X-Post: The 'Imaginary Commies' in Dr Douglas' mind

In reply to: American Power: 'Imaginary Commies' at 'One Nation' Rally

That's right. Because it's all just some crazed right-wing propaganda scam. Just ask Tintin, the blogging asshat at Sadly No!

"Because we do in fact hate commies, at least real commies, not the imaginary commies that community college Assistant Associate Professor Douglas sees lurking behind every potted plant."

Must have been a gazillion potted plants on the Washington Mall last weekend. Because you know, there's just no socialism any more, right?

Are you really still trying to "win" your battle with Sadly, No! that you lost two weeks ago?

Dr Douglas, you ought to give it up. Tintin is correct; There's not a whole lotta your brand of Stalinist commies here in America, and even if there are a few somewhere, they're surely not attending a rally in support of such mainstream ideals as were being supported by the folks at One Nation. (Were there some kookie ideas being talked about there as well? More'n'likely... Were they getting wide support among the rest of the people attending? Unlikely.)

Among the American Communist and Socialist groups there, you would find very little support for Stalin or for mass murder, were you to actually bother to look, and then be honest about what you found. (Which is unlikely, as mindless, unthinking, unexamined FEAR is the name of the game.)

It's not the ideas that are evil; it's the people who use those ideas to further their own desires for money, or power, or both. It does no good to make folks afraid of ideas like Islam or Communism. Banning or burning the Koran or the writings of Marx isn't the way; Better to let folks study all they can about them, and then prove those ideas wrong.

Yelling "Cooooomunist!!" and pretending that the few of 'em who were a part of the One Nation rally 1) represent the same thinking and practices as Stalin in the late 30's, and 2) represent the thinking of everyone at the rally, isn't going to cut it with anyone who isn't already a true believer.

These various American Communist and Socialist party groups were there supporting the same list of goals as everyone else, not dictating goals to anyone. (If anything, it was the more moderate left who was influencing them, not the other way around...)

The cooooomunists you're trying to make your readers fear are for the most part, long gone. These tiny groups of American idealists are wrong, intellectually and practically, but they aren't a threat to anyone, no matter how loudly and vociferously you proclaim their demonic, Stalinist, nihilist, boogety-boogety-boogety evil.

If you can't show elected Democrats (or large swaths of "the American Left) actually supporting dangerous Stalinist ideas and tactics, using actual quotes or legislative language, I mean, you ought to stop making the claim, already... (I don't expect you will, of course, but that doesn't mean I'll stop askin')

American Nihilist x-post
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Posted to American Power October 4, 2010 12:40 PM, AmPow blog time...
...and edited away, shortly thereafter. (While Donalde is welcome to run his blog this way, it doesn't bode well for his "tactical elan" to just keep blocking comments for content, whether through pre- or post-moderation--though for what it's worth, I do prefer the latter, and I bet many of his readers do, as well.)