I just love that there's anyone out there with the patience to argue, debate, explain, and re-explain things to Lucas over and over again.  Good stuff.

Who would have thought LW was one of them as well.

quote]Heh, Mason, if you haven't figured it out yet, 'AnthemRoad' is our old buddy Lucas, reinvented for the umpteenth time.[/quote]

Thanks whip, not like I didn't mention it in my very first article. Nope, of course not.

Irrational, illogical fear. I'm not sayiing they shouldn't have been cautious, but seriously, some of the stuff that happened then, the paranoia...puh-lease. 

Also, I meant that comment in general, not specifc. I'm just tired of people implying I'm stupid or naive. I'm neither. Yes, I am ignorant of some things, everyone is of one thing or another. however, I am always learning because i love to learn, and so over time my ignorance.

People, again, I'm not naive.

Doc, do you truly listen? I'm not saying ignore the atrocities, i'm not saying that we should forget. God forbide we forget, because if we do we open ourselves to letting it happen again.

...and I think you failed reading comprehension.

I quit. I'm not normally a quiter, but you know, there's a point when you're trying to get a point across, when it's just banging your head against a brick wall. You're bleeding profusely, but you still do it.

Later.

I comprehend well enough, why don't you enlighten me further with your definition of socialism/communism instead of the superior left wing elitist "cop out answer" attitude? 

An article everyone on this site was so happy to read it's the highest scoring article on the site, right? I must have been out that week though, cause this is the first time I see your name.

Lucas the problem with your or anyone else's socialism is the fundamental fact that someone ELSE is telling how much and how often I should contribute to the betterment of society.  In addition to the fact that someone ELSE again gets to determine WHERE that money goes. 

If you aren't smart enough to figure that one out then, that would be why you support socialism? 

If so, don't impose your nanny state on me, just go back and live with mommy and daddy.

Charles, don't feel bad I missed the welcome wagon too.

Guess what, someone else already tells us where our taxes go nationally. The only exception is when you get down to the state and/or city/county level. We don't vote on national budgets, someone else does. Our elected leaders decide it, i.e. the government. For that matter, we're also told how much and how often...with taxes. It's in how much we pay, and when we pay every year. Not only that, but guess what, we also have taxes when it comes to parks and government things like that.

Welcome to a socialistic/capitalistic democratic republic of the united states of america.

Your argument is weak based on that one thing. Now, if you don't like what I'm suggesting, alright. To each their own opinion, no biggie. I don't take things personal anymore (I do get frustrated though).

First off, lay off the assumptions, it makes you come across as an asshole.

Secondly, i'm not some superior left wing elitist. Jesus e'fing christ, will you quit with that sort of shit. Seriously, please, that whole idea is childish.

For what it's worth: 

My definition of socialism, or better yet, my view of socialism is that it should serve the people. Take it and eliminate the control aspects. I'm not advocating full fledged socialism, as i mentioned earlier...it won't work, because of people, us/ourselves. Example, healthcare.My goal is that everyone is covered, either by the national health care or private. 

With socialism, you don't have to have complete gov't control. Look at our nation.

Also, if we got rid of every socialist aspect (or at least slimmed it down) as lulla mentioned, then we can say good by to such things as

Almost funny;see the following.

Link

There, that is what I meant. If you had looked into what I said (i.e. researched), then you would've known instead of having been a douche bag.

Thank you for answering my question.  Tell mommy and daddy hi.

Again with the childish stuff, what gives?

Likewise.

That's all I needed to read to understand you. Come back when you have some real-life experience. I was knee deep in the cold war (you might have heard about it since it espouses your socialist/communist beliefs) when you were still squirting green. I'll bet your liberal teachers love your papers, good for you. Here's some advice, change your blog name again and start over, your cred is zero with me anyway (I'm sure you'll lose sleep over that).

Yeah it wasn't too hard to figure out.

I'm fascinated, just where is an example of "true communism" (since I'm assuming by true communism you mean the pure/ideal communism)? (just that you earlier mentioned that communism in it's pure form will never work).

One of the reasons Hitler was able to rise to power was due to peoples fear of the communists (well, that and blaming a fire on them), and he managed to convince a country to elect him, and parliament to make him a dictator, so I'm a bit sceptical that communism wouldn't be viewed as worrying by people without the McCarthy era. The general idea behind communism - that everyone works for the good of the country/the state, and the government operates a command economy - is terrifying to me since it would destroy the economy of a country if implimented, compared to a more capitalist approach.

I agree that the US and Europe have socialist elements in their systems of government, the most noticeable being how almost all of them feature progressive taxes. I disagree that going further down the path of socialism is a good thing though.

Whip, my war with you is over; it's been over for a long time, so I'd appreciate it if you just to stop firing at me and leave me be. No matter what you say about me in terms of trying to kick the puppy, I know I'm a good guy. I know this. You're not going to bring me down, so just don't bother. Have a nice day.

You know, I honestly will not lose any sleep  I'm just truly sorry you didn't get the simple points I was trying to make, and the concessions as well that I made.

What I'm trying to get across, is that theoretically, ideally...as Marx/Engels put forth, they could work. However, because of humans, the real world, etc... it won't play out right. Essentially, it's a good idea, but when you put it in play it crashes. I'm also saying that the USSR is a bad example of communism because in communism you're supposed to have a classless society, everything is supposed to be for the people. You had classes in the Soviet Union, like it or not.

See, what some aren't getting, or perhaps I'm not getting across well enough (I'm more than willing to admit the latter) - is that i'm not some loony liberal communist/socialist, I'm just more willing to look at everything that is available and use it. I'm not going to get all paranoid or angry about the idea of using socialism, or at least a part. If a bolt in the socialistic idea will fit into our economy, and work - I'm game. I'm not so much about strict ideals (not to say I dont have any, i do), but about getting the job done. A politician is supposed to fix things and serve the people, not spout anti whatever rhetoric. In the real world, a part of the real world, is acknowledging what works and what doesn't. Like I said, if I see something that looks promising - like say universal healthcare - I'm not going to just toss it away because it'sa big bad socialist idea, because you know what, down the road maybe we'll find something that works with it that takes care of the cautious aspects of it.

Am I getting anything across? Seriously, I'm not some loon. I just suck at explaining apparently (among other things, geesh).

The communists? I could've sworn it was the Jews he blamed the big fire on, or maybe it was crime. I'll have to go look that up again because now I'm curious. (Not that I feel you're lying, I just prefer to look things up on my own)

What I'm trying to say by that, is: I've no doubt there would be those who would be worried over it. Various people have various worries over various things, it's just the way things are. The whole McCarthy thing blew the paranoia to huge proportions, moreso than what was needed in my opinion. Yes, be cautious and on guard, but to go and blacklist people and jail people because they happened to have different views  (i.e. communist ones), is just crap. We're nation that was founded on diversity. Now if they had been planning an overthrow, or assination or such - then yeah there's justification. Even then, we have laws for a reason, likewise, we have a contitution for a reason. Another example of stuff like this is with Woodrow wilson and the espionage act. They locked up one guy because he argued against the first world war due to the economics of it.

Any point hitting home?

Also, what's with the bashing the education system? Some of you got your education from these places. Do they mean nothing to you? Seriously, come on.