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By Oleg Atbashian | First published in PJ Media
On April 9th, after a 24-year delay, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) has passed a legislation banning communist propaganda along with its symbols, from street names and flags, to monuments and plaques.
The new legislation, passed by 56% of parliamentarians, declares the communist government that ruled Ukraine during the Soviet era a criminal regime that conducted policies of state terror. The ban similarly extends to Nazi propaganda and symbols, even though unlike Communism, Nazism has hardly had any following in a country that was hit hard during WWII and the Nazi occupation.
With urgent and serious problems facing Ukraine's economy, finances, government reform, and a war with Russia-backed separatists, what was the sudden rush to condemn Nazism and communism simultaneously, given that Nazi Germany and the USSR had collapsed in 1945 and 1991 respectively?
On the surface, bundling together these two antihuman, totalitarian ideologies may seem like a symbolic gesture, but in reality each of them was banned for a very different practical reason, both of them of an existential nature.
Since the beginning of Ukrainian independence, local communists have remained loyal to Moscow, doing the bidding of the political forces in Russia that sought the restoration of the totalitarian Soviet empire. Protected by the constitution, communist demagoguery has worked as a busy conduit for the Kremlin's anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western imperial agenda.
The pro-Russian separatists in the self-proclaimed "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk are also driven by a similar imperial agenda they call Russkiy Mir (Pax Russiana), rallying under old Soviet flags, with portraits of Lenin and Stalin in their hands.
Those in the Crimea who cheered Russia's military takeover of their peninsula were similarly nostalgic of the old USSR and the rule of Stalin's strong hand; they welcomed Russian troops by carrying red flags, portraits of Soviet leaders, and other communist paraphernalia.
Russia's state-run media cleverly conflates Soviet nostalgia with being Russian or being part of Pax Russiana. This sentiment, fully supported by Ukrainian communists, was effectively used to start a war that has killed more than 6,000 people since April last year and is still simmering in the eastern regions of Ukraine.
Under these circumstances, a ban on communist propaganda and the condemnation of the USSR as a criminal totalitarian regime serves a very concrete purpose of protecting the nation's sovereignty and independence at a time of war. In this sense, it functions as a Treason and Sedition Act aimed to disable the Fifth Column which is aiding the foreign enemy from within.
Most Eastern Bloc and some post-Soviet nations marked their independence with policies of de-communization, cleansing their governments of corrupt officials and dismantling the communist legacies in their cultures and psychology. This worked much to their advantage, strengthening their democratic institutions, transparency, international standing, and ultimately their economies.
That had never happened in Ukraine, let alone Russia. Though de jure an independent nation, Ukraine continued to vegetate in Russia's shadow, instructed by Russia's media, and manipulated by Russia's elites who were interested in keeping Ukraine vulnerable, dependent, and corrupt.
Today's messy developments in Ukraine are largely the result of belated attempts by this vulnerable, dependent, and corrupt nation to right itself and clean up its act under incessant attacks from behind the fence by the drunken abusive ex who thinks nothing of violating restraining orders and believes he has a sacred right to do so.
Last year, tired of waiting for the government to act, grassroots activists throughout Ukraine undertook a self-styled, anarchic effort at de-communization by throwing corrupt, pro-communist politicians into large garbage bins and posting these videos online.
Their bottled-up, spontaneous outburst also resulted in a massive unauthorized demolition of Lenin monuments all over Ukraine. That only threw more fuel on the smoldering separatist sentiment among the pro-Russian minority in Ukraine, as well as on the already blazing nationalism among a powerful majority in Russia, for whom attacks on communist symbols are no different from attacks against Russia itself.
In the end, communist movements in Ukraine and other Eastern European nations aren't as much about the Marxist theory as they are about the return of Russia's domineering role in the region. With the inevitability of a speeding freight train, a restoration of Russia's dominance will also bring back economic, cultural, and political subjugation, Russification, brain drain, persecution of local nationalism and the implied status of inferior people for all non-Russians.
Kiev's official condemnation of Nazism serves a very different purpose: it aims to undercut Russia's grotesquely surreal canard that describes last year's Maidan Revolution in Kiev as a U.S.-backed fascist coup d'état. Repeated over and over, the Russian media's portrayal of Ukrainians as Nazis has gone a long way to pit ethnic Russians against the formerly brotherly nation.
In addition to conflating communism with Russian chauvinism, the Kremlin's propaganda is also effectively using the old Soviet trick of conflating everything that opposes the will of the Kremlin with fascism and Nazism: "Communist Russia has defeated Nazism, therefore anyone who opposes communism or Russia must be a Nazi."
This obvious logical folly would be laughable if it didn't continue to shape the minds of many in Russia and beyond, even despite the fact that Russia's own policies of land grab and national chauvinism almost exactly follow those of Nazi Germany in the years leading to WWII.
Trumped up with the reanimated "Great Patriotic War" rhetoric, the Kremlin's Goebbels-like propaganda is inspiring thousands of Russian volunteers to cross the border and shoot at imaginary fascists in eastern Ukraine, proving Winston Churchill's prophetic insight: "The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists."
The effects of this mind game aren't limited to Russia alone. This video, taken recently in Donetsk, shows a self-described American communist (pictured on the left) who volunteered to join the Russian nationalists and kill Ukrainians within the belief that he was being an "anti-fascist." Like an "A" student during a school test, he diligently recites all the Kremlin-generated talking points: the Ukrainians are Nazis, the fascist coup in Kiev was instigated by the imperialist United States, the war is part of America's anti-Russian strategy, and other memes he has likely picked up from the English-language RT and similar propaganda channels and websites. Described in the video as a "Texan" but sounding more like a Californian surfer dude, he promises to keep fighting until a complete and unconditional surrender of all fascists (or until he runs out of that stuff he's smoking, whichever comes first).
In contrast, this Russian-speaking volunteer from Kirghizstan, who had been also been misled by the propaganda on Russian television and arrived in eastern Ukraine on a moral quest to fight "fascists," eventually became disillusioned and returned home, accompanying the sealed coffins of two fellow Kyrgyz soldiers. "I thought that there were fascists there," he says in an interview to Radio Liberty, "but I didn't see any. We fought against the regular Ukrainian Army." Unlike the English-speaking "Texan" above, he was able to communicate with local residents and captive Ukrainian soldiers. "It turned out that everything was agitation, propaganda," he concludes. "This was really offensive to me."
On May 9th Russia is going to celebrate Victory Day: the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to allied forces in World War II (the official Russians term for it is the "Great Patriotic War," which lasted from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945).
Every Russian government starting with Stalin has habitually attributed all credit for the victory to itself and sometimes to the "unbreakable friendship of Soviet nations united under Russia and guided by the Communist Party and personally by Comrade Stalin." Faithful to the tradition of utilizing Victory Day as a vehicle for a self-serving political agenda, Russia's state-run media has already begun to whip up jingoistic fervor in the run-up to the holiday, using victory over Nazism as a launching site for spectacular anti-Ukrainian fireworks.
This year's Victory Day was meant to be especially bombastic. Every more or less significant world leader had been invited to attend the military parade on Red Square. They were expected to stand side by side with Vladimir Putin, thus reaffirming the Russian (and, by extension, Soviet) military's leading role in the "struggle for peace," which would validate Russia's current policies and show everyone who's boss.
Putin has once boasted in an interview that, as a chess player, he never makes a political move without calculating several steps ahead. The conflict in Ukraine and the annexation of the Crimea, however, has been nothing but a series of fundamental miscalculations. As a result, all serious heads of state have declined his invitations. The "group of international leaders" on the podium will likely be limited to Third World miscreants hoping to get on Putin's good side in order to score cheaper oil, weapons, or nuclear technology. The biggest international celebrity will undoubtedly be North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un, who has officially confirmed his appearance.
Until now Ukraine had been slavishly following Russia's lead in perpetuating Stalinist mythology of the "Great Patriotic War" - a trend jealously enforced by Russia as a symbol of Moscow's continued sway over the neighboring post-Soviet states. But another new law, adopted in Kiev along with the ban on communist and Nazi propaganda, has broken the old pattern.
From now on, Ukraine will join the rest of the world in marking the end of the war on May 8th, as the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during World War II, in 1939-1945. After all, the war came to the western part of Ukraine two years before it came to Russia, after the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact started WWII by splitting Poland in half. What transpired in Ukraine wholly contradicts Russia's "Great Patriotic War" narrative.
The Red Army invasion into well-off western Ukraine (then part of Poland) in September of 1939 brought repressions and deportations, provoking armed resistance on the part of Ukrainian patriots. Upon the advance of the German army in 1941, nationalist groups organized into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought against the Third Reich throughout the Nazi occupation. After the return of the Red Army in 1944 they continued to fight a losing battle against the communists in western Ukraine all the way through the mid-1950s. The Stalinist regime self-servingly described these anti-communist freedom fighters as Nazis - a myth in which most Ukrainians were later forced to believe under the threat of imprisonment, and which is still thoroughly cultivated in Russia.
Today many in Ukraine feel that the UPA fighters must be recognized and remembered along with other WWII heroes and victims. This notion is still being fiercely rejected by most Russians and those Soviet-era Ukrainians who can't part with the Soviet mythology, believing that the UPA were Nazi collaborators.
The Nazi smear allowed the Soviet communists to keep Ukrainian nationalism in check until the day the USSR collapsed. But Russian state-run TV channels, which continued to be available throughout Ukraine, persisted with the Nazi smear even after the independence, effectively influencing Ukrainian voters in every election cycle by painting pro-Western politicians as neo-Nazis and promoting Moscow-backed politicians, one of whom was the ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.
Thus, Russia's current allegation that the 2014 revolution in Ukraine was a Nazi coup orchestrated by the CIA and the U.S. State Department is not a new invention, but merely a modern-day remake of the hoary propagandistic myth started 70 years ago by Stalin.
Accordingly, Ukrainian parliament's official condemnation of Nazism was clearly an attempt to put that damaging Stalinist narrative to rest.
In an effort to replace the old Soviet symbolism with a new one, on April 7th Ukraine's First Lady Maryna Poroshenko attended a "Remembrance Poppy" event marking the anniversary of the Nazi surrender.
Since many older people may still want to follow the old Victory Day tradition on May 9th, the holiday will remain, but the phrase "the Great Patriotic War" will now be replaced by "World War II." Given that most Red Army veterans in Ukraine will likely parade with their Soviet medals in violation of the ban on communist symbols, enforcing the new law may put the government in an uncomfortable position. Perhaps the police will be advised to turn a blind eye; we'll have to wait and see.
As part of Russia's angry response to this legislation, its Foreign Ministry representative Konstantin Dolgov, endowed with an Orwellian title "Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law," called Ukraine's ban on communist ideology a "cynical move," which violates international obligations by depriving many of its citizens their legal rights. The E.U. and the U.S. should no longer ignore this," he wrote on his Twitter blog. The diplomat ended his statement on a surreal note, saying that a law that equates communism and Nazism somehow "reveals Kiev's depraved unwillingness to break with the neo-Nazis."
The Russian social media's reaction is a lot more vocal but a lot less quotable. In the minds of pro-Putin patriots, the world outside of Russia's borders is populated entirely by virulent Russophobes whose only purpose in life is to hurt Russia out of sheer hatred for Russia's big heart and spirituality. But, like a broken clock that shows the correct hour twice daily, this time they get it right: Ukraine's ban on both communist and Nazi propaganda is directed, quite deservedly, against Russia with its Orwellian policies.
On April 9th, after a 24-year delay, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) has passed a legislation banning communist propaganda along with its symbols, from street names and flags, to monuments and plaques.
The new legislation, passed by 56% of parliamentarians, declares the communist government that ruled Ukraine during the Soviet era a criminal regime that conducted policies of state terror. The ban similarly extends to Nazi propaganda and symbols, even though unlike Communism, Nazism has hardly had any following in a country that was hit hard during WWII and the Nazi occupation.
With urgent and serious problems facing Ukraine's economy, finances, government reform, and a war with Russia-backed separatists, what was the sudden rush to condemn Nazism and communism simultaneously, given that Nazi Germany and the USSR had collapsed in 1945 and 1991 respectively?
On the surface, bundling together these two antihuman, totalitarian ideologies may seem like a symbolic gesture, but in reality each of them was banned for a very different practical reason, both of them of an existential nature.
Communism 2.0: Russians of the world, unite!
Since the beginning of Ukrainian independence, local communists have remained loyal to Moscow, doing the bidding of the political forces in Russia that sought the restoration of the totalitarian Soviet empire. Protected by the constitution, communist demagoguery has worked as a busy conduit for the Kremlin's anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western imperial agenda.
Those in the Crimea who cheered Russia's military takeover of their peninsula were similarly nostalgic of the old USSR and the rule of Stalin's strong hand; they welcomed Russian troops by carrying red flags, portraits of Soviet leaders, and other communist paraphernalia.
Russia's state-run media cleverly conflates Soviet nostalgia with being Russian or being part of Pax Russiana. This sentiment, fully supported by Ukrainian communists, was effectively used to start a war that has killed more than 6,000 people since April last year and is still simmering in the eastern regions of Ukraine.
Under these circumstances, a ban on communist propaganda and the condemnation of the USSR as a criminal totalitarian regime serves a very concrete purpose of protecting the nation's sovereignty and independence at a time of war. In this sense, it functions as a Treason and Sedition Act aimed to disable the Fifth Column which is aiding the foreign enemy from within.
Grassroots de-communization
Most Eastern Bloc and some post-Soviet nations marked their independence with policies of de-communization, cleansing their governments of corrupt officials and dismantling the communist legacies in their cultures and psychology. This worked much to their advantage, strengthening their democratic institutions, transparency, international standing, and ultimately their economies.
Today's messy developments in Ukraine are largely the result of belated attempts by this vulnerable, dependent, and corrupt nation to right itself and clean up its act under incessant attacks from behind the fence by the drunken abusive ex who thinks nothing of violating restraining orders and believes he has a sacred right to do so.
Last year, tired of waiting for the government to act, grassroots activists throughout Ukraine undertook a self-styled, anarchic effort at de-communization by throwing corrupt, pro-communist politicians into large garbage bins and posting these videos online.
Their bottled-up, spontaneous outburst also resulted in a massive unauthorized demolition of Lenin monuments all over Ukraine. That only threw more fuel on the smoldering separatist sentiment among the pro-Russian minority in Ukraine, as well as on the already blazing nationalism among a powerful majority in Russia, for whom attacks on communist symbols are no different from attacks against Russia itself.
In the end, communist movements in Ukraine and other Eastern European nations aren't as much about the Marxist theory as they are about the return of Russia's domineering role in the region. With the inevitability of a speeding freight train, a restoration of Russia's dominance will also bring back economic, cultural, and political subjugation, Russification, brain drain, persecution of local nationalism and the implied status of inferior people for all non-Russians.
The fascists of today are called anti-fascists
Kiev's official condemnation of Nazism serves a very different purpose: it aims to undercut Russia's grotesquely surreal canard that describes last year's Maidan Revolution in Kiev as a U.S.-backed fascist coup d'état. Repeated over and over, the Russian media's portrayal of Ukrainians as Nazis has gone a long way to pit ethnic Russians against the formerly brotherly nation.
This obvious logical folly would be laughable if it didn't continue to shape the minds of many in Russia and beyond, even despite the fact that Russia's own policies of land grab and national chauvinism almost exactly follow those of Nazi Germany in the years leading to WWII.
Trumped up with the reanimated "Great Patriotic War" rhetoric, the Kremlin's Goebbels-like propaganda is inspiring thousands of Russian volunteers to cross the border and shoot at imaginary fascists in eastern Ukraine, proving Winston Churchill's prophetic insight: "The fascists of the future will be called anti-fascists."
In contrast, this Russian-speaking volunteer from Kirghizstan, who had been also been misled by the propaganda on Russian television and arrived in eastern Ukraine on a moral quest to fight "fascists," eventually became disillusioned and returned home, accompanying the sealed coffins of two fellow Kyrgyz soldiers. "I thought that there were fascists there," he says in an interview to Radio Liberty, "but I didn't see any. We fought against the regular Ukrainian Army." Unlike the English-speaking "Texan" above, he was able to communicate with local residents and captive Ukrainian soldiers. "It turned out that everything was agitation, propaganda," he concludes. "This was really offensive to me."
Why now?
On May 9th Russia is going to celebrate Victory Day: the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to allied forces in World War II (the official Russians term for it is the "Great Patriotic War," which lasted from June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945).
This year's Victory Day was meant to be especially bombastic. Every more or less significant world leader had been invited to attend the military parade on Red Square. They were expected to stand side by side with Vladimir Putin, thus reaffirming the Russian (and, by extension, Soviet) military's leading role in the "struggle for peace," which would validate Russia's current policies and show everyone who's boss.
Until now Ukraine had been slavishly following Russia's lead in perpetuating Stalinist mythology of the "Great Patriotic War" - a trend jealously enforced by Russia as a symbol of Moscow's continued sway over the neighboring post-Soviet states. But another new law, adopted in Kiev along with the ban on communist and Nazi propaganda, has broken the old pattern.
From now on, Ukraine will join the rest of the world in marking the end of the war on May 8th, as the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives during World War II, in 1939-1945. After all, the war came to the western part of Ukraine two years before it came to Russia, after the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact started WWII by splitting Poland in half. What transpired in Ukraine wholly contradicts Russia's "Great Patriotic War" narrative.
The Nazi smear
The Red Army invasion into well-off western Ukraine (then part of Poland) in September of 1939 brought repressions and deportations, provoking armed resistance on the part of Ukrainian patriots. Upon the advance of the German army in 1941, nationalist groups organized into the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought against the Third Reich throughout the Nazi occupation. After the return of the Red Army in 1944 they continued to fight a losing battle against the communists in western Ukraine all the way through the mid-1950s. The Stalinist regime self-servingly described these anti-communist freedom fighters as Nazis - a myth in which most Ukrainians were later forced to believe under the threat of imprisonment, and which is still thoroughly cultivated in Russia.
Today many in Ukraine feel that the UPA fighters must be recognized and remembered along with other WWII heroes and victims. This notion is still being fiercely rejected by most Russians and those Soviet-era Ukrainians who can't part with the Soviet mythology, believing that the UPA were Nazi collaborators.
Thus, Russia's current allegation that the 2014 revolution in Ukraine was a Nazi coup orchestrated by the CIA and the U.S. State Department is not a new invention, but merely a modern-day remake of the hoary propagandistic myth started 70 years ago by Stalin.
Accordingly, Ukrainian parliament's official condemnation of Nazism was clearly an attempt to put that damaging Stalinist narrative to rest.
In an effort to replace the old Soviet symbolism with a new one, on April 7th Ukraine's First Lady Maryna Poroshenko attended a "Remembrance Poppy" event marking the anniversary of the Nazi surrender.
Since many older people may still want to follow the old Victory Day tradition on May 9th, the holiday will remain, but the phrase "the Great Patriotic War" will now be replaced by "World War II." Given that most Red Army veterans in Ukraine will likely parade with their Soviet medals in violation of the ban on communist symbols, enforcing the new law may put the government in an uncomfortable position. Perhaps the police will be advised to turn a blind eye; we'll have to wait and see.
As part of Russia's angry response to this legislation, its Foreign Ministry representative Konstantin Dolgov, endowed with an Orwellian title "Commissioner for Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law," called Ukraine's ban on communist ideology a "cynical move," which violates international obligations by depriving many of its citizens their legal rights. The E.U. and the U.S. should no longer ignore this," he wrote on his Twitter blog. The diplomat ended his statement on a surreal note, saying that a law that equates communism and Nazism somehow "reveals Kiev's depraved unwillingness to break with the neo-Nazis."
The Russian social media's reaction is a lot more vocal but a lot less quotable. In the minds of pro-Putin patriots, the world outside of Russia's borders is populated entirely by virulent Russophobes whose only purpose in life is to hurt Russia out of sheer hatred for Russia's big heart and spirituality. But, like a broken clock that shows the correct hour twice daily, this time they get it right: Ukraine's ban on both communist and Nazi propaganda is directed, quite deservedly, against Russia with its Orwellian policies.
Those fascist pigs!!!
Some commenters over at PJ Media remarked that I'm not providing enough details about certain events. That may be true, but in my defense, if I were to give more details, this article would have expanded to the size of a book.
My goal here was to give as clear a picture as possible in as little space as possible. For anything else, there's Wikipedia.
My goal here was to give as clear a picture as possible in as little space as possible. For anything else, there's Wikipedia.
Excellent article! And, while I agree with your point that length is an issue for an online article, you have unique experience and a perspective that anyone who was born and always lived here in the United States doesn't have --- especially as some people here in this country think Communist ideas are the "solution".
So, with that said, what about expanding it into something longer with more details and publishing it as an ebook? Break it into chapters with subheadings for different portions of a chapter. It doesn't have to be a huge ebook but this would give additional information for an issue that is very relevant to the United States. Charge $0.99 for it (the minimum on Amazon) since free is often dismissed.
I have always perceived the Differences between various Forms of Authoritarian Totalitarian Ideologies to be largely aesthetic and superficial.
These totalitarian governments and their ways to scapegoat groups, real or imaginary, to expand authority over others and 'good cause,' are limited not by a Constitution, but only by their own will, which is horrible and abusive.
You might as well make a book from the information and sell it. At least, you will get more revenue.
And, in thinking about it, I was originally saying $0.99 to get it to as many as possible without it being free. But don't do that. Put a reasonable Kindle price on it because it will have better reception at a higher price. And, you should make some money for the time involved.
You can do the $0.99 as an introductory price to get some conservative press on it. Then bring the price up to a more reasonable Kindle price.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I can format and publish another book, but the problem is that I'd have to stop maintaining the Cube for a while because that takes a lot of time.
It's a really scary situation over there. Today it's the Ukraine but what about tomorrow? I really do think that Putin is just the next Hitler. Just give this a few years to develop, what a horror show...
They're all leftists.
Kelly Ivanovna/келя ивановна
They're all leftists.
Yes. However, if you read mainstream history books or watch mainstream historical documentaries on TV, the official narrative states that Hitler's National Socialist (Nazi) regime was "extreme right wing." This narrative was concocted by the leftists in academia to create a false analogy between the conservative movements in America (e.g. the Tea Party) and Hitler's Nazi movement. If anything, the German Nazi party's tactics are most analogous to those of the Demokrat Party.
There is no fundamental difference between German Nazism, Soviet Communism, and American Progressivism. They all prescribe totalitarian control of the lives and deaths of the masses by a select few at the top of the party leadership.
Red Square
Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I can format and publish another book, but the problem is that I'd have to stop maintaining the Cube for a while because that takes a lot of time.Comrade Square, you don't need to burden yourself with multiple tasks. You have many here at the People's Cube to delegate some of your duties to.
[0FF]
Although the independent state of Ukraine has every right to reverse the honoring of communist figures by renaming streets and pulling down statues, banning Nazi and Communist symbols would violate the sacred right to free-speech for individuals. I often wonder if protecting our rights will end up sealing our doom, as radical Islam will use our freedom of religion to acquire status as a protected class for example. It is certainly worth debating. Another relevant example is that forcing the German youth to avoid any reference to the NAZI party has caused them to have a nostalgic reverence for it. These ideologies that we wish to suppress should be fought through the sunlight of truth, so that the uneducated cannot be misled nor mistaken about where the roads of fascism and communism lead.
I have found in my travels that many citizens of formerly communist nations have fond memories of 'the way things used to be', but I think that we as humans tend to remember the good memories and block out the bad, so far as it is possible. Even in the worst of circumstances, people find reasons to smile and laugh. Even in my own life, when I look back at the hardest times, they were always the richest. When our family had nothing, we became much more keenly aware that we had each other. We expressed our love by finding ways to interact and entertain one another.
We have the benefit of history on our side. Where the Left makes unrealistic promises about the future, we have the antidote, which is the empirical evidence of history. Unfortunately people are easily duped into believing what they wish could be true (i.e. Hope n' Change). The best way to combat these ideologies is with factual truths.
Although the independent state of Ukraine has every right to reverse the honoring of communist figures by renaming streets and pulling down statues, banning Nazi and Communist symbols would violate the sacred right to free-speech for individuals. I often wonder if protecting our rights will end up sealing our doom, as radical Islam will use our freedom of religion to acquire status as a protected class for example. It is certainly worth debating. Another relevant example is that forcing the German youth to avoid any reference to the NAZI party has caused them to have a nostalgic reverence for it. These ideologies that we wish to suppress should be fought through the sunlight of truth, so that the uneducated cannot be misled nor mistaken about where the roads of fascism and communism lead.
I have found in my travels that many citizens of formerly communist nations have fond memories of 'the way things used to be', but I think that we as humans tend to remember the good memories and block out the bad, so far as it is possible. Even in the worst of circumstances, people find reasons to smile and laugh. Even in my own life, when I look back at the hardest times, they were always the richest. When our family had nothing, we became much more keenly aware that we had each other. We expressed our love by finding ways to interact and entertain one another.
We have the benefit of history on our side. Where the Left makes unrealistic promises about the future, we have the antidote, which is the empirical evidence of history. Unfortunately people are easily duped into believing what they wish could be true (i.e. Hope n' Change). The best way to combat these ideologies is with factual truths.
Hammer and Loupe
Comrade Square, you don't need to burden yourself with multiple tasks. You have many here at the People's Cube to delegate some of your duties to.Well said - I wholeheartedly agree.While that would be a worthwhile endeavor, we still need our People’s cube fix!
Gummipuppe
There is no fundamental difference between German Nazism, Soviet Communism, and American Progressivism. They all prescribe totalitarian control of the lives and deaths of the masses by a select few at the top of the party leadership.I if may revise and extend your remarks (Talk about writing a book)
If there is anything that more vexing it is the persistent use by the left of symbols and terminology to muddy the waters and confuse the issues.
The want of the left is to constantly lie and confuse the issue – one of the originals is the "Nazis were right wing" nonsense but it has persisted and expanded into other realms.
The Nazis Were Socialists, Not Right-Wingers https://youtu.be/HzA7QomW4kY via @YouTube
BBC Documentary: North Korea isn’t really communist, it’s ‘far-right’ - Hot Air
Red and blue swapped by the left. Just before the 2000 election some smart cookie on the left decided to swap the political spectrum.
Time was the left was ‘Red’ – popular culture had the communism as reds etc.
Then that was magically changed around – with almost Orwellian type precision.
But I digress – this is how you can discern who is who without the symbols and terminology BS:
Leftists tend to favor Big
And while the names are changed to harm the innocent, the common attributes and schemes shine through to illustrate who is who.
Common attributes (in no particular order)
1. A government run as a dictatorship [Personality cult leadership]
Examples: Lenin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Obama.
2. One party rule – we’re getting there by hook or by crook.
3. Secret police to maintain state terror hold the people in ‘chek’
Examples: NKVD, Gestapo, AVO, Stasi, IRS... Or an example ripped from today’s headlines:
Wisconsin Tyranny – Leftists Use Force to Silence Political Opponents Like Scott Walker
4.Oppression of civil liberties – Freedom of speech, Freedom of Association, Self-defense, Property rights.
Need I mention the steady ‘progression’ by the left to disembowel the 1st & 2nd amendments?
Or the assault on ‘Freedom of Association’ with the IRS scandal?
As well as property right being constantly under assault from "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." - Karl Marx to Clinton “My job is to reshuffle(ing) the cards” of the stacked deck.
5. Tight control over the means of production (either by direct nationalization or regulation)
Nationalization of GM, healthcare, 2 year college education, etc.
6. Tight control over the press and information.
7. Government surveillance state – NSA spying, and who knows what else.
I could go on and on… but the point is that irregardless of the labels and names the leftists use to disguise themselves, their actions and programs are very similar – and that’s how ye shall know them.
Gummipuppe
Kelly Ivanovna/келя ивановна
They're all leftists.
Yes. However, if you read mainstream history books or watch mainstream historical documentaries on TV, the official narrative states that Hitler's National Socialist (Nazi) regime was "extreme right wing." This narrative was concocted by the leftists in academia to create a false analogy between the conservative movements in America (e.g. the Tea Party) and Hitler's Nazi movement. If anything, the German Nazi party's tactics are most analogous to those of the Demokrat Party.
There is no fundamental difference between German Nazism, Soviet Communism, and American Progressivism. They all prescribe totalitarian control of the lives and deaths of the masses by a select few at the top of the party leadership.
[OFF]Absolutely true Gummy Puppy! I shudder when I hear fascism referred to as an ideology of the right. Especially when said by American conservatives who ought to know better. Nazism has NOTHING in common with individual liberty for all. The difference, I believe, is which side of the Atlantic you happen to be on.
After years of instruction at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, I was perplexed to read 'The Road to Serfdom' by Austrian Economist Friedrich von Hayek, who referred to 'economic freedom' as 'liberalism'. There is certainly a difference in the political lexicon on the continent vs. the western hemisphere. Left vs. Right and Conservative vs. Liberal often have entirely different meanings there than they do here. The American political spectrum has individual liberty at one end (the right) and absolute tyranny at the other (the left).
Unfortunately, the political language has been hijacked to the point that an American and a European cannot have a meaningful coherant political conversation without first agreeing on the definition of the terminology to be used. It is largely the same when discussing religion with a Mormon, Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, Evangelical Christian, etc. They all use the same verbiage, but each of them has a different underlying definition of the terms they use, so there can be no honest conversation between them, and therefore no meaningful exchange of ideas.
The European political spectrum is entirely different, having national identity at one end (the right) and all of humanity at the other (the left). This is somewhat unique to Europe, because of the fact that there are so many different cultures and languages living side by side in a relatively small area. Nationalism is opposed by the Left due to the fact that it elevates the priorities and importance of its own citizens, economy, language and culture above those of foreigners. So when Europeans speak of 'the right', they mean patriotic citizens who are proud of their heritage and wish to preserve it. These are not necessarily the same as those who advocate for small government and individual freedom.
Comrades, How glorious will the day be when Godwin's law is amended to incorporate Russian Neo-Stalinism!
Can you imagine the implications that a new Omni-slur will have?
You can find Putinism in the Newspeak dictionary between "Warmonger" and "Nazi."*
Use it wisely!
*Take care that Putinism-2 :(Hateful Bigotry) is not to be confused with Putinism -1 (Common Sense Election Reforms)
Comrade Šterpin
...The want of the left is to constantly lie and confuse the issue – one of the originals is the "Nazis were right wing" nonsense but it has persisted and expanded into other realms.
The Nazis Were Socialists, Not Right-Wingers https://youtu.be/HzA7QomW4kY via @YouTube
BBC Documentary: North Korea isn’t really communist, it’s ‘far-right’ - Hot Air
Red and blue swapped by the left. Just before the 2000 election some smart cookie on the left decided to swap the political spectrum.
Time was the left was ‘Red’ – popular culture had the communism as reds etc.
Then that was magically changed around – with almost Orwellian type precision.
But I digress – this is how you can discern who is who without the symbols and terminology BS:
Leftists tend to favor Big
And while the names are changed to harm the innocent, the common attributes and schemes shine through to illustrate who is who.....
....I could go on and on… but the point is that irregardless of the labels and names the leftists use to disguise themselves, their actions and programs are very similar – and that’s how ye shall know them.
Well put, komrade Šterpin. The Demokrat progressive left in this country must use lies, deceit, and subterfuge to win elections. This is because if the low-information crowd actually took the time to pay attention and look behind the facade, enough would become so outraged that the party would fade into oblivion.
BTW, another thing that rubs me the wrong way is how all Germans in the Wehrmacht in WW2 are typically labeled as "Nazis." This would be like Germans referring to all Americans in the US armed forces during WW2 as "Demokrats."
Konservative_Punk
[OFF]Absolutely true Gummy Puppy! I shudder when I hear fascism referred to as an ideology of the right. Especially when said by American conservatives who ought to know better. Nazism has NOTHING in common with individual liberty for all. The difference, I believe, is which side of the Atlantic you happen to be on.
After years of instruction at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, I was perplexed to read 'The Road to Serfdom' by Austrian Economist Friedrich von Hayek, who referred to 'economic freedom' as 'liberalism'. There is certainly a difference in the political lexicon on the continent vs. the western hemisphere. Left vs. Right and Conservative vs. Liberal often have entirely different meanings there than they do here. The American political spectrum has individual liberty at one end (the right) and absolute tyranny at the other (the left).
Unfortunately, the political language has been hijacked to the point that an American and a European cannot have a meaningful coherant political conversation without first agreeing on the definition of the terminology to be used. It is largely the same when discussing religion with a Mormon, Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, Evangelical Christian, etc. They all use the same verbiage, but each of them has a different underlying definition of the terms they use, so there can be no honest conversation between them, and therefore no meaningful exchange of ideas.
The European political spectrum is entirely different, having national identity at one end (the right) and all of humanity at the other (the left). This is somewhat unique to Europe, because of the fact that there are so many different cultures and languages living side by side in a relatively small area. Nationalism is opposed by the Left due to the fact that it elevates the priorities and importance of its own citizens, economy, language and culture above those of foreigners. So when Europeans speak of 'the right', they mean patriotic citizens who are proud of their heritage and wish to preserve it. These are not necessarily the same as those who advocate for small government and individual freedom.
Great post, komrade Punk. I have had some discussions with Europeans about left vs. right and have been very frustrated because it's like there is no common ground.
Thank you to the kind hearted person who fixed my terrible editing job on my earlier post.
Much appreciated.
Much appreciated.
Gummipuppe
Well put, komrade Šterpin. The Demokrat progressive left in this country must use lies, deceit, and subterfuge to win elections. This is because if the low-information crowd actually took the time to pay attention and look behind the facade, enough would become so outraged that the party would fade into oblivion.
BTW, another thing that rubs me the wrong way is how all Germans in the Wehrmacht in WW2 are typically labeled as "Nazis." This would be like Germans referring to all Americans in the US armed forces during WW2 as "Demokrats."
Thank you for your kind words.
They brought to mind two additional items for the list of common traits:
8. An almost fanatical reliance on Lies and false narratives as a basis for a national communist/Facist/Marxist/Socialist/etc. agenda
Exemplified by the line"If you like you plan you can keep your plan"
9. Incessant use of scapegoats to deflect blame from the Leftists failed plans.
Antisemitism in the case of national socialist worker's party Germany.
Blaming Bush/ClimateChange/Racsim/Conservatives in the case of the Obama regime.
Comrade Šterpin
....
9. Incessant use of scapegoats to deflect blame from the Leftists failed plans.
Antisemitism in the case of national socialist worker's party Germany.
Blaming Bush/ClimateChange/Racsim/Conservatives in the case of the Obama regime.
Yes, but you forgot to mention the victims of the scapegoats. They are essential to the whole scapegoating tactic. The victims are convinced that the scapegoats are responsible for all of life's problems and pose some sort of a serious threat to them (and "the children"). Of course, the only remedy is for the victims to support the leftist candidates so they can use the power of government to settle the score, make everything "fair," and make everyone "safe."
Gummipuppe
Great post, komrade Punk. I have had some discussions with Europeans about left vs. right and have been very frustrated because it's like there is no common ground.Thank you GP. It was a bit long-winded, but to summarize my point, fascism is an ideology of the right by Europe's political spectrum, but not of the American spectrum. Communism, as Marx envisioned it, would be international and unite the people of the globe into one all-inclusive collective, and therefore does fit the Left side of both the European and American political spectrums. One should make a distinction when speaking of 'left' and 'right' as to whether one is referring to the American 'left' or 'right'. It is a pain, but one that is necessary in order to be correctly understood. Of course, the vast majority of low-info debate opponents will only know 'right bad, left good'.
Not to stray away from the serious discussion here, I remembered this picture by a modern Russian artist Vasili Shulzhenko showing Lenin's bust in a small town park.
This may better explain what kind of legacy Ukraine is trying to get rid of by removing Lenin monuments, and why Russia is taking such removal as an attack on its traditions and culture.
On the other hand, this could be today's People's Cube outing outside the bunker, as the kollektive celebrates Earth Day/Lenin's Birthday.
This may better explain what kind of legacy Ukraine is trying to get rid of by removing Lenin monuments, and why Russia is taking such removal as an attack on its traditions and culture.
On the other hand, this could be today's People's Cube outing outside the bunker, as the kollektive celebrates Earth Day/Lenin's Birthday.
When you own the best satirical site on the web, it is serious discussions that are doing the interrupting...
Or, as most equal comrade Yakov Smirnoff, would say,
In soviet internet, Serious Thread interrupt YOU!
Or, as most equal comrade Yakov Smirnoff, would say,
In soviet internet, Serious Thread interrupt YOU!
Konservative_Punk
Of course, the vast majority of low-info debate opponents will only know 'right bad, left good'.I have encountered instances of progressive worldwide to whom politics is only about intangibles like peace love and understanding. The right = hatred. This is how they pass off Stalin and Kim Jong Un as Conservatives.
As I've written earlier, love and hate are two sides of the same coin. If you love something, you will naturally hate that which endangers the object of your affection. The stronger the love, the stronger the hate, and vice versa. Also, no hate = no love (e.g., arugula salad).
Thus, any talk of love and hate as factors in politics is utterly pointless.
It's a feature of oblivious progressivism, designed to help them win any argument without having to learn anything about the subject matter.
Thus, any talk of love and hate as factors in politics is utterly pointless.
It's a feature of oblivious progressivism, designed to help them win any argument without having to learn anything about the subject matter.
Wait!!? What?!! What's the problem with arugula salad? Whatever else you may want to criticize about politics, arugula salad is untouchable! That's the third rail! Green is the new Red and you've just offended me beyond consolation or even compromise! I demand execution! I don't care if you are the founder of The People's Cube! Nobody is above The Party™! Racist™! Bigot™! Environmental Vandal™!
Well said, Comrade!
"There is no fundamental difference between German Nazism, Soviet Communism, and American Progressivism. They all prescribe totalitarian control of the lives and deaths of the masses by a select few at the top of the party leadership."
Well said Gummipuppe! Well said. But you need a fourth horseman to this Apocalypse - European Socialism.
I recently read the book, Liberal Fascism. It was almost as painfully boring to read as Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. But more than anything else that I took away from that book, Liberal Fascism describes in detail how Communism, Progressivism, Communism and Socialism aren't just close cousins, they are inbred siblings.
The best use of a Time Machine - besides winning lottery numbers - would be to go back in time and kill History's greatest monsters - Stalin, Lenin, Marx, Trotsky, Pol Pot, Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Frank Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Kim Il Sung, Robert Mugabe, Mohammed, Khomeini, the Castros, Woodrow Wilson, and most of all - that French cheese-eating surrender monkey Rousseau.
Well said Gummipuppe! Well said. But you need a fourth horseman to this Apocalypse - European Socialism.
I recently read the book, Liberal Fascism. It was almost as painfully boring to read as Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. But more than anything else that I took away from that book, Liberal Fascism describes in detail how Communism, Progressivism, Communism and Socialism aren't just close cousins, they are inbred siblings.
The best use of a Time Machine - besides winning lottery numbers - would be to go back in time and kill History's greatest monsters - Stalin, Lenin, Marx, Trotsky, Pol Pot, Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Frank Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Kim Il Sung, Robert Mugabe, Mohammed, Khomeini, the Castros, Woodrow Wilson, and most of all - that French cheese-eating surrender monkey Rousseau.
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