From what I've gathered from other various threads, I've realized that most Americans don't have any idea what communism really is. It's almost scary, to the point that communism has become synonymous with totalitarianism. Thoughts?
I approve of discussion in this thread- and anything that will aid the public in shedding the Cold-War mentality.
When I was in Texas, I went around with my friends to their classes. I was having a discussion on the principles that it takes twenty-something acres of land to support a single person living the American lifestyle, and that all the developing countries are working towards our way of life, etc, with my friend's English teacher. She remarks, "Really? 'Cause it looks like we're headed towards theirs with all these socialist reforms."
At this point, I let my jaw drop. I was completely astounded that a college educated woman with a Master's degree would make such a rude, uninformed statement. Once I regained my senses, I asked "Were you raised during the Red Scare?"
"Yup, for most of it."
After that, all I said was "I'm sorry for your mind," and then went back talking to my friends.
It's horrible, because a potentially great way of living is completely shut down, and even used to attack political candidates, as was seen in Barack Obama's campaign.
Awarwrawrarwarwarawrawrawr my eyes D: Don't make me go KGB on your ***!
At any rate, the reason I approve of this thread is because, like Zoosuit, I've seen a few examples of where perfectly well educated, reasonable people go completely unhinged in situations like this. Like when a Russian company bought over LiveJournal, but I'm not going to discuss that here...
From what I've gathered from other various threads, I've realized that most Americans don't have any idea what communism really is. It's almost scary, to the point that communism has become synonymous with totalitarianism. Thoughts?
And Fascism too. When someone mentions Fascism, a brute of a Nazi Soldier with a gun to a Jew's head pops up in their minds. Even Bush made this silly mistake. He called Muslim extremists 'Islamofascist'.
It's almost scary, really. I mean, that lady had a master's degree, and was fooled into thinking that communism=socialism=totalitarianism. For God's sakes, after 10 minutes of research on Karl Marx I knew more about communism and socialism than a good deal of the educated adults in the world. THAT really speaks pages about the stupidity of many modern people.
For God's sakes, after 10 minutes of research on Karl Marx I knew more about communism and socialism than a good deal of the educated adults in the world. THAT really speaks pages about the stupidity of many modern people.
It is sad how easily people can be tricked because of not knowing enough about what they're being tricked. Like you said, a few minutes of research can really open your eyes and show you that what you may have believed before is completely wrong. The problem with this is that most people that already equate communism to totalitarianism just believe what they believe and don't even try to read up about it. With the way my school is structured, the english and history classes coincided and were both talking about Soviet Communism. During this time, anyone in the class that was actually paying attention would easily realize that Soviet Communism is not even close to Pure Communism. And, being in the advanced classes, I saw no one that didn't realize this.
@db05: Exactly. I'm also in a gifted class, and I'm the only one who researched Marx. After my podcast for it, many of the kids actually knew more than a good deal of adults. It makes me sad. ----------- This is kind of one of those threads with the informed complaining about the idiocy of the masses :P
Well, I'm not exactly complaing about their idiocy, I'm being apathetic about their minds being corrupted by propaganda.
and I'm the only one who researched Marx.
Yeah, we had a large class, so for most topics there were 2 people, and I managed to be one of the people who researched Karl Marx, too. Well, either it was him or Marxism. I can't remember, it's been a while. :/
Its not just Americans who aren't sure of what communism is, but people like McCarthy made Americans so scared of communism that its just been imprinted in the backs of our minds. Tsk, tsk stereotypical.
Videos sponsored by the U.S. government, as well as various pamphlets, in addition to McCarthyism, led to a total play on the American people's minds in the new "Democracy v. Communism" cover that many people believed to be the purpose of the Cold War.
That video is a good example of how the government tried to force it into people's minds that communism is bad. They were talking more of the distorted communisms like Soviet communism; the ones that didn't turn out as pure communism. Of course, pure communism is not really possible in large groups such as a country. You can have it in a family or maybe a small community, but as the group gets larger, the less likely it becomes that pure communism is actually going to occur.
