bubosquared | (no subject)

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Random question of the day. How prevalent (and how rabid) is anti-communism amongst the USA's general public?

Hm. I may not be the best person to ask, because I tend to have socialist leanings in my political philosophies, but I do think there's still a sense that "Communism is evil!" in the general public. I don't think it's really that rabid, really...I think it's much more of an insidious kind of thing...it's a lot more in the subconscious than it is in the forefront.

At least from what I've seen.

I think it depends on where in the country you are... it's not as intense as back in the 60's, and if you're in a college town, unless the college is like, Brigham Young University, then there's a lot of Communist and Socialist idealists... "Socialist" is one of the parties you can choose for your affiliation when you register to vote, at least in Oregon.

It is not uncommon for someone to shout "You Communist!" at someone who says something they don't like. Now, this is much in the same way that someone would shout "You psycho!", and I'm fairly certain that most people who say it don't actually associate it with actually communistic (word?) ideas, but. Still, the negative sentiment is there.

Like Sorcha said, it depends on where you live. Although it's still in the subconscious of just about every one, especially those of us who grew up during the Cold-War era (and more especially the baby boomers who grew up under McCarthyism).

People are pretty tolerant of Socialist and Communist ideas, as least the people I know. Then again, I live in the ivory tower of academia. :)

Oh, it's rabid alright. Just look at the civil rights era...any effort to obtain human and civil rights was considered communist. Still is in many cases.

Oh, not as bad as it used to be. There is still the mindset of 'Communism = Bad' (which I actually agree with because the human species is too imperfect to be able to handle it, so it's really the human factor not the credo). But, it's not rabid anymore, not in the general populace. Oh, you still have the ocassional moron, but that's like KKK and stuff. It'll never go away completely. ¬_¬

I won't go as far to say that Communism is inherently evil or anything, but I am strongly anti-Communism because not only is it simply a failed system, it completely throws liberty out the door for the sake of the "unfortunate." Communism does nothing but create a static economy with absolutely no driving innovative force, which ultimately fails, whereas Capitalism (true Capitalism, not the crap thats going on in Russia) is literally the only system by which people are free to live their lives, without becoming financial slaves to others.

http://www.moraldefense.com

actually, something my mother and i were discussing was this. it started around the fact that i commented that in movies, all of the aliens are communists. the aliens being enemies, this is portrayed negatively, but the aliens are also portrayed as being much more smarter and advanced. so, one wonders, is it a mindfuck, or are movie makers not realizing the paradox/contradiction [depending on how you look at it] that theyre creating?

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