything else, but it didn't get anywhere. They took notes, though.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:51 AM (R3wAr)
69
Joy Behar is stupid, nasty and miserable.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 11:52 AM (FfSAJ)
Posted by: Kamala Harris! at September 28, 2024 11:52 AM (uxCna)
71
I think its largely a managerial and information class that is so guilty about it's success that it sells them the ropes,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:52 AM (PXvVL)
72
Why hasn't Communism gone away?
*********
Is this the room for the free lunch? I was promised a free lunch!
*********
Is this the room for the free lunch? I was promised a free lunch!
Posted by: muldoon at September 28, 2024 11:52 AM (uCfKO)
73
Macron embodies the political contradictions facing the west. He's smarter and more urbane than his lapdog follower, Castreau, younger and smarter than America's leader (whoever that is right now) and he is in favor of state economic dictates/"leadersip" of the economy, in favor of open borders, in favor of censorship, but he falls short of being totalitarian. He would be a moderate Democrat were he in America, and a solid Deep State uniparty guy.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:52 AM (pH3In)
74
The fatal flaw of America has been the lust for money. It has made us the best for a time. And now the worst.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:48 AM (nv4jJ)
-----------
Everything was much better before coinage. Damn Lydians ruined everything.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:48 AM (nv4jJ)
-----------
Everything was much better before coinage. Damn Lydians ruined everything.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 11:53 AM (+o2mc)
75
they infiltrated every institution that would seek to resist them, gramsci or alinsky take your poison,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:53 AM (PXvVL)
76
Oh, and she's whining that although there are still commercial flights out of Beirut, the tickets are too expensive, as her constituents flee Lebanon.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:45 AM (uxCna)
Can we get Israel to stop bombing Lebanon, and bomb Michigan instead?
We want the fleeing going in the other direction.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:45 AM (uxCna)
Can we get Israel to stop bombing Lebanon, and bomb Michigan instead?
We want the fleeing going in the other direction.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 11:54 AM (9mG4Y)
77
Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
Envy never dies
Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
Envy never dies
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at September 28, 2024 11:54 AM (63Dwl)
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 11:54 AM (i514R)
79
Churches were certainly part of it, whether what is attributed to Tocqueville and before him Adams, is true, the substance is,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:54 AM (PXvVL)
80
"Hillary"
It is telling, even when the strongest possible terms are used against this person, the antagonist has her on a first name basis. Ya hafta have a bit of grudging admiration for people who can pull that off.
The way around this of course - you can try it for yourself - refer to her as "Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend's wife" in front of your favorite oh-so easily triggered neurotic wind up leftist toy.
It is telling, even when the strongest possible terms are used against this person, the antagonist has her on a first name basis. Ya hafta have a bit of grudging admiration for people who can pull that off.
The way around this of course - you can try it for yourself - refer to her as "Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend's wife" in front of your favorite oh-so easily triggered neurotic wind up leftist toy.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:55 AM (R3wAr)
81
Tlaib is jordanian, not Lebanese as far as one can determine,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:55 AM (PXvVL)
82
Communism is a Religion and was set up to be.
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 11:55 AM (fwDg9)
83
81 Tlaib is jordanian, not Lebanese as far as one can determine,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:55 AM (PXvVL)
----------
Impossible. When I was in Jordan the women were quite attractive. Maybe they kicked her out.
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:55 AM (PXvVL)
----------
Impossible. When I was in Jordan the women were quite attractive. Maybe they kicked her out.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 11:57 AM (+o2mc)
84
Old Marxism used secularism as its sword and shield, proclaiming "scientific socialism" would triumph over "mindless tradition and superstition."
People think it failed because capitalism proved itself a superior economic system, but they have it wrong. It failed because the society it produced was hollow, without anything to sustain the spirit.
The West was still religious, prayers were said in school, obscenity and libel laws were still in force, but all of that is gone, and we stand before the ancient foe naked and unarmed.
People think it failed because capitalism proved itself a superior economic system, but they have it wrong. It failed because the society it produced was hollow, without anything to sustain the spirit.
The West was still religious, prayers were said in school, obscenity and libel laws were still in force, but all of that is gone, and we stand before the ancient foe naked and unarmed.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 11:57 AM (llXky)
85
As a young Reagan fan boy it's "ironic" to see that America has become the reining Evil Empire.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (nv4jJ)
86
the televangelist scandals of the mid 80s did help them out to a degree, but the secular preachers like donahue and teh Oprah, and their moral uncertainty,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (PXvVL)
87
Would the emasculation of both Protestant and Catholic churches (and it sounds as if some of the Synagogues are a bit sketchy, too, if comments here are any indication)
.... was this the natural order of things, or was there a little help along the way?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:51 AM (R3wAr)
I can’t point to a root cause, but I have seen an implosion in American Protestantism in my lifetime… roughly the last 30-40 years. The church and preachers stopped emphasizing sin and the gospel and started doing anything and everything to entertain and attract crowds and maximize attendance. The so-called “seeker friendly” marketing approach to Christianity…. It was poison and greatly weakened the church. Joel Osteen is the worse example but there are lesser versions everywhere….. and as the church has weakened, secularism has risen…
.... was this the natural order of things, or was there a little help along the way?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:51 AM (R3wAr)
I can’t point to a root cause, but I have seen an implosion in American Protestantism in my lifetime… roughly the last 30-40 years. The church and preachers stopped emphasizing sin and the gospel and started doing anything and everything to entertain and attract crowds and maximize attendance. The so-called “seeker friendly” marketing approach to Christianity…. It was poison and greatly weakened the church. Joel Osteen is the worse example but there are lesser versions everywhere….. and as the church has weakened, secularism has risen…
Posted by: LinusVanPelt at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (i5Vkf)
88
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Associated Press:
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
89
The best way I have been able to make lefties begin to change their minds is to point out that socialist systems are a net loss system. It can be easily proven in example after example.
Every communist or socialist system produces less than the inputs, every time. There is no growth or expansion of the economic pie.
Even where slightly leftist power structures are in place, like democrat cities in the US, there is a visible decline in lifestyle associated with leftist control. Even in the US as a whole, every time the left is in charge, there is a decline in living standards. Every time.
Every communist or socialist system produces less than the inputs, every time. There is no growth or expansion of the economic pie.
Even where slightly leftist power structures are in place, like democrat cities in the US, there is a visible decline in lifestyle associated with leftist control. Even in the US as a whole, every time the left is in charge, there is a decline in living standards. Every time.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 11:59 AM (/5iXv)
90
Tlaib is jordanian, not Lebanese as far as one can determine,
Doesn't matter - Tlaib supports all terrorist organizations that are trying to destroy Israel.
Doesn't matter - Tlaib supports all terrorist organizations that are trying to destroy Israel.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:59 AM (uxCna)
91
Ever since Wilson, America has has a technocratic political impulse that is little distinguishable from fascism. Totalitarians are taking advantage of that thinking, and are wearing the skin suit of the Democrat Party.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:42 AM (GzV24)
Good point. Many roads lead back to that unrepentant racist and progressive.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 11:42 AM (GzV24)
Good point. Many roads lead back to that unrepentant racist and progressive.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at September 28, 2024 12:00 PM (d9fT1)
92
IMO the biggest adherents of theoretic communism are women. That's because of the innate socialistic and empathetic gene. They also have the abused wife paradox.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:00 PM (i514R)
Posted by: fd at September 28, 2024 12:01 PM (vFG9F)
94
Tricksy Jews!
Hen Mazzig
@HenMazzig
BREAKING: Senior Israeli officials report PM Netanyahu’s trip to the UN General Assembly “was part of a diversion” to lead Nasrallah into believing he was safe while the PM was in New York.
Hen Mazzig
@HenMazzig
BREAKING: Senior Israeli officials report PM Netanyahu’s trip to the UN General Assembly “was part of a diversion” to lead Nasrallah into believing he was safe while the PM was in New York.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 12:02 PM (L/fGl)
95
Why hasn't Communism gone away?
*************
Consider that men who were young adults at the end of WWII in 1945 (say 21 years old) who are still alive are now 100 years old. Very few remain. The passing of a generation and the generational ethos of that generation may have left a vacuum that needed to be filled by something, and the pipe dream of communism fit the bill.
Or at least that could be part of the answer. Hard men create soft times, soft times create...
*************
Consider that men who were young adults at the end of WWII in 1945 (say 21 years old) who are still alive are now 100 years old. Very few remain. The passing of a generation and the generational ethos of that generation may have left a vacuum that needed to be filled by something, and the pipe dream of communism fit the bill.
Or at least that could be part of the answer. Hard men create soft times, soft times create...
Posted by: muldoon at September 28, 2024 12:02 PM (uCfKO)
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 12:02 PM (PXvVL)
97
92 IMO the biggest adherents of theoretic communism are women. That's because of the innate socialistic and empathetic gene. They also have the abused wife paradox.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:00 PM (i514R)
-----------
IIRC, they were the majority of the cadres who wielded the hammers in the killing fields.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:00 PM (i514R)
-----------
IIRC, they were the majority of the cadres who wielded the hammers in the killing fields.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 12:02 PM (+o2mc)
98
Even the Soviets didn't pay people to lay around and take drugs. They weren't that stupid. They (in theory) wanted their system such as it was, to succeed.
And so, unemployment was not allowed. They found you a job. They sent you a letter, ordering you to report to the Fabulous Widget Factory no. 46 on Monday, no later than 7 AM. If you don't show up, they will arrest you. So you showed up. Pretended to work. And they pretended to pay you.
Russians were (and are) much better suited for Mad Max, because they always knew everything was a scam, and they had to have a second gig or two to get by. Our current "welfare class" regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity will be completely fooked when or if the existing economic system starts to fracture. Within hours, I'd expect.
This would be considered high entertainment around the world, by the way.
And so, unemployment was not allowed. They found you a job. They sent you a letter, ordering you to report to the Fabulous Widget Factory no. 46 on Monday, no later than 7 AM. If you don't show up, they will arrest you. So you showed up. Pretended to work. And they pretended to pay you.
Russians were (and are) much better suited for Mad Max, because they always knew everything was a scam, and they had to have a second gig or two to get by. Our current "welfare class" regardless of race, creed, or ethnicity will be completely fooked when or if the existing economic system starts to fracture. Within hours, I'd expect.
This would be considered high entertainment around the world, by the way.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (R3wAr)
99
Tlaib supports all terrorist organizations that are trying to destroy Israel.
Posted by: The ARC of History!
And the US.
Posted by: The ARC of History!
And the US.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (L/fGl)
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (PXvVL)
101
Wouldn't doubt this is a good book, but think for some time am done my quota of books on Bolsheviks
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 12:04 PM (fwDg9)
102
IMO the biggest adherents of theoretic communism are women. That's because of the innate socialistic and empathetic gene. They also have the abused wife paradox.
One of the huge, huge achievements of the Left has been to delegitimize marriage, and reduce its frequency.
Single women view the State as their husband, and overwhelmingly support extensions of State power.
Every woman who gets married is a blow to the Left, since married women are far, far more conservative than single women.
One of the huge, huge achievements of the Left has been to delegitimize marriage, and reduce its frequency.
Single women view the State as their husband, and overwhelmingly support extensions of State power.
Every woman who gets married is a blow to the Left, since married women are far, far more conservative than single women.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:04 PM (uxCna)
103
Communism hasn't gone away because it's a very nasty combination of fantastical thinking, elitism, criminality and pure unadulated hate/envy.
Posted by: Erik In Texas at September 28, 2024 12:05 PM (TEC4P)
104
the educational systems we have been using since the 80s, are of soviet design, that is true,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 12:05 PM (PXvVL)
105
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (R3wAr)
Am I communist because I too would require abled bodied persons to work in exchange for government benefits. Lot of highways need cleaning up .
Am I communist because I too would require abled bodied persons to work in exchange for government benefits. Lot of highways need cleaning up .
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:06 PM (i514R)
106
Communism is a manifestation of the will to power, and as such it is inseparable from the human condition.
Power unconstrained by law was the effective policy of the French Revolution. Lenin made it official policy, and like the French before him, he proved the legitimacy of his power by sheer terror.
Lenin and Stalin took terror and paranoia to a whole new level, but there isn't much of a difference in principle from what Russia was before. Russia was a feudal empire, held together by terror. The Tsars exercised power in the form of extreme violence, without constraint of law or any other institution.
People splutter about what an awful person Putin is. Fair enough, but he is by far the most liberal and enlightened government Russia ever had.
Power unconstrained by law was the effective policy of the French Revolution. Lenin made it official policy, and like the French before him, he proved the legitimacy of his power by sheer terror.
Lenin and Stalin took terror and paranoia to a whole new level, but there isn't much of a difference in principle from what Russia was before. Russia was a feudal empire, held together by terror. The Tsars exercised power in the form of extreme violence, without constraint of law or any other institution.
People splutter about what an awful person Putin is. Fair enough, but he is by far the most liberal and enlightened government Russia ever had.
Posted by: Tom Perry at September 28, 2024 12:06 PM (MX0bI)
107
93 " Did Communism win? "
It says something about human nature that it persists.
Posted by: fd at September 28, 2024 12:01 PM (vFG9F)
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The fantasy that "someone will finally do it right" will never be extinguished.
It says something about human nature that it persists.
Posted by: fd at September 28, 2024 12:01 PM (vFG9F)
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The fantasy that "someone will finally do it right" will never be extinguished.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 12:07 PM (+o2mc)
108
It would be helpful, if the victims of communism (and all the totalitarian, collectivist regimes) around the world were made available to testify in the public arena, the political world, and state in no uncertain terms that these ideologies have never worked, and cannot be made to work even at the point of a gun, because that's what they did. Food was "free" but you couldn't get it. Stealing even a single wheat berry from a collectivist farm was meted out with a death sentence and sending the rest of your family off to a Gulag camp.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:08 PM (R3wAr)
109
Even where slightly leftist power structures are in place, like democrat cities in the US, there is a visible decline in lifestyle associated with leftist control. Even in the US as a whole, every time the left is in charge, there is a decline in living standards. Every time.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 11:59 AM (/5iXv)
High living standards are a white western Christian imperialist exploitation of people of color that must be stopped BAMN.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 11:59 AM (/5iXv)
High living standards are a white western Christian imperialist exploitation of people of color that must be stopped BAMN.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (nv4jJ)
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (i514R)
111
or the "unofficial collaborators" the East German Stasi relied on to snitch out neighbors and even family members. . .
I suspect *this* is something most people don't think about happening here at ALL, let alone realize how much it's probably happening and for how long.
I suspect *this* is something most people don't think about happening here at ALL, let alone realize how much it's probably happening and for how long.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (FnneF)
112
People splutter about what an awful person Putin is. Fair enough, but he is by far the most liberal and enlightened government Russia ever had.
Nah, the West would prefer another Yeltsin, under whom living standards and life expectancies collapsed in Russia.
Coming up, Putin will be visiting the Central Synagogue in Moscow for High Holy Days - the only Russian leader in history to do so.
Nah, the West would prefer another Yeltsin, under whom living standards and life expectancies collapsed in Russia.
Coming up, Putin will be visiting the Central Synagogue in Moscow for High Holy Days - the only Russian leader in history to do so.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (uxCna)
113
For the Ruling Elite, communism is an ideological excuse for amassing total power over the plebes.
The masses who support it in the naive belief that it will improve their condition are just Lenin's Useful Idiots.
The masses who support it in the naive belief that it will improve their condition are just Lenin's Useful Idiots.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (+o2mc)
114
The rainbow mob would have been regarded as parasites by the Stalininists and Maoists.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (FfSAJ)
115
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Associated Press:
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
You spent decades, building up your "military" to be able to finally stand up to Israel, and on Day 1 you get deaded.
How shrewd is that?
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
You spent decades, building up your "military" to be able to finally stand up to Israel, and on Day 1 you get deaded.
How shrewd is that?
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:10 PM (E7J9X)
116
The masses who support it in the naive belief that it will improve their condition are just Lenin's Useful Idiots.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (+o2mc)
Antifa and the rest of the American Left.
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 12:09 PM (+o2mc)
Antifa and the rest of the American Left.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (i514R)
117
As said, my opinion is the Cultural Marxists think they can make the world equal, and the ruling class the pervayors of that equality.
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (fwDg9)
118
Am I communist because I too would require abled bodied persons to work in exchange for government benefits. Lot of highways need cleaning up .
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth
No, but I would rather that benefits were removed for those that don't work, putting the onus on them to find a job, instead of the government becoming the taskmaster.
Nobody other than aged widows, handicapped, or orphaned children should get paid while not working.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth
No, but I would rather that benefits were removed for those that don't work, putting the onus on them to find a job, instead of the government becoming the taskmaster.
Nobody other than aged widows, handicapped, or orphaned children should get paid while not working.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (/5iXv)
119
The rainbow mob would have been regarded as parasites by the Stalininists and Maoists.
If they take power, I'm sure they'll find the equivalent of the White Sea Canal for the rainbow mob to work on.
If they take power, I'm sure they'll find the equivalent of the White Sea Canal for the rainbow mob to work on.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (uxCna)
120
There will always be an endless supply of people that think they should get what others have acquired with no work. Also an endless supply of people promising those people they will do that for them.
Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at September 28, 2024 12:12 PM (17s+e)
121
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Associated Press:
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
Is there nothing too stupid for the media?
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
Is there nothing too stupid for the media?
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:12 PM (FfSAJ)
122
It's pretty simple actually, communism, socialism, whateverism, etc. is simply a means of control and power over the masses. That's all it has been and ever will be.
And it usually comes with a death toll in the millions every time it has been tried in the past.
And it usually comes with a death toll in the millions every time it has been tried in the past.
Posted by: Mister Scott (Formerly GWS) at September 28, 2024 12:12 PM (QNSds)
123
95 Why hasn't Communism gone away?
*************
Consider that men who were young adults at the end of WWII in 1945 (say 21 years old) who are still alive are now 100 years old. Very few remain. The passing of a generation and the generational ethos of that generation may have left a vacuum that needed to be filled by something, and the pipe dream of communism fit the bill.
Or at least that could be part of the answer. Hard men create soft times, soft times create...
Posted by: muldoon at September 28, 2024 12:02 PM (uCfKO)
I agree with this. Many different directions to go, but continuing on here: The generation immediately after this one had access to something new - The Pill. Coincident with that, the following generation was the vanguard of the 60s. Sex served to sever the ties between these generations, and Communism, which already had a foothold in the media, exploited this division to the hilt. As a result, the 21 year olds in the 60s had nothing in common with their Greatest forebears.
*************
Consider that men who were young adults at the end of WWII in 1945 (say 21 years old) who are still alive are now 100 years old. Very few remain. The passing of a generation and the generational ethos of that generation may have left a vacuum that needed to be filled by something, and the pipe dream of communism fit the bill.
Or at least that could be part of the answer. Hard men create soft times, soft times create...
Posted by: muldoon at September 28, 2024 12:02 PM (uCfKO)
I agree with this. Many different directions to go, but continuing on here: The generation immediately after this one had access to something new - The Pill. Coincident with that, the following generation was the vanguard of the 60s. Sex served to sever the ties between these generations, and Communism, which already had a foothold in the media, exploited this division to the hilt. As a result, the 21 year olds in the 60s had nothing in common with their Greatest forebears.
Posted by: Darrell Harris at September 28, 2024 12:13 PM (yOqAp)
124
The promise of something for nothing.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 12:13 PM (i0F8b)
125
Charismatic and shrewd: A look at longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
------------
"Even the shrewd man sometimes forgets to duck."
-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 11:58 AM (uxCna)
------------
"Even the shrewd man sometimes forgets to duck."
-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at September 28, 2024 12:14 PM (+o2mc)
126
Charismatic and screwed.
Posted by: muldoon at September 28, 2024 12:14 PM (uCfKO)
127
One of the huge, huge achievements of the Left has been to delegitimize marriage, and reduce its frequency.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:04 PM (uxCna)
---
Yes. Birth control, sex outside of marriage, abortion, no-fault divorce - all of these struck at the heart of the family, just as Our Lady said it would.
People who treat Marxism as anything other than a rival religion are playing the enemy's game. The line between "ideology" and "faith" was drawn specifically to disqualify religion as an organizing principle for society.
By buying into that, we reduce ourselves to nonsense phrases like "cultural marxism" while being unable to articulate in secular materialist terms why marriage and children are positive goods and why traditional morality isn't oppressive to perverts and freaks.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:04 PM (uxCna)
---
Yes. Birth control, sex outside of marriage, abortion, no-fault divorce - all of these struck at the heart of the family, just as Our Lady said it would.
People who treat Marxism as anything other than a rival religion are playing the enemy's game. The line between "ideology" and "faith" was drawn specifically to disqualify religion as an organizing principle for society.
By buying into that, we reduce ourselves to nonsense phrases like "cultural marxism" while being unable to articulate in secular materialist terms why marriage and children are positive goods and why traditional morality isn't oppressive to perverts and freaks.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:14 PM (llXky)
128
"Even the shrewd man sometimes forgets to duck."
-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Bibi won't try anything while he is in New York!
-- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Bibi won't try anything while he is in New York!
Posted by: Hassan Nasrallah! at September 28, 2024 12:15 PM (uxCna)
129
It used to be, asking a man what his salary was, beyond bounds. "Mind your business" was the standard. A man was free to worship, or not worship, as he saw fit, too. Secret ballots for voting. How a man votes is his business.
Today, everything is fair game. People will voluntarily divulge their deepest personal opinions and preferences, record them on video, and upload them for the whole world to see. It is expected, or actually required.
One doesn't hear much talk about "Privacy" any longer. Not that long ago, it was one of the Most Important Things Ever.
In fact, it is an article of faith amongst some, that if you don't have a very thorough and robust "online presence" that in itself is actually prima facie evidence of criminality. Again, you have to admire how everything can get turned around absolutely upside down, backwards, and inside out. And people don't even blink.
Today, everything is fair game. People will voluntarily divulge their deepest personal opinions and preferences, record them on video, and upload them for the whole world to see. It is expected, or actually required.
One doesn't hear much talk about "Privacy" any longer. Not that long ago, it was one of the Most Important Things Ever.
In fact, it is an article of faith amongst some, that if you don't have a very thorough and robust "online presence" that in itself is actually prima facie evidence of criminality. Again, you have to admire how everything can get turned around absolutely upside down, backwards, and inside out. And people don't even blink.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:16 PM (R3wAr)
130
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (/5iXv)
I am of the belief that working a crap job will make one want to look for something better. The people who would rather just be on the street with no benefits would continue though in either situation.
I also think that we should have a work system for paroles instead of just throwing them back into society. In both recommendations the persons are free to look for other employment.
I am of the belief that working a crap job will make one want to look for something better. The people who would rather just be on the street with no benefits would continue though in either situation.
I also think that we should have a work system for paroles instead of just throwing them back into society. In both recommendations the persons are free to look for other employment.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (i514R)
131
No, but I would rather that benefits were removed for those that don't work, putting the onus on them to find a job, instead of the government becoming the taskmaster.
Nobody other than aged widows, handicapped, or orphaned children should get paid while not working.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (/5iXv)
The problem with that is, "They Took Er Jerbs" is real!
So many able-bodied men don't work, because there IS no work! Sure, you could be a greeter at Wally World, or drive for Uber, but the mass of male jobs are gone. Never to return.
So if you want some of these able-bodied men to get off the weed, alcohol and meth, and get off their arses and get to work, you have to have jobs for them to work.
Nobody other than aged widows, handicapped, or orphaned children should get paid while not working.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (/5iXv)
The problem with that is, "They Took Er Jerbs" is real!
So many able-bodied men don't work, because there IS no work! Sure, you could be a greeter at Wally World, or drive for Uber, but the mass of male jobs are gone. Never to return.
So if you want some of these able-bodied men to get off the weed, alcohol and meth, and get off their arses and get to work, you have to have jobs for them to work.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (E7J9X)
132
for every mcmeekin or a pipes theres a thousand apologists for marxisms, like fitzgerald or clarke,
Posted by: no 6 at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (PXvVL)
133
One of the ways that "nice" Christians and libertarians undermined the West was by banning the language of morality and pretending that all faiths were of equal value and discriminating between pedo pagans and orthodox Christians was morally wrong.
David French relies heavily on this line of reasoning with the conclusion that religion is something you must do at home and out of sight but politics and ideology is everywhere valid and applicable.
Happily, people are on to him and the fact that Christianity was never meant to be "nice."
David French relies heavily on this line of reasoning with the conclusion that religion is something you must do at home and out of sight but politics and ideology is everywhere valid and applicable.
Happily, people are on to him and the fact that Christianity was never meant to be "nice."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (llXky)
134
There will always be an endless supply of people that think they should get what others have acquired with no work. Also an endless supply of people promising those people they will do that for them.
Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at September 28, 2024 12:12 PM (17s+e)
Leftist intellectuals would call that a dog whistle. That's how they "keep them in chains".
Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at September 28, 2024 12:12 PM (17s+e)
Leftist intellectuals would call that a dog whistle. That's how they "keep them in chains".
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (nv4jJ)
135
Hilarious video on X of two people weeping on the Hezbollah TV channel over Nasrallah's death, with the Israeli anti-Nasrallah song "Come On Nasrallah" as the soundtrack.
Posted by: Zombie Hassan Nasrallah! at September 28, 2024 12:19 PM (uxCna)
136
So many able-bodied men don't work, because there IS no work! Sure, you could be a greeter at Wally World, or drive for Uber, but the mass of male jobs are gone. Never to return.
So if you want some of these able-bodied men to get off the weed, alcohol and meth, and get off their arses and get to work, you have to have jobs for them to work.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (E7J9X)
---
And what jobs there are have been taken by 10 million healthy young migrant men who are paid under the table.
So if you want some of these able-bodied men to get off the weed, alcohol and meth, and get off their arses and get to work, you have to have jobs for them to work.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (E7J9X)
---
And what jobs there are have been taken by 10 million healthy young migrant men who are paid under the table.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (llXky)
137
The left's ideology, be it communism, socialism, fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism or whatever flavor of the day they're pushing has taken the place of religion for them. They're very passionate about it. When we use the term "true believer" to describe someone that's all-in on one of the 'isms' you have to consider how they look at us, as "non-believers."
These "true believers" in whatever 'ism' they're pushing are indistinguishable from Islamic jihadi's. In every way. Relentless. They never, ever stop pushing.
In my opinion they've moved past a political movement and treat it as a religious one. "Religious" being subjective. To them.
These "true believers" in whatever 'ism' they're pushing are indistinguishable from Islamic jihadi's. In every way. Relentless. They never, ever stop pushing.
In my opinion they've moved past a political movement and treat it as a religious one. "Religious" being subjective. To them.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (Q4IgG)
138
While he was forced into it, I have to give some credit to Clinton to for signing the work to welfare program Gingrich put on his desk. A clearly established timeline for when welfare payments will stop encouraged millions of those on welfare to find a job on their own, and brought about a jump in GDP.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (/5iXv)
139
People who treat Marxism as anything other than a rival religion are playing the enemy's game. The line between "ideology" and "faith" was drawn specifically to disqualify religion as an organizing principle for society.
By buying into that, we reduce ourselves to nonsense phrases like "cultural marxism" while being unable to articulate in secular materialist terms why marriage and children are positive goods and why traditional morality isn't oppressive to perverts and freaks.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:14 PM (llXky)
According to Larry Taunton, while Charles Spurgeon and Karl Marx didn't know each other, there was little doubt of the irreconcilable nature of the messages each proclaimed. Spurgeon went after socialism, fully aware of its anti-Christian nature. At the end of Engel's life, in fact, Marx's daughter asked him whom he disliked most in the world, he answered her with a single word: Spurgeon.
By buying into that, we reduce ourselves to nonsense phrases like "cultural marxism" while being unable to articulate in secular materialist terms why marriage and children are positive goods and why traditional morality isn't oppressive to perverts and freaks.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:14 PM (llXky)
According to Larry Taunton, while Charles Spurgeon and Karl Marx didn't know each other, there was little doubt of the irreconcilable nature of the messages each proclaimed. Spurgeon went after socialism, fully aware of its anti-Christian nature. At the end of Engel's life, in fact, Marx's daughter asked him whom he disliked most in the world, he answered her with a single word: Spurgeon.
Posted by: Darrell Harris at September 28, 2024 12:21 PM (yOqAp)
140
Obama longed for the ability to rule like they do in China.
Listening to Razorfist go on about Lincoln, it seems old Abe had that same tendency to raw power.
Our "free markets" made a lot of Too Big To Fail/Jail oligarchs, and we kept policies going that bailed out the richest. Seems we squandered our post WW2 position of strength and grew our own internal DeepState domestic enemies.
We spent 40 years lowering interest rates all the way to zero, and we continued to run up unsustainable debt. Much of that is in the hands of a few oligarchs, as they actively destroy the country with a criminal invasion and destruction of our Christian norms.
It is insidious and technological, always some shiny new toy to distract the masses. The murders and perversions are happening in different ways now, but they're perhaps even more destructive to our nation. DEI and the trans crap, education now just indoctrination ... need some sort of revolution and/or Revival.
Listening to Razorfist go on about Lincoln, it seems old Abe had that same tendency to raw power.
Our "free markets" made a lot of Too Big To Fail/Jail oligarchs, and we kept policies going that bailed out the richest. Seems we squandered our post WW2 position of strength and grew our own internal DeepState domestic enemies.
We spent 40 years lowering interest rates all the way to zero, and we continued to run up unsustainable debt. Much of that is in the hands of a few oligarchs, as they actively destroy the country with a criminal invasion and destruction of our Christian norms.
It is insidious and technological, always some shiny new toy to distract the masses. The murders and perversions are happening in different ways now, but they're perhaps even more destructive to our nation. DEI and the trans crap, education now just indoctrination ... need some sort of revolution and/or Revival.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (Cus5s)
141
One of the ways that "nice" Christians and libertarians undermined the West was by banning the language of morality and pretending that all faiths were of equal value and discriminating between pedo pagans and orthodox Christians was morally wrong.
David French relies heavily on this line of reasoning with the conclusion that religion is something you must do at home and out of sight but politics and ideology is everywhere valid and applicable.
Happily, people are on to him and the fact that Christianity was never meant to be "nice."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (llXky)
The term toxic empathy comes to mind.
David French relies heavily on this line of reasoning with the conclusion that religion is something you must do at home and out of sight but politics and ideology is everywhere valid and applicable.
Happily, people are on to him and the fact that Christianity was never meant to be "nice."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (llXky)
The term toxic empathy comes to mind.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (FfSAJ)
142
>>> 105 Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (R3wAr)
Am I communist because I too would require abled bodied persons to work in exchange for government benefits. Lot of highways need cleaning up .
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:06 PM (i514R)
All cows have four legs (barring cow-ish accidents, birth defects, etc).
Therefore:
All animals with four legs are cows.
Am I communist because I too would require abled bodied persons to work in exchange for government benefits. Lot of highways need cleaning up .
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:06 PM (i514R)
All cows have four legs (barring cow-ish accidents, birth defects, etc).
Therefore:
All animals with four legs are cows.
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at September 28, 2024 12:23 PM (FnneF)
Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle at September 28, 2024 12:23 PM (AGxUO)
144
And what jobs there are have been taken by 10 million healthy young migrant men who are paid under the table.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (llXky)
Where I live, lots of trucks on the roads, landscrapers, roofies, even skilled labor jobs... the guys behind the wheels of these trucks are often quite brown skinned.
How many of them are legal? Hell if I know. I don't believe anyone else knows either.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (llXky)
Where I live, lots of trucks on the roads, landscrapers, roofies, even skilled labor jobs... the guys behind the wheels of these trucks are often quite brown skinned.
How many of them are legal? Hell if I know. I don't believe anyone else knows either.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:24 PM (E7J9X)
145
So if you want some of these able-bodied men to get off the weed, alcohol and meth, and get off their arses and get to work, you have to have jobs for them to work.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (E7J9X)
---
And what jobs there are have been taken by 10 million healthy young migrant men who are paid under the table.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
Yes, the first order of business is a mass deportation of illegals. We can't heal a wound until we stop the bleeding.
Posted by: BurtTC at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (E7J9X)
---
And what jobs there are have been taken by 10 million healthy young migrant men who are paid under the table.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
Yes, the first order of business is a mass deportation of illegals. We can't heal a wound until we stop the bleeding.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:24 PM (/5iXv)
Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in Solidarity with the Struggle at September 28, 2024 12:25 PM (AGxUO)
147
The term toxic empathy comes to mind.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (FfSAJ)
Maybe somebody should write a book. Oh wait!
https://is.gd/ak8cFG
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (FfSAJ)
Maybe somebody should write a book. Oh wait!
https://is.gd/ak8cFG
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at September 28, 2024 12:25 PM (PiwSw)
148
QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO SPACE ACTIVITY FOR SEPTEMBER 28
SpaceX and NASA are scheduling the launch of SpaceX Crew-9 on September 28; lift-off is set for 1:17 p.m. EDT, 1717 UTC, 19:17 CEST, and the booster will make a landing at LZ-1, Cape Canaveral SFB.
https://www.youtube.com/live/bvMUVxflvxI
Now live commentary.
SpaceX and NASA are scheduling the launch of SpaceX Crew-9 on September 28; lift-off is set for 1:17 p.m. EDT, 1717 UTC, 19:17 CEST, and the booster will make a landing at LZ-1, Cape Canaveral SFB.
https://www.youtube.com/live/bvMUVxflvxI
Now live commentary.
Posted by: Ciampino - Toast is a stapled food at September 28, 2024 12:25 PM (qfLjt)
149
Listening to pre-launch for Dragon. Can't take it anymore. They all use uptick when talking. I thought that fad went away.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 12:25 PM (wILM4)
150
138 While he was forced into it, I have to give some credit to Clinton to for signing the work to welfare program Gingrich put on his desk. A clearly established timeline for when welfare payments will stop encouraged millions of those on welfare to find a job on their own, and brought about a jump in GDP.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (/5iXv)
The book that hasn't been written yet, AFAIK, is the one focusing on the relationship between Clinton and Gingrich. They were alike in many ways, and bitter rivals as well. Their partnership, however, was responsible for some good things in America. Their respective falls had some measure of similarity as well. A historian could do well by getting to interview the players while they're still above ground.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:20 PM (/5iXv)
The book that hasn't been written yet, AFAIK, is the one focusing on the relationship between Clinton and Gingrich. They were alike in many ways, and bitter rivals as well. Their partnership, however, was responsible for some good things in America. Their respective falls had some measure of similarity as well. A historian could do well by getting to interview the players while they're still above ground.
Posted by: Darrell Harris at September 28, 2024 12:26 PM (yOqAp)
151
Obama longed for the ability to rule like they do in China.
Listening to Razorfist go on about Lincoln, it seems old Abe had that same tendency to raw power.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (Cus5s)
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I find Razorfist to be an pretty standard-issue provocateur with midwit arguments for his positions. Civil wars are inherently messy and the proof that he wasn't a dictator can be found in his profound desire to offer the South lenient peace terms and quick reintegration. His death killed that dream.
Listening to Razorfist go on about Lincoln, it seems old Abe had that same tendency to raw power.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (Cus5s)
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I find Razorfist to be an pretty standard-issue provocateur with midwit arguments for his positions. Civil wars are inherently messy and the proof that he wasn't a dictator can be found in his profound desire to offer the South lenient peace terms and quick reintegration. His death killed that dream.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:26 PM (llXky)
152
Just in:
IDF eliminates senior Hezbollah intelligence officer in pinpoint strike in Beirut; he was in charge of designating targets for attack in Israel,
@idfonline says. Ironically he became a target himself, and is now gone.
IDF eliminates senior Hezbollah intelligence officer in pinpoint strike in Beirut; he was in charge of designating targets for attack in Israel,
@idfonline says. Ironically he became a target himself, and is now gone.
Posted by: Zombie Hassan Nasrallah! at September 28, 2024 12:26 PM (uxCna)
Posted by: muldoon at September 28, 2024 12:26 PM (uCfKO)
154
Blacks are the dumbest voters and it's condescending to say otherwise. When you go 90% for those who have utter contempt for your collective intelligence it speaks for itself.
Posted by: Mr. Ray at September 28, 2024 12:27 PM (nv4jJ)
155
Yes, the first order of business is a mass deportation of illegals. We can't heal a wound until we stop the bleeding.
Cut off all the subsidies, and most of them will self-deport.
Cut off all the subsidies, and most of them will self-deport.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:27 PM (uxCna)
156
David French relies heavily on this line of reasoning with the conclusion that religion is something you must do at home and out of sigbvht but politics and ideology is everywhere
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He's a Spook. Painfully obviously so. Like Tim Leary, going back several years. If you took the time to read leftist thought and thesis and papers, you will see their acolytes "in the field" some time later, often several years but it is obvious lots of groups were getting very well funded behind cutout groups and shadowy orgs.
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He's a Spook. Painfully obviously so. Like Tim Leary, going back several years. If you took the time to read leftist thought and thesis and papers, you will see their acolytes "in the field" some time later, often several years but it is obvious lots of groups were getting very well funded behind cutout groups and shadowy orgs.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:28 PM (R3wAr)
157
The term toxic empathy comes to mind.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (FfSAJ)
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Marxism is a Christian heresy and uses many of the same concepts and language to assume a mantle of morality.
We live in an age of performative religion, so showcasing your righteous beliefs has replaced corporal acts of charity and mercy.
This is why I use the term Yard Sign Calvinists to describe the people who live in 4,000 sq ft houses and have yard signs demanding "climate action" and post secular creeds about "love is love."
By their signs they show they are of the Elect.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 12:22 PM (FfSAJ)
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Marxism is a Christian heresy and uses many of the same concepts and language to assume a mantle of morality.
We live in an age of performative religion, so showcasing your righteous beliefs has replaced corporal acts of charity and mercy.
This is why I use the term Yard Sign Calvinists to describe the people who live in 4,000 sq ft houses and have yard signs demanding "climate action" and post secular creeds about "love is love."
By their signs they show they are of the Elect.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:29 PM (llXky)
158
Best tweet of the day. Israel lulled Nasrallah into thinking he was safe because Bibi was at the UN. Rep Brian Mast responded "the UN is finally good for something"
Posted by: Smell the Glove at September 28, 2024 12:29 PM (RTfY1)
159
Cut off all the subsidies, and most of them will self-deport.
You are ineligible for Kamala's proposed $25,000 payment to help you buy a house if any of your grandparents, parents, or siblings have bought a house.
Gee, I wonder who this is targeted at?
You are ineligible for Kamala's proposed $25,000 payment to help you buy a house if any of your grandparents, parents, or siblings have bought a house.
Gee, I wonder who this is targeted at?
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 12:30 PM (uxCna)
160
All cows have four legs (barring cow-ish accidents, birth defects, etc).
***********
Son, that there cow is a hero. Saved my life by mooing for help when my tractor rolled over on top of me down on the back forty. You don't eat a hero cow all at once.
***********
Son, that there cow is a hero. Saved my life by mooing for help when my tractor rolled over on top of me down on the back forty. You don't eat a hero cow all at once.
Posted by: muldoon, proud owner of a three-legged cow at September 28, 2024 12:31 PM (uCfKO)
161
"When you go 90% for those who have utter contempt for your collective intelligence it speaks for itself."
For those filling out score cards at home, what we have here is a thinly-veiled antisemite in his natcherl element. That thin veil looks quite fetching on you, dahlink. Oh, did you think for a moment you had someone here bullshitted? You lose.
For those filling out score cards at home, what we have here is a thinly-veiled antisemite in his natcherl element. That thin veil looks quite fetching on you, dahlink. Oh, did you think for a moment you had someone here bullshitted? You lose.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at September 28, 2024 12:32 PM (zdLoL)
162
BBC features a Beirut correspondent hectoring Ehud Omert over "Israeli targeting children". He, naturally, objects, making the obvious point Hezbollah uses human shirlds and Israel warned all those civilians to get out two hours before the attack, but she doesn't buy it. Now we have some Irish babe decrying Israeli traumatizing the poor children.
These BBC people make me sick
These BBC people make me sick
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 12:32 PM (E1rj4)
163
Just got the net back after none yesterday and this AM.
I have to say I'm leery of taking any one historian too strictly as getting things right. Not even my favorites, like N A M Rodger or J H Hexter. I've been looking at some Brit history, and it's a bit shocking how many will (a) be dismissive of the Official Government Narrative today, while (b) wholly accepting uncritically the Official Government Narrative of yesterday.
I have to say I'm leery of taking any one historian too strictly as getting things right. Not even my favorites, like N A M Rodger or J H Hexter. I've been looking at some Brit history, and it's a bit shocking how many will (a) be dismissive of the Official Government Narrative today, while (b) wholly accepting uncritically the Official Government Narrative of yesterday.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2024 12:33 PM (1bNHn)
164
The New Sexual Revolution needs to be -- "Get married young and have a lot of kids, with a male and female traditional role model".
The Free Love and Free Abortion, or even free sex change at age 10 without parental consent ... has to Die.
We also need a revolution in actual education, not indoctrination in "The Evils of our American Heritage".
We need more keto diets, no sugar/carb addictions. And end the fentanyl war against America, by shutting down the China supply chain.
Many fundamentals are perverted to destroy US, and many could be quickly changed ... with a will to do so.
The Free Love and Free Abortion, or even free sex change at age 10 without parental consent ... has to Die.
We also need a revolution in actual education, not indoctrination in "The Evils of our American Heritage".
We need more keto diets, no sugar/carb addictions. And end the fentanyl war against America, by shutting down the China supply chain.
Many fundamentals are perverted to destroy US, and many could be quickly changed ... with a will to do so.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:33 PM (Cus5s)
165
Communism attracts the redundant and morally corrupt. It's leaders are tyrants wearing a different suit. It's followers are those, regardless of intellect, that are attracted to the safety of another's decision. It's corrupt in its origins and corrupting in its existence.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 12:34 PM (wILM4)
166
It gives power to the elites.
Posted by: Zombie Vladimir Lenin! at September 28, 2024 11:22 AM (uxCna)
Because the end result is a totalitarian dictatorship, but you get to enlist dumb college students in helping you achieve it first. Then they all get the Trotsky treatment.
Posted by: Zombie Vladimir Lenin! at September 28, 2024 11:22 AM (uxCna)
Because the end result is a totalitarian dictatorship, but you get to enlist dumb college students in helping you achieve it first. Then they all get the Trotsky treatment.
Posted by: Ian S. at September 28, 2024 12:36 PM (QZThv)
167
The New Sexual Revolution needs to be -- "Get married young and have a lot of kids, with a male and female traditional role model".
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:33 PM (Cus5s)
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This is what I mean by saying we need to reclaim the language of morality. We need to start telling teenage boys not to marry a slut who isn't a virgin.
We need to tell girls that guys who want to get into their pants are rakes who will knock them up and leave and that this isn't "empowering," it make you damaged goods and no desireable man will want you.
I mean, we all know that abortion was about girls in the 1960s who got knocked up in college and wanted to hide it from the Nice Guy they wanted to marry.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:33 PM (Cus5s)
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This is what I mean by saying we need to reclaim the language of morality. We need to start telling teenage boys not to marry a slut who isn't a virgin.
We need to tell girls that guys who want to get into their pants are rakes who will knock them up and leave and that this isn't "empowering," it make you damaged goods and no desireable man will want you.
I mean, we all know that abortion was about girls in the 1960s who got knocked up in college and wanted to hide it from the Nice Guy they wanted to marry.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:37 PM (llXky)
168
These BBC people make me sick
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 12:32 PM (E1rj4)
And all of the US talent
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 12:32 PM (E1rj4)
And all of the US talent
Posted by: MAC V SOG at September 28, 2024 12:37 PM (P4Pk9)
169
A note on Scott Johnson here. He was entirely swept away by Andrew Roberts's book on George III. While it is surely true that we Americans are overly critical, it is no better to fall on our knees and worship. And Roberts is a paradigm of hagiography as history. It's what he does.
I will, if I have time, get around to Meekin, though. But I'm always leery of those who see only the "venality, stupidity and conniving" of the losers. All too common. A friend pointed out to me ages ago that the better sort of revisionism was of the "X had a clue after all" sort. That which gives the reasons people made the choices they did.
I will, if I have time, get around to Meekin, though. But I'm always leery of those who see only the "venality, stupidity and conniving" of the losers. All too common. A friend pointed out to me ages ago that the better sort of revisionism was of the "X had a clue after all" sort. That which gives the reasons people made the choices they did.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (1bNHn)
170
just as Our Lady said Sure enough wish y'all boys could keep your in-house civil war amongst yourselves until the last martyr dies. Just this morning we had one of Our Lady's supplicants claiming Louisiana is a mess because of all the French catholics there. Just naturally lazy bums, those Frenchies.
You back stabbing sons of bitches suck so hard.
You back stabbing sons of bitches suck so hard.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (zdLoL)
171
Just thought of a bumper sticker/t-shirt: "I'd never date a girl who had an abortion."
Heads. Would. Explode.
We need to popularize that sentiment.
Heads. Would. Explode.
We need to popularize that sentiment.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (llXky)
172
This is why I use the term Yard Sign Calvinists to describe the people who live in 4,000 sq ft houses and have yard signs demanding "climate action" and post secular creeds about "love is love."
I saw on Twitter a few days ago that some people were directing illegals to go set up shop in the yards of houses with performative liberal signs and/or Harris/Walz signs.
I saw on Twitter a few days ago that some people were directing illegals to go set up shop in the yards of houses with performative liberal signs and/or Harris/Walz signs.
Posted by: Ian S. at September 28, 2024 12:41 PM (QZThv)
173
Good morning dear morons. Communism has not gone away because it has simply converged with state capitalism in the West.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 12:41 PM (zG664)
174
Christianity led to the greatest good for people at any time. That is why the worst hate it. Communism is a catch all for the base desire to destroy all goodness. That is the motivation of the humanist left. Destruction for its own sake.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 12:41 PM (nv4jJ)
175
Just thought of a bumper sticker/t-shirt: "I'd never date a girl who had an abortion."
Heads. Would. Explode.
We need to popularize that sentiment.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (llXky)
And a vote for Trump bumper sticker
Heads. Would. Explode.
We need to popularize that sentiment.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (llXky)
And a vote for Trump bumper sticker
Posted by: MAC V SOG at September 28, 2024 12:42 PM (P4Pk9)
176
just as Our Lady said Sure enough wish y'all boys could keep your in-house civil war amongst yourselves until the last martyr dies. Just this morning we had one of Our Lady's supplicants claiming Louisiana is a mess because of all the French catholics there. Just naturally lazy bums, those Frenchies.
You back stabbing sons of bitches suck so hard.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (zdLoL)
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The chief of staff for Popular Army was a Catholic who went to Mass regularly in Madrid, which was held by one of the few surviving priests in the Republican Zone.
What else is new?
You back stabbing sons of bitches suck so hard.
Posted by: Way,Way Downriver at September 28, 2024 12:39 PM (zdLoL)
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The chief of staff for Popular Army was a Catholic who went to Mass regularly in Madrid, which was held by one of the few surviving priests in the Republican Zone.
What else is new?
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:42 PM (llXky)
177
Communism is the promise of other people supporting you.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 12:43 PM (i0F8b)
178
Resource Depleted Seattle Police Department Won’t Respond to Burglary Alarms Anymore
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I'm sure this'll work out well.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:31 AM (L/fGl)
Well, in the interest of fairness, they should also stop responding to the fatal shootings of burglars by homeowners and shopkeepers.
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I'm sure this'll work out well.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:31 AM (L/fGl)
Well, in the interest of fairness, they should also stop responding to the fatal shootings of burglars by homeowners and shopkeepers.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at September 28, 2024 12:44 PM (yLiuJ)
179
Good morning dear morons. Communism has not gone away because it has simply converged with state capitalism in the West.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 12:41 PM (zG664)
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That's my point: it was never about economics, which is why Communist regimes can shift to market economies. It's a rival religion, and cannot allow dissent.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 12:41 PM (zG664)
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That's my point: it was never about economics, which is why Communist regimes can shift to market economies. It's a rival religion, and cannot allow dissent.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:44 PM (llXky)
180
Good morning dear morons. Communism has not gone away because it has simply converged with state capitalism in the West.
Michael Malice noted recently that woke corporations have done more to spread Maoism than Mao. Capitalism always wins, ironically.
Michael Malice noted recently that woke corporations have done more to spread Maoism than Mao. Capitalism always wins, ironically.
Posted by: Ian S. at September 28, 2024 12:45 PM (QZThv)
181
" Civil wars are inherently messy and the proof that he wasn't a dictator can be found in his profound desire to offer the South lenient peace terms and quick reintegration. His death killed that dream." Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
Trump once spoke on the CW, thought there could have been a better resolution than a civil war. That was my position before hearing Razorfist.
From my limited historical knowledge, it seems Lincoln ended a lot of State's Rights and marched us toward Centralized Authority over states.
Lincoln also considered sending slaves back to Africa, but failed at that dream as well. Blacks had a hard time after the CW ... a slower drift away from slavery could have avoided a lot of that, in some different world. My perception is Lincoln was also serving some monied interests.
Trump once spoke on the CW, thought there could have been a better resolution than a civil war. That was my position before hearing Razorfist.
From my limited historical knowledge, it seems Lincoln ended a lot of State's Rights and marched us toward Centralized Authority over states.
Lincoln also considered sending slaves back to Africa, but failed at that dream as well. Blacks had a hard time after the CW ... a slower drift away from slavery could have avoided a lot of that, in some different world. My perception is Lincoln was also serving some monied interests.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:45 PM (Cus5s)
182
Communism is the promise of other people supporting you.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 12:43 PM (i0F8b)
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When you get down to it, it's a grab bag of evil that seeks to destroy Christianity by whatever means prove effective.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 12:43 PM (i0F8b)
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When you get down to it, it's a grab bag of evil that seeks to destroy Christianity by whatever means prove effective.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:45 PM (llXky)
183
I was an idiot student when I was in the USSR in the early 80s and the signs of economic collapse were everywhere visible yet officially ignored.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 12:46 PM (zG664)
184
22 Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail...
Comedians... I don't think Joy and Wanda have anything to worry about.
Comedians... I don't think Joy and Wanda have anything to worry about.
Posted by: Ray Van Dune at September 28, 2024 12:46 PM (gfztU)
185
Communism is the promise of other people supporting you.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 12:43 PM (i0F8b)
Until they deem you no longer useful.
Posted by: davidt at September 28, 2024 12:43 PM (i0F8b)
Until they deem you no longer useful.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 12:46 PM (nv4jJ)
186
Just read the obituary for the OG Red Guard student, Song Binbin. She led the students who killed their headmaster with nail-studded boards, inspiring Mao and the killing of teachers across the country as part of his Cultural Revolution.
Was she prosecuted, jailed, by the ICC or called out by the UN? No, she came to America, got a degree at MIT, and had a long career as a scientist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Maybe Communism wouldn't be so prevalent today if we hadn't welcomed them into our communities, institutions, local and federal government?
Was she prosecuted, jailed, by the ICC or called out by the UN? No, she came to America, got a degree at MIT, and had a long career as a scientist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Maybe Communism wouldn't be so prevalent today if we hadn't welcomed them into our communities, institutions, local and federal government?
Posted by: Lizzy at September 28, 2024 12:46 PM (scDBq)
187
Kamala "Forward" Harris is using that commie slogan again. It was used by Obama in 2012. I recall back then that that was the slogan of Portugal's communist agitators back in 1917 (During Fatima events) and the Obama campaign tweaked it to "Lean Forward."
Posted by: Rex B at September 28, 2024 12:47 PM (592Pr)
188
Song Binbin's activities are detailed in "Red Memory" by Tania Branigan.
Posted by: Lizzy at September 28, 2024 12:47 PM (scDBq)
189
As long as there are 'elites' who would rule under name other than 'communism' there will communism. Ruled by elites.
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at September 28, 2024 12:48 PM (/lPRQ)
190
I was an idiot student when I was in the USSR in the early 80s and the signs of economic collapse were everywhere visible yet officially ignored.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 12:46 PM (zG664)
lol I can see some visitor saying this about us forty years from now.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 12:46 PM (zG664)
lol I can see some visitor saying this about us forty years from now.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 12:49 PM (nv4jJ)
191
Well, you've got to admit, Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes are jokes.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)
I doubt "Droopy Deranged Dykes in Jail" will be a popular pr0n title.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Now With Pumpkin Spice! at September 28, 2024 11:34 AM (L/fGl)
I doubt "Droopy Deranged Dykes in Jail" will be a popular pr0n title.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at September 28, 2024 12:49 PM (yLiuJ)
192
Trump once spoke on the CW, thought there could have been a better resolution than a civil war. That was my position before hearing Razorfist.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:45 PM (Cus5s)
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The South seceded because it lost an election. That's not how a Republic works. South Carolina seceded three months before Lincoln took office, so I'm not sure what he was supposed to do. There was an obvious option: call for an Article 5 convention of the states. This would have been the lawful thing to do.
The South chose war, and in unleashing war, lots of things got broken.
But even a cursory reading of the war and Lincoln's fights with disobedient generals, rival politicians and his tolerance of dissent within his cabinet shows he was far from an autocrat. After the war, the central government reverted to being a minor player. It was Wilson who laid the groundwork for the federal state, and Prohibition created the FBI, etc.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 12:45 PM (Cus5s)
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The South seceded because it lost an election. That's not how a Republic works. South Carolina seceded three months before Lincoln took office, so I'm not sure what he was supposed to do. There was an obvious option: call for an Article 5 convention of the states. This would have been the lawful thing to do.
The South chose war, and in unleashing war, lots of things got broken.
But even a cursory reading of the war and Lincoln's fights with disobedient generals, rival politicians and his tolerance of dissent within his cabinet shows he was far from an autocrat. After the war, the central government reverted to being a minor player. It was Wilson who laid the groundwork for the federal state, and Prohibition created the FBI, etc.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:51 PM (llXky)
193
SpaceX and NASA are scheduling the launch of SpaceX Crew-9 on September 28; lift-off is set for 1:17 p.m. EDT, 1717 UTC, 19:17 CEST, and the booster will make a landing at LZ-1, Cape Canaveral SFB.
https://www.youtube.com/live/bvMUVxflvxI
Now live commentary.
Posted by: Ciampino - Toast is a stapled food at September 28, 2024 12:25 PM (qfLjt)
Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/live/bvMUVxflvxI
Now live commentary.
Posted by: Ciampino - Toast is a stapled food at September 28, 2024 12:25 PM (qfLjt)
Thanks!
Posted by: MrExcitement at September 28, 2024 12:53 PM (hOOi9)
194
Very good explanation of Lebanon's situation by a Lebanese Christian podcaster interviewed on BBC decrying the war between Iran and Israel that uses Lebanon as their battlefield. For forty years Hezbollah has metastasized into ever-larger tumors in Lebanon, backed totally by Iran, and provoking Israeli attacks.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at September 28, 2024 12:53 PM (QRgMb)
195
"Government is the great fiction, where everyone can live at someone else's expense." HL Mencken
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:54 PM (2bEw1)
196
"Comment: What if the Russian Revolution had never happened? Or was stopped in its tracks?" -A good read along these alternate history lines is The Romanov Rescue by Tom Kratman and Kacey Ezell and Justin Watson. The sequel is coming out this winter.
Posted by: JoshO at September 28, 2024 12:54 PM (LmUpe)
197
What we accept teaches the younger generation what we are.
When it's acceptable for gays to marry how do they understand that none of its proclivities are unacceptable?
When laws are passed eliminating the sanctity of a holy day what example toward holiness does it exemplify? What value does it express?
When it's acceptable for gays to marry how do they understand that none of its proclivities are unacceptable?
When laws are passed eliminating the sanctity of a holy day what example toward holiness does it exemplify? What value does it express?
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 12:54 PM (wILM4)
198
Wilson who laid the groundwork for the federal state, and Prohibition created the FBI, etc.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:51 PM (llXky)
It started with Lincoln. The States should have been free to leave.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:51 PM (llXky)
It started with Lincoln. The States should have been free to leave.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 12:55 PM (nv4jJ)
Posted by: Lizzy at September 28, 2024 12:55 PM (scDBq)
200
Well, gotta go. See folks at the Book Thread!
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at September 28, 2024 12:56 PM (llXky)
201
2 Why is communism rising again?
It gives power to the elites.
Posted by: Zombie Vladimir Lenin! at September 28, 2024 11:22 AM (uxCna)
I believe too many people dream of becoming a high-level apparatchik in a Communist state. Directing the work and lives of others, relatively well-paid, prestige, free of harassment by the police and other state departments and agencies as long as you don't stray out of bounds, getting a very nice free home/apartment and a vehicle, shopping in stores only for high-level party officials (more and better foods and goods, no lines), and moar! The good life! While believing you are working to build Utopia and make the lives of the plebs better!
It gives power to the elites.
Posted by: Zombie Vladimir Lenin! at September 28, 2024 11:22 AM (uxCna)
I believe too many people dream of becoming a high-level apparatchik in a Communist state. Directing the work and lives of others, relatively well-paid, prestige, free of harassment by the police and other state departments and agencies as long as you don't stray out of bounds, getting a very nice free home/apartment and a vehicle, shopping in stores only for high-level party officials (more and better foods and goods, no lines), and moar! The good life! While believing you are working to build Utopia and make the lives of the plebs better!
Posted by: Gref at September 28, 2024 12:57 PM (aBgBM)
202
The attraction to communism is largely from the academic classes, the so called intellectual elites. They think they will all be running things (nomenklatura) when in fact they will be very quickly shot and fed to the hogs.
Posted by: gourmand du jour at September 28, 2024 12:57 PM (MeG8a)
203
Our oldest communists (FDR era) have about died off. Their kids (red diaper babies) are dying off now. The red diaper babies’ kids and grandkids are romantic communists, they may not even see themselves as communists. They just know they hate Constitutional Republican types. They hate people like us. They see no problem with killing us off, and they don’t realize they will be Trotskyed after we’re gone.
Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2024 12:57 PM (LHPAg)
204
Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd, on the Civil-War, this commentary, filled with citations, was an eye opener to me.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pZG7snE7tU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pZG7snE7tU
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 12:58 PM (wILM4)
205
199 Ah yes, "Forward" is a slogan with a history:
https://tinyurl.com/j6v4tap7
Posted by: Lizzy at September 28, 2024 12:55 PM (scDBq)
I can't believe it's back already with Harris's campaign. I guess it's easier to pronounce than "fweedom!"
https://tinyurl.com/j6v4tap7
Posted by: Lizzy at September 28, 2024 12:55 PM (scDBq)
I can't believe it's back already with Harris's campaign. I guess it's easier to pronounce than "fweedom!"
Posted by: Rex B at September 28, 2024 12:59 PM (592Pr)
206
[Why hasn't Communism gone away?
Because not many governments are willing to take the steps required to get rid of it.
Because not many governments are willing to take the steps required to get rid of it.
Posted by: NR Pax at September 28, 2024 01:00 PM (lXCUP)
207
A big reason I think we have a hard time understanding what has happened is that we treat it as an intellectual failure, when in fact it is a spiritual failure. Not just of individuals, but of entire societies. A wicked and faithless people must have a wicked and faithless government.
Posted by: Tom Servo at September 28, 2024 01:01 PM (2NaVH)
208
I believe too many people dream of becoming a high-level apparatchik in a Communist state.
Just about every thread where people are asked what they would be doing under a glorious communist paradise, they think they'll be writers, poets, artists or teachers.
Just about every thread where people are asked what they would be doing under a glorious communist paradise, they think they'll be writers, poets, artists or teachers.
Posted by: NR Pax at September 28, 2024 01:02 PM (lXCUP)
209
Capitalism improves average outcomes across the board.
Socialism improves the outcome for a small selection of people.
This incentivizes the socialists. If they win they get literally everything and more importantly each step along the way gives them more power and more money. But the costs of each of those victories are mostly scattered across society so people have only a little incentive to really fight back.
So if we were to get rid of the socialist elements of our society the average person might be 10X wealthier in real terms. But...if we remove one regulation, one tax, or fire one bureaucrat the impact might be a few dollars...not enough to fight for.
Socialism improves the outcome for a small selection of people.
This incentivizes the socialists. If they win they get literally everything and more importantly each step along the way gives them more power and more money. But the costs of each of those victories are mostly scattered across society so people have only a little incentive to really fight back.
So if we were to get rid of the socialist elements of our society the average person might be 10X wealthier in real terms. But...if we remove one regulation, one tax, or fire one bureaucrat the impact might be a few dollars...not enough to fight for.
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:02 PM (oZhjI)
210
Our oldest communists (FDR era) have about died off. Their kids (red diaper babies) are dying off now. The red diaper babies’ kids and grandkids are romantic communists, they may not even see themselves as communists. They just know they hate Constitutional Republican types. They hate people like us. They see no problem with killing us off, and they don’t realize they will be Trotskyed after we’re gone.
Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2024 12:57 PM (LHPAg)
At least the old time leftists had an intellectual basis. Now we're oppressed by automatons with zero thinking.
Posted by: Eromero at September 28, 2024 12:57 PM (LHPAg)
At least the old time leftists had an intellectual basis. Now we're oppressed by automatons with zero thinking.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 01:03 PM (nv4jJ)
211
Because not many governments are willing to take the steps required to get rid of it.
Posted by: NR Pax at September 28, 2024 01:00 PM (lXCUP)
No government has ever deposed a system that gave that much power to government, and no government ever will.
Only popular revolt or military coups can put paid to regimes that strong.
Posted by: NR Pax at September 28, 2024 01:00 PM (lXCUP)
No government has ever deposed a system that gave that much power to government, and no government ever will.
Only popular revolt or military coups can put paid to regimes that strong.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 01:03 PM (awTae)
212
Apparently Israel is planning on imposing an air and sea blockade on Lebanon to keep Iranian arms from coming in (they'll continue to bomb land convoys, of course).
Civilian craft are fine - but nothing carrying military hardware.
Civilian craft are fine - but nothing carrying military hardware.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 01:04 PM (uxCna)
213
zG664)
184 22 Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail...“
And the best part of that, of course, is that it’s Hillary and Gavin Newsome who want to put people producing parodies in jail.
184 22 Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail...“
And the best part of that, of course, is that it’s Hillary and Gavin Newsome who want to put people producing parodies in jail.
Posted by: Tom Servo at September 28, 2024 01:04 PM (2NaVH)
214
Just about every thread where people are asked what they would be doing under a glorious communist paradise, they think they'll be writers, poets, artists or teachers.
It is always fascinating running through this with socialist LIVs. Fine, no one has to work at a job they don't like since everyone will get a "living wage". How do you get people to do the jobs no one wants like emptying septic tanks or climbing utility polls in the winter?
And the answers you will get are all vapid - "oh some people will just want to do it" or even worse "well no one has to do that work anyway right?"
It is always fascinating running through this with socialist LIVs. Fine, no one has to work at a job they don't like since everyone will get a "living wage". How do you get people to do the jobs no one wants like emptying septic tanks or climbing utility polls in the winter?
And the answers you will get are all vapid - "oh some people will just want to do it" or even worse "well no one has to do that work anyway right?"
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:04 PM (oZhjI)
215
208 I believe too many people dream of becoming a high-level apparatchik in a Communist state.
________
Gary from Woonsocket just dreams of being a Reeducation Camp Commandant. Oh, the pain he'll inflict. For "our" own good, of course.
________
Gary from Woonsocket just dreams of being a Reeducation Camp Commandant. Oh, the pain he'll inflict. For "our" own good, of course.
Posted by: 019673371 at September 28, 2024 01:05 PM (qUkBO)
216
And the best part of that, of course, is that it’s Hillary and Gavin Newsome who want to put people producing parodies in jail.
And this conversation with lefties goes something like
We are just telling jokes and making funny skits THEY are spreading disinformation and hate speech!
And this conversation with lefties goes something like
We are just telling jokes and making funny skits THEY are spreading disinformation and hate speech!
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:05 PM (oZhjI)
217
It started with Lincoln. The States should have been free to leave.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 12:55 PM (nv4jJ)
There was an argument, even at the time, that if they felt that way they shouldn't have pushed the runaway slave laws on Free states via the federal government. But they weren't, because it would have been the end of slavery as an institution
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 12:55 PM (nv4jJ)
There was an argument, even at the time, that if they felt that way they shouldn't have pushed the runaway slave laws on Free states via the federal government. But they weren't, because it would have been the end of slavery as an institution
Posted by: Kindltot at September 28, 2024 01:05 PM (D7oie)
218
We ended up with a variant of Chinese style socialism because after the collapse of the Soviet Union, instead of learning from it, our left instead just went looking for the next authoritarian system they could emulate.
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:06 PM (oZhjI)
219
These innocent people Columbus encountered in the Bahamas are quite a contrast to the Comanche and Apache tribes. They would have been eaten for lunch.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 01:07 PM (wILM4)
220
Is communism evil? Yes.
Is communism opposed to hashem? Yes.
Should communists be thrown into the sea? Yes.
Is communism opposed to hashem? Yes.
Should communists be thrown into the sea? Yes.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 01:07 PM (zG664)
221
How do you get people to do the jobs no one wants like emptying septic tanks or climbing utility polls in the winter?
They assume that the proles will be forced to do that, while they, the Elite, get to do whatever they want.
They assume that the proles will be forced to do that, while they, the Elite, get to do whatever they want.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 01:08 PM (uxCna)
222
It is always fascinating running through this with socialist LIVs. Fine, no one has to work at a job they don't like since everyone will get a "living wage". How do you get people to do the jobs no one wants like emptying septic tanks or climbing utility polls in the winter?
And the answers you will get are all vapid - "oh some people will just want to do it" or even worse "well no one has to do that work anyway right?"
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:04 PM (oZhjI)
It'll go real well for them once they're rid of all those troublesome white guys.
And the answers you will get are all vapid - "oh some people will just want to do it" or even worse "well no one has to do that work anyway right?"
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:04 PM (oZhjI)
It'll go real well for them once they're rid of all those troublesome white guys.
Posted by: Mr Ray at September 28, 2024 01:09 PM (nv4jJ)
223
Just about every thread where people are asked what they would be doing under a glorious communist paradise, they think they'll be writers, poets, artists or teachers.
The Soviet Union literally prosecuted the poet Joseph Brodsky for failing to have an officially-approved job.
The Soviet Union literally prosecuted the poet Joseph Brodsky for failing to have an officially-approved job.
Posted by: The ARC of History! at September 28, 2024 01:10 PM (uxCna)
224
43 ...
---
The Russian Orthodox Church was reduced to an arm of the state by Peter the Great, who refused to allow a Patriarch of Moscow to be appointed when the post fell vacant. His successors continued the practice, resulting in what was effectively a state church, depending on the monarchy, unresponsive to the people.
...
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
_______
That is what happened in every Western Protestant monarchy, with the Reformation. And very nearly in France under the Bourbons. The latter didn't want to break with Rome, but did want a subservient Church. Kind of like China today. To the credit of the Orthodox, while the hierarchy often caved, the monks tended to hold out.
---
The Russian Orthodox Church was reduced to an arm of the state by Peter the Great, who refused to allow a Patriarch of Moscow to be appointed when the post fell vacant. His successors continued the practice, resulting in what was effectively a state church, depending on the monarchy, unresponsive to the people.
...
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
_______
That is what happened in every Western Protestant monarchy, with the Reformation. And very nearly in France under the Bourbons. The latter didn't want to break with Rome, but did want a subservient Church. Kind of like China today. To the credit of the Orthodox, while the hierarchy often caved, the monks tended to hold out.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2024 01:10 PM (1bNHn)
225
Just about every thread where people are asked what they would be doing under a glorious communist paradise, they think they'll be writers, poets, artists or teachers.
------
This is the conceit of people who don't know that anything beyond subsistence and self-defense are luxuries. Even a thatched roof over a couple of bent over trees where you can stash a couple chickens next to your bed is a luxury.
Artists and poets and technicians and architects, from the time of cavemen, have been a tiny number of people with enough raw talent to exempt them from immediate calorie-producing tasks.
Only when you have a glitzy, modern industrial base big enough to feed large numbers of those people, do they get the idea that they exist in large enough numbers to control society, and they are still WRONG.
------
This is the conceit of people who don't know that anything beyond subsistence and self-defense are luxuries. Even a thatched roof over a couple of bent over trees where you can stash a couple chickens next to your bed is a luxury.
Artists and poets and technicians and architects, from the time of cavemen, have been a tiny number of people with enough raw talent to exempt them from immediate calorie-producing tasks.
Only when you have a glitzy, modern industrial base big enough to feed large numbers of those people, do they get the idea that they exist in large enough numbers to control society, and they are still WRONG.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at September 28, 2024 01:11 PM (awTae)
226
So if we were to get rid of the socialist elements of our society the average person might be 10X wealthier in real terms. But...if we remove one regulation, one tax, or fire one bureaucrat the impact might be a few dollars...not enough to fight for.
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:02 PM (oZhjI)
Not completely true, there is a push to not fix things at the highest level, since fixing small things leads to demand fixing larger things, and unmasks the things that are deeply broken that are being depended on to preserve power.
Gorbachev did the "openness" and "restructuring" but the problem was that the previous system had hidden the massive inflation in the soviet system, and the complete dysfunction of the centralized economy.
That Milei was able to get what he has done through so far depends on the oddities of Argentina being run as a supposedly democratic society to elect oligarchs, and enough institutional memory of collapse that enough high power bureaucrats decided they didn't want to do it again.
Posted by: 18-1 at September 28, 2024 01:02 PM (oZhjI)
Not completely true, there is a push to not fix things at the highest level, since fixing small things leads to demand fixing larger things, and unmasks the things that are deeply broken that are being depended on to preserve power.
Gorbachev did the "openness" and "restructuring" but the problem was that the previous system had hidden the massive inflation in the soviet system, and the complete dysfunction of the centralized economy.
That Milei was able to get what he has done through so far depends on the oddities of Argentina being run as a supposedly democratic society to elect oligarchs, and enough institutional memory of collapse that enough high power bureaucrats decided they didn't want to do it again.
Posted by: Kindltot at September 28, 2024 01:12 PM (D7oie)
227
Trotsky seemed to live in NY years after the Revolution free as a bird.
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 01:13 PM (fwDg9)
228
These innocent people Columbus encountered in the Bahamas are quite a contrast to the Comanche and Apache tribes. They would have been eaten for lunch.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 01:07 PM (wILM4)
Are you talking about the Tainos or the Caribes?
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 01:07 PM (wILM4)
Are you talking about the Tainos or the Caribes?
Posted by: Kindltot at September 28, 2024 01:14 PM (D7oie)
229
And so, unemployment was not allowed. They found you a job. They sent you a letter, ordering you to report to the Fabulous Widget Factory no. 46 on Monday, no later than 7 AM. If you don't show up, they will arrest you. So you showed up. Pretended to work. And they pretended to pay you.
...
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (R3wAr)
====
Most people I encountered paid someone else to do their official "job" while they ran around finding ways to make money and get food.
...
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 12:03 PM (R3wAr)
====
Most people I encountered paid someone else to do their official "job" while they ran around finding ways to make money and get food.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at September 28, 2024 01:17 PM (zG664)
230
> Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail...“
---------
Then neither of them has anything to worry about.
---------
Then neither of them has anything to worry about.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at September 28, 2024 01:19 PM (Q4IgG)
231
>>>Now we're oppressed by automatons with zero thinking.
Posted by: Mr Ray
----------------------------
I don't understand it. Don't understand how it happens. I've had employees, encountered others with full, common, mental facilities; math, reading, grammar, entirely functional and they are total drones. Teach them a complex formula and they work it, ask them why or how or to abstract/extrapolate the formula to something else. Forget about it.
Posted by: Mr Ray
----------------------------
I don't understand it. Don't understand how it happens. I've had employees, encountered others with full, common, mental facilities; math, reading, grammar, entirely functional and they are total drones. Teach them a complex formula and they work it, ask them why or how or to abstract/extrapolate the formula to something else. Forget about it.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 01:20 PM (wILM4)
232
92 IMO the biggest adherents of theoretic communism are women. That's because of the innate socialistic and empathetic gene. They also have the abused wife paradox.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:00 PM (i514R)
_______
Chesterton wrote about that a lot.
"If you read even the best of the intellectuals of to-day you will find them saying that in the mass of the democracy the woman is the chattel of her lord, like his bath or his bed. But if you read the comic literature of the democracy you will find that the lord hides under the bed to escape from the wrath of his chattel."
"Men represent the deliberative and democratic element in life. Woman represents the despotic."
There is lots more. If for millennia you have to deal with children, you become naturally despotic.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:00 PM (i514R)
_______
Chesterton wrote about that a lot.
"If you read even the best of the intellectuals of to-day you will find them saying that in the mass of the democracy the woman is the chattel of her lord, like his bath or his bed. But if you read the comic literature of the democracy you will find that the lord hides under the bed to escape from the wrath of his chattel."
"Men represent the deliberative and democratic element in life. Woman represents the despotic."
There is lots more. If for millennia you have to deal with children, you become naturally despotic.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2024 01:21 PM (1bNHn)
233
Are you talking about the Tainos or the Caribes?
Posted by: Kindltot
--------------------------
I'm referring to the islanders described by Columbus in the article K.T. linked.
Posted by: Kindltot
--------------------------
I'm referring to the islanders described by Columbus in the article K.T. linked.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 01:21 PM (wILM4)
234
The Civil War was in the making over 40 years before Lincoln took office. If there is a person more to blame it was Pierce.
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 01:23 PM (i514R)
235
Joy Behar And Wanda Sykes Fear Trump Will Put Comedians In Jail...“
---------
Then neither of them has anything to worry about.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at September 28, 2024 01:19 PM (Q4IgG)
Hah. Reminds me of the Bee Headline about Taco Bell during the beef shortage. Something like
'Taco Bell Not Effected By Beef Shortage'
---------
Then neither of them has anything to worry about.
Posted by: Martini Farmer at September 28, 2024 01:19 PM (Q4IgG)
Hah. Reminds me of the Bee Headline about Taco Bell during the beef shortage. Something like
'Taco Bell Not Effected By Beef Shortage'
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 01:26 PM (i514R)
236
...Notice nobody talks about making things "better" except very vaguely. No, people want revenge, for something that never happened, perpetrated against people who didn't do anything.
What could go wrong?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:29 AM (R3wAr)
I think this is the gist of it. Resentment and revenge. Nothing more. There is no compromising with people like this.
What could go wrong?
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 11:29 AM (R3wAr)
I think this is the gist of it. Resentment and revenge. Nothing more. There is no compromising with people like this.
Posted by: Chairborne!...Desk From Above! at September 28, 2024 01:28 PM (cZRYl)
237
The purpose of a totalitarian society is to enshrine a tiny leadership class in positions of permanent power and give them control over everything in the country, including the wealth.
It's no more complicated than that. Communism doesn't create prosperity, but it doesn't have to. Even the most miserable, poverty-stricken hellhole on Earth can eke out enough wealth to support a small elite in the style of billionaires. I call this the "Dagny Taggart Epiphany" after the time I first realized this while reading a sequence in "Atlas Shrugged."
From the point of view of the leadership class, North Korea is not a failed socialist state, it is a perfected one.
It's no more complicated than that. Communism doesn't create prosperity, but it doesn't have to. Even the most miserable, poverty-stricken hellhole on Earth can eke out enough wealth to support a small elite in the style of billionaires. I call this the "Dagny Taggart Epiphany" after the time I first realized this while reading a sequence in "Atlas Shrugged."
From the point of view of the leadership class, North Korea is not a failed socialist state, it is a perfected one.
Posted by: MartynW at September 28, 2024 01:29 PM (+W6G0)
238
130 Posted by: Thomas Paine at September 28, 2024 12:11 PM (/5iXv)
I am of the belief that working a crap job will make one want to look for something better. The people who would rather just be on the street with no benefits would continue though in either situation.
...
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (i514R)
______
The trouble is that some companies actually succeed in breaking their employees' morale to the point they give up hoping for better. I've seen this happen in the 90s and 2000s. I don't have an explanation, but it may be (inversely) related to the "revolution of rising expectations" theory.
I am of the belief that working a crap job will make one want to look for something better. The people who would rather just be on the street with no benefits would continue though in either situation.
...
Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth at September 28, 2024 12:18 PM (i514R)
______
The trouble is that some companies actually succeed in breaking their employees' morale to the point they give up hoping for better. I've seen this happen in the 90s and 2000s. I don't have an explanation, but it may be (inversely) related to the "revolution of rising expectations" theory.
Posted by: Eeyore at September 28, 2024 01:30 PM (1bNHn)
Posted by: Helena Handbasket at September 28, 2024 01:33 PM (FnneF)
240
Eventually we'll lose the battle with entropy. The goal is to take as many people with us to Christ.
Posted by: Marybel Smiles at September 28, 2024 01:35 PM (b2Tnl)
241
Nobody is going to go to work and put up with a ration of shit for 12 bucks an hour when their material needs can be met with a combination of federal, state, and local Free Food, Rent, Insurance, Obie-Care Plus, and the rest of it.
Stay "home". Eat Funyuns. Smoke dope, talk shit about the government. Chase poon, play video games. I don't know what it would take to reverse this, but "Welfare" was deployed against Black folks, and then perfected and set out to destabilize everybody.
Government Dependents. They will always Vote The Right Way. Coupled with a phony baloney "elastic currency", it's only a matter of time. No legislation can resist, nobody can swear of the Federal Confetti-Buck Generator set to "Brrrrrrrrrr".
I was of the naïve belief that if the normies could capture the legislature, the lawfare could be used for its intended purpose. Want to be a "Sanctuary city"? Fine. No federal soup for YOUR city. Have at it.
As we've all seen, our betters only ever allow the ratchet to turn one direction. It was all smoke and mirrors, a kind of grand illusion.
Stay "home". Eat Funyuns. Smoke dope, talk shit about the government. Chase poon, play video games. I don't know what it would take to reverse this, but "Welfare" was deployed against Black folks, and then perfected and set out to destabilize everybody.
Government Dependents. They will always Vote The Right Way. Coupled with a phony baloney "elastic currency", it's only a matter of time. No legislation can resist, nobody can swear of the Federal Confetti-Buck Generator set to "Brrrrrrrrrr".
I was of the naïve belief that if the normies could capture the legislature, the lawfare could be used for its intended purpose. Want to be a "Sanctuary city"? Fine. No federal soup for YOUR city. Have at it.
As we've all seen, our betters only ever allow the ratchet to turn one direction. It was all smoke and mirrors, a kind of grand illusion.
Posted by: Common Tater at September 28, 2024 01:37 PM (U+NeW)
242
The short answer to the title question is "Because it is easily couched, by would-be tyrants, in terms that appeal to the ignorant". The only real solution to communism's appeal is to make people less ignorant overall. Unfortunately, we've been going the wrong direction there for decades.
Posted by: Cortillaen at September 28, 2024 01:41 PM (6kADi)
243
"The Civil War was in the making over 40 years before Lincoln took office. If there is a person more to blame it was Pierce." Posted by: Sebastian Melmoth
I've heard that, and presume it to be true (knowing little of the details). But Lincoln did nothing to reverse the tensions (tariffs and whatever else). If SC seceded legally, then that is the essence of The United States, where states have that right.
Today we still have states speaking of secession, or forming a new state, or joining another state. But Democrats love their Chicago vice grip on the rest of the state. Not sure how Western Oregon is doing (or is it W Washington?).
I've heard that, and presume it to be true (knowing little of the details). But Lincoln did nothing to reverse the tensions (tariffs and whatever else). If SC seceded legally, then that is the essence of The United States, where states have that right.
Today we still have states speaking of secession, or forming a new state, or joining another state. But Democrats love their Chicago vice grip on the rest of the state. Not sure how Western Oregon is doing (or is it W Washington?).
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 01:55 PM (Cus5s)
244
Is Tlaib a communist or just a nasty, ugly, stupid, antisemitic hate monger?
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 01:55 PM (FfSAJ)
245
Is Tlaib a communist or just a nasty, ugly, stupid, antisemitic hate monger?
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 01:55 PM (FfSAJ)
All this, and much, much more. She's easily the worst of a very bad bunch of women in Congrefs.
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 01:55 PM (FfSAJ)
All this, and much, much more. She's easily the worst of a very bad bunch of women in Congrefs.
Posted by: Pugsley Hudson Mahon, Telling War Stories at September 28, 2024 02:17 PM (Ad8y9)
246
Not sure if Tliab is Muslim or Communist or Muslim but Communist leaning
I have always contended Barky dropped Islam for Marxism but still has a soft heart for Islam
I have always contended Barky dropped Islam for Marxism but still has a soft heart for Islam
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 02:22 PM (fwDg9)
247
In case anyone is still here, this is what's happening in Springfield:
https://tinyurl.com/bdfb34s8
https://tinyurl.com/bdfb34s8
Posted by: Notsothoreau at September 28, 2024 02:31 PM (MpVUb)
248
Communism hasn’t gone away because its dedicated zealots have embedded themselves in the halls of govt, the media organs of propaganda, and especially academia. And they have elevated the practice of rigging and stealing elections to an art.
Posted by: kallisto at September 28, 2024 02:44 PM (9CXxi)
249
Notsothoreau interesting read
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 02:45 PM (fwDg9)
250
See Frankfurt School
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 02:45 PM (fwDg9)
251
Sure looks to me the Marxists took over Universities, taught their students in it, that continued so no they start in Kindergarten
Posted by: Skip at September 28, 2024 02:47 PM (fwDg9)
252
He says, 'Down the Corruption Rabbit Hole: On the ground in Springfield, Ohio', but these corrupt organizations are at the end point and in port of illegals all over this nation.
Posted by: Braenyard at September 28, 2024 02:53 PM (wILM4)
253
"If SC seceded legally, then that is the essence of The United States, where states have that right."
I'm pretty sure that right was forfeited the instant the first cannonball crashed into the walls of Fort Sumter. That's my take on it.
I'm pretty sure that right was forfeited the instant the first cannonball crashed into the walls of Fort Sumter. That's my take on it.
Posted by: I'll choose a new nick later-Certified Dangerous Radical at September 28, 2024 02:55 PM (89Sog)
254
Didn't the NYT celebrate Marx's birthday a few years ago?
Posted by: Northernlurker , wondering where his phone is at September 28, 2024 03:18 PM (M+LfK)
255
I miss LenNeal.
He would have spiced up this thread.
He would have spiced up this thread.
Posted by: pawn at September 28, 2024 03:35 PM (kex3D)
Posted by: KT at September 28, 2024 03:42 PM (xekrU)
257
"I'm pretty sure that right was forfeited the instant the first cannonball crashed into the walls of Fort Sumter. That's my take on it." Posted by: I'll choose a new nick later
yeah, maybe so. But moving troops to the fort to perhaps control the port was also a military act against SC, not part of accepting the secession? I don't really know the history in enough detail.
yeah, maybe so. But moving troops to the fort to perhaps control the port was also a military act against SC, not part of accepting the secession? I don't really know the history in enough detail.
Posted by: illiniwek at September 28, 2024 03:45 PM (Cus5s)
258
>>> The way around this of course - you can try it for yourself - refer to her as "Monica Lewinsky's ex-boyfriend's wife" in front of your favorite oh-so easily triggered neurotic wind up leftist toy.
Crowder does this, on his show he calls Biden "former vice president Joe Biden" and says it's to give him the respect he's due. He has done this for 3.5 years--years! I admire the dedication.
Crowder does this, on his show he calls Biden "former vice president Joe Biden" and says it's to give him the respect he's due. He has done this for 3.5 years--years! I admire the dedication.
Posted by: LizLem at September 28, 2024 03:45 PM (hZogW)
259
Communism will never die out because resentment and envy are hard-wired human instincts.
Posted by: Lickmuffin at September 28, 2024 04:05 PM (QHFzy)
260
I know I'm late here but there WAS a book about the Clinton Gingrich frenemy partnership. STEVEN GILLON, The Pact (Oxford: 200
Posted by: Boulder Terlit Hobo, not dead at September 28, 2024 04:33 PM (f0LQH)
261
The basis for communism/socialism “(From each/To each, etc) comes from on of one Biblical Epistles of Paul. I don’t recall which and I’m too lazy to perform even a cursory search.
What is missing from what we see today is one of two key features: 1). The group must be small, the size of a congregation at most, and of a single mind concerning the material goods of that congregation and their disposition, or 2). The leader administering the process must be perfect, understanding the needs and abilities of everyone involved, which excludes everyone in history but one.
Otherwise, it’s doomed to fail and destined to be repeated because if history teaches us anything, it’s that people are fucking stupid.
What is missing from what we see today is one of two key features: 1). The group must be small, the size of a congregation at most, and of a single mind concerning the material goods of that congregation and their disposition, or 2). The leader administering the process must be perfect, understanding the needs and abilities of everyone involved, which excludes everyone in history but one.
Otherwise, it’s doomed to fail and destined to be repeated because if history teaches us anything, it’s that people are fucking stupid.
Posted by: Misanthropic Misanthrope at September 28, 2024 04:35 PM (Y2NGV)
262
Everyone needs to see this!!
In case anyone is still here, this is what's happening in Springfield:
https://tinyurl.com/bdfb34s8
Notsothoreau at September 28, 2024 02:31 PM
In case anyone is still here, this is what's happening in Springfield:
https://tinyurl.com/bdfb34s8
Notsothoreau at September 28, 2024 02:31 PM
Posted by: pawn at September 28, 2024 04:36 PM (QB+5g)
263
To understand why Communism survives you need to see that Communism is not fundamentally different from dictatorship. As well ask yourself why dictatorships survive.
Posted by: JackWayne at September 28, 2024 05:32 PM (iUX6L)
264
It never really died. It still exists because so many people prefer the security of state control to the responsibilities that come with being free.
Posted by: teejuss at September 28, 2024 06:03 PM (V9chC)
265
Because it is a religion. It is a Christian gnostic heresy, as weird as that sounds. That's their first objective has always been to destroy the old faith.
Posted by: azhar at September 28, 2024 06:22 PM (hJ98U)
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