Sore Loserman

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

That Ibram, in his middle teens, can't recognize a communist when he hears one doesn't make my understanding any less valid,

Ibram's age is irrelevant. Nobody except you thinks that tw is communist. Of any age.

Do or do not the Communists blame America first, and perennially?

Do or do not the Communists undermine American military efforts to the best of their ability?

Do or do not the Communists prefer that America never take any action abroad, ever?

None of those have anything to do with communism. Are you just using the word "communist" to mean "person who doesn't like some aspects of US foreign policy"? Your rehabilitation of McCarthy seems to suggest so.

I guess that mystery is solved.

[Ibby]

From the day I joined to today, tw has said nothing anti-libertarian and nothing pro-communism. I think that alone totally negates everything youre saying. He DOESN'T support america wholeheartedly in every case, but only a fool would. Democracies are not always right and non-democracies are not always wrong. I'll say it again, what you are saying is on par with 'it has fur, a tail, and hooves, so it must be a horse!'
It's that kind of logic that gets you sitting atop a cow. Show me one single quote where tw says a single thing in support of communism and I'll give an ounce of credit to your claims that he is a communist. Until then, I still think he's a better, more democratic, more openminded, more kind person than you, UG.

[Ibby]

Oh, real mature, bringing my age into it. You're only jealous cause I keep ripping your argument apart.

Once again, for good measure: Name ONE time tw has ever said that communism is a good thing.


EDIT: and keep in mind that I did live in a communist country for three years.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Speaking of remarkable degrees of maturity...

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Happy Monkey, you are wrong about that having nothing to do with Communism, though you could get right were you to start reading some history of the Soviets' actions -- for those were exactly the things they tried. Try looking in your public library. Please keep in mind that unlike you, I have some experience of this stuff. I know you don't because you'd sound more like me if you did.

Ibram's age has this relevance: he's post-Cold War, and hasn't done a lot of international-relations and history study for that period -- not having had time, nor apparently interest. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it means he doesn't yet have an informed opinion. This is why he might believe he can rip my argument apart, but has not done so.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Happy Monkey, you are wrong about that having nothing to do with Communism,

No. They are completely orthogonal to Communism.

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Ibram's age has this relevance: he's post-Cold War, and hasn't done a lot of international-relations and history study for that period -- not having had time, nor apparently interest. Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it means he doesn't yet have an informed opinion. This is why he might believe he can rip my argument apart, but has not done so.

Once again, you prove yourself to be a prejudicial, presumptuous idiot. I actually know more about WWII-Cold War than about any other period in history, except what I've been alive in. I know all about communists and what they did and how they did it. I also know that doing things and saying things and believing things that resemble what the communists did and said and believed does not make you a communist any more than breathing (which the communists did) or eating (which the lucky commmunists did) or sleeping (which the communists did). You are a communist if you believe in communism and believe that a communist government is the right way to go.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Ibram

I know all about communists and what they did and how they did it. I also know that doing things and saying things and believing things that resemble what the communists did and said and believed does not make you a communist any more than breathing (which the communists did) or eating (which the lucky commmunists did) or sleeping (which the communists did). You are a communist if you believe in communism and believe that a communist government is the right way to go.

Then you should have recognized tw as a communist before I did, if you know so much about it. Kid, you're not proving your expertise by me, not so far. Show me knowledge, not rose fertilizer or bluster, okay?

As for the rest of your para, I'd call that drawing a distinction without a difference. If it quacks like a communist duck... Orwell had a word for that: duckspeak.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

not rose fertilizer or bluster, okay?

That's all you've got. The only thing you've raised about tw is that he doesn't like some aspects of US foreign policy. That has nothing to do with communism.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Please keep in mind that unlike you, I have some experience of this stuff.

You keep saying this, and we keep asking, but you never answer: WHAT TOTALITARIAN REGIME do you claim to have lived under?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

You keep saying this, and we keep asking, but you never answer: WHAT TOTALITARIAN REGIME do you claim to have lived under?

I'm guessing he's referring to the army.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

You keep saying this, and we keep asking, but you never answer: WHAT TOTALITARIAN REGIME do you claim to have lived under?

I guess you missed it when I did answer (and I must say I can't recall you asking): this was my military service in the United States Navy. Militaries are totalitarian societies, or subcultures if you will. That you have the option to quit at the end of your enlistment doesn't reduce the totalitarian nature of the organization; it's a safety valve or perhaps an emergency exit.

I have not claimed, nor shall I ever, to have been a Romanian exile or something. Being in an armed service is a sufficient lessoning in totalitarianism for any reasonable person.

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Being in an armed service is a sufficient lessoning in totalitarianism for any reasonable person.

Does anyone here besides UG agree with this statement?


I wont deny that the military is totalitarian, my dad's in it, I should know, but being in the US military is still much less totalitarian and much more free than being a citizen in most if not all totalitarian states. For example, in the military you need to get leave to go someplace. In China (if not currently then only a few years ago) , whether in the military or not, you need to get permission from the government, have a clear purpose in going, have forms filled out in triplicate... etc.

Being in the military, while a similar experience, is not experience enough. Its only marginally more than any other semi-learned person (if you even qualify as such), and not more at all than someone who has studied them. Or lived in one. Grown up in one, in fact.

Like HM said, all youve got is 'rose fertilizer and bluster'. I'm logically and reasonably backing up what I say.

Youre getting completely out-argued by a teenager. And at risk of sounding cocky, I'm fairly certain most if not all readers here would agree.

[BigV]

Navy

[WabUfvot5]

Where do those of us who weren't around in Communism's terrible reign of unimaginable cruelty go to find information which will identify tw as the "hammer & sickle painted on his barn" commie you imply he is? Somehow all my schooling thus far has glossed over this crucial information.