Hey Republicans, Can We End the Red Scare Already? Liberals Aren't Communists!

[pakicetus]

If you vote for the ungodly, like Obama, check your Christian credentials.

Last I checked, Obama is a Christian. That's in the universe that actually exists though.

 

[jgarden]

Hey Republicans, Can We End the Red Scare Already? Liberals Aren't Communists!

An irony is that in 1939, a boatload of German and eastern European Jews seeking political asylum were denied access to the US.

One of the arguments against accepting them was that Jews were associated with "communists" and that these refugees might harbor a few communists.

The ship turned back to Europe and with the exception of those taken in by the British, the rest were accepted by nations that were later invaded by the Germans the next year.

Most of those Jews were eventually sent to the death camps and perished.

This scenario has many parallels to the current attitudes of many conservatives concerning Syrian refugees - condemn the vast innocent majority because they might contain one or two undesireables!

 

[nightflight]

The Constitution has a ton of different interpretations, so the idea that they're not obeying the Constitution is actually reasonable. But the idea that liberals are communists isn't. Media figures and politicians who call them communists shouldn't be listened to or elected to powerful positions; they should be mocked and ridiculed, because they have no idea what they're talking about and they're poisoning the political discourse with patent nonsense. You can go ahead and vote for people who believe liberals are communists, or multi-trillion-dollar tax cuts pay for themselves, or global warming is a hoax because it snowed in the winter, but I would rather not.

Can we agree they are statists?

 

[nightflight]

Last I checked, Obama is a Christian. That's in the universe that actually exists though.

Are you sure? He told Stephanopolis he was a Muslim.

 

[nightflight]

It's kind of funny, in a macabre way, to imagine a society devolving into fascism based on the principle that "anything left of the status quo is communism, therefore we must guard against communism by never moving to the left," and gradually inching right toward a totalitarian regime. Not that I think that's going to happen to the U.S. (it might, but I doubt it), it's just funny to think about.

So you criticize people for using the term "communism" yet feel perfectly comfortable using the term "fascism".

Priceless.

 

[Deviant Writer]

Are you sure? He told Stephanopolis he was a Muslim.

No he didn't.

 

[pakicetus]

So you criticize people for using the term "communism" yet feel perfectly comfortable using the term "fascism".

I don't criticize anyone for using the word communism. I criticize them for calling people communists who are not, in fact, communists.

 

[nightflight]

n

 

[nightflight]

No he didn't.

Sure he did! He said, "my Muslim faith".

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Liberals deny being communists, but they are always quick to defend socialism whenever a conservative criticizes it. And a lot of liberal college professors are openly Marxist. So they send mixed messages.

 

[BrianJK]

I'm pretty sure I'm told to identify godly folk by their fruits, instead of by their out-of-context choice phrases in talk shows.

I'm pretty sure the fruits are listed somewhere. I should check that against the candidates, huh? Let me start with peace, forbearance and gentleness and go from there.

 

[pakicetus]

Liberals deny being communists, but they are always quick to defend socialism whenever a conservative criticizes it.

Actually, only 40% of liberals like socialism—and socialism is different from communism. Communism entails the abolition of all private property. The kind of "socialism" a lot of liberals defend is just capitalism with a strong welfare system and other protections against inequality, like in most first world democracies (e.g. Germany, Canada, Australia, and Sweden). There are hundreds of liberal members of Congress, elected by liberal voters; you're welcome to find a single one who supports anything like communism.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Socialism and communism are different things. Communism entails the abolition of all private property; the kind of "socialism" most liberals defend is just capitalism with a strong welfare system and other protections against inequality, like in most first world democracies (e.g. Germany, Canada, Australia, and Sweden). You're welcome to find a single liberal member of Congress who supports anything like communism.

Liberals encourage class wars and race wars. And that's one of the hallmarks of communism.

"The preachers of Communism are also proficient in exploiting racial antagonisms and political divisions and oppositions."

- Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris (March 19, 1937)​

 

[pakicetus]

Liberals encourage class wars and race wars. And that's one of the hallmarks of communism.

Wait, what? "Race wars"? I feel you're being hyperbolic and talking to me in buzzwords.

Regardless, the fact that liberals weakly agree with communists on a few points (like the necessity of reducing inequality between classes and races) doesn't mean communism and liberalism are the same. Most Republicans agree with Karl Marx that the ideal society would involve less government; that doesn't mean Republicans are communists.

 

[LivingWordUnity]

Wait, what? "Race wars"? I feel you're being hyperbolic and talking to me in buzzwords.

Would you rather call it race riots?

 

[pakicetus]

Would you rather call it race riots?

I would rather you look up "communism" in a dictionary. I defined communism in the OP and in a post I made to you, and you're still arguing with me even though what liberals believe palpably doesn't fit the definition? It's easy to look at the statements or the platforms or the voting records of any liberal and see that they're not calling for the abolition of private property or a totalitarian one-party state. Where's the ambiguity?

You're arguing that liberals and communists have a few things in common, and that's true; every group of people has a few things in common with every other group. But even if liberals want conflict between races and classes, that's not enough to make them communists, because communism has other features.

 

[Dale]

Universal Ranger in post #41:
<<
Another thing, it contradicts the system that God put in place with the Jews. You do realize that the concepts of free market and Capitalism came directly from the Jews and the concepts they learned from the system passed down through Moses by God.
>>

I'm afraid this is absurd. The Jews did not invent capitalism or free enterprise.
For one thing, the economy in the OT and even at the time of Christ was a traditional economy. Decisions were made by tradition, not by the market.

As far as corporate capitalism, the Founding Fathers of the US knew nothing about it.
There was no law that allowed individuals to charter a corporation for decades after the Constitution was ratified.

 

[pakicetus]

Fox News has called Sesame Street communist, along with The Muppets

I just want to highlight how absurd this is.

 

[Dale]

5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 3:5King James Version (KJV)


5 “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.

Malachi 3:5New International Version (NIV)



Do we have creeping socialism in the Bible?

 

[Arcangl86]

Wait, what? "Race wars"? I feel you're being hyperbolic and talking to me in buzzwords.

Regardless, the fact that liberals weakly agree with communists on a few points (like the necessity of reducing inequality between classes and races) doesn't mean communism and liberalism are the same. Most Republicans agree with Karl Marx that the ideal society would involve less government; that doesn't mean Republicans are communists.

I think he is referring to things like the Black Life Matters movement. Apparently it was ok for colonial Englishmen to rebel against an overseas government over taxes, but not ok for POC to have issues with our own government supporting us being murdered in the streets.