High Ranking Communists

[Syne]

I think that here in the United States, the democratic party hopes to reproduce that kind of fascism. They already control the media and education. They have already politicized the secret police (Justice Department lawyers, FBI, CIA) and used them against political enemies.

As well as the IRS, under Obama, targeting right-leaning non-profits.

They are in the process of taking over the internet (Facebook, Twitter, Google), they have their brown-shirts terrorizing anyone who tries to use their Constitutional rights of free-speech and free-assembly to disagree (antifa), they declare people non-persons (cancel-culture) and they even try to control the words we say and hence the ideas we think...

I'm hoping the American spirit is still enough of a rebellious teen who doesn't like to be told what to do, and there will be a tipping point on this pendulum swing. Hopefully it's already happened, and we'll see it in the election results.

If they can get control of the White House and Congress, if they can pack the Supreme Court, then I fear that American democracy is probably finished and we have seen our last free election. It will be like Hitler being elected Chancellor in 1933. The result will be enforced conformity that might indeed make things more efficient.

And that's where state autonomy under federalization helps. The Federal government doesn't have the manpower to police the states (like states legalizing marijuana, while it's still illegal under federal law), and using a military composed of citizens is not likely to be weaponized effectively. But if we ever did face a deep depression, not just a temporary recession (like Covid), people could be pushed to giving the government so much more power. Enough to disarm the citizens? I doubt it, but you never know what truly desperate people might do.

And I'm inclined to think that freedom of speech and thought have their own strengths, especially when it comes to intelligence. There's a reason why the US remains the world's intellectual leader in so many fields, not least of them science and technology. There's a reason why despite its huge population China has been so unproductive in those areas and why it's reduced to stealing any American development that they possibly can. In some ways China continues to exist as the world's largest parasite, draining the United States of its wealth and its strategic industries, while stealing its intellectual productivity in areas that they believe won't threaten their system.

One of the reasons why Trump was elected was to end that parasitism, even if it hurts the short term corporate profits and offends the "free trade" sensibilities of establishment Republicans.

I've started to think that the Democrat party is no longer capable of making any course correction. It will get more desperate, extreme, and violent, to gain/retain power, or it will die. Hopefully it dies of cannibalism rather than war.

[Zinjanthropos]

I only said it ‘appears to me’. I never actually committed. Been around long enough to know how to press buttons.

I’ve spent a lifetime listening to how terrible communism is. Do I believe it? To a degree yes. But I’m not going to say democracy is squeaky clean either.

My signature says it all.

[Syne]

I only said it ‘appears to me’.

Then you're just ignorant.

[Zinjanthropos]

I only said it ‘appears to me’.

Then you're just ignorant.

[Yazata]

I only said it ‘appears to me’. I never actually committed. Been around long enough to know how to press buttons.

I'm not mad at you. I think that you've raised an interesting and important issue. It's certainly worth discussing.

I’ve spent a lifetime listening to how terrible communism is. Do I believe it? To a degree yes.

To me, communism is state ownership of all physical property. Supposedly held 'in common' for the whole community or something. In reality, owned by whoever controls the government. I guess that things like government buildings and public roads are communist here in the US and in Canada, so it isn't an all-or-nothing thing.

That's not what China is, since private property and privately owned business enterprises are allowed there. (Causing Mao to spin like a propeller in his grave.) With tight government controls of course, in the service of the state.

That conjunction of private property and dictatorship to strengthen the state is what I identify with fascism (in the Hitler and Mussolini sense).

But I’m not going to say democracy is squeaky clean either.

I think that the democracy/dictatorship dichotomy is something else. It's about whether public policy flows from the people upwards such that government policy reflects the will of the people, or whether it flows from the rulers downwards, such that it reflects the will of the rulers.

That democracy/dictatorship distinction starts to get blurry when the rulers control or decisively influence mechanisms like the news, entertainment and communications media and children's education, such that they can shape public opinion to suit their desires.

My signature says it all.

And I agree with it. Very much so. I see nothing wrong with the issues you raised or your raising them. It's the essence of free speech that we can discuss things like this.

[Zinjanthropos]

Not mad at all Yaz. Topic I’ve always wondered about. Don’t expect everyone to agree with my suggestions or insinuations. Just trying to get something going. Can’t expect CC to carry the load.

I think you’re bang on with your democracy/dictatorship dichotomy take. As I said I’m completely apolitical but I don’t always remember the highest office in the USA or Canada having the last say, as in yay or nay. Isn’t our voice the people we elect?