Why is America so afraid of communism?

[Poindexter2291]

History is one of my worst subjects, but I recently read a book about the Cuban revolution and I saw how obvious it was that the U.S. was afraid of communism, they did everything in order to convince Cuba to sway from communism. Growing up I always thought of communists as savage people who had to be taken out of power, but this is obviously not the case. Are these fears against communism justifiable and necessary?

[Norse]

Ask the 40-50 million people Stalin killed.

[leafs43]

In the short term it empowers the poor. What poor person wouldn;t want to live the exact same life as a rich person?

In the long term however it just makes almost everyone poor except for the ruling class which tends to be a closed system in itself.


Communism = death of the middle class.

[Poindexter2291]

In the short term it empowers the poor. What poor person wouldn;t want to live the exact same life as a rich person?

In the long term however it just makes almost everyone poor except for the ruling class which tends to be a closed system in itself.


Communism = death of the middle class.

how does everybody become poor in the long run?

from what I understand, the only thing bad about communism is that it causes people to lose ambition to work harder than they have to because everybody is given the same thing.

I'll give reps to anybody who can help me understand this better....

[PickItUp]

Ask the 40-50 million people Stalin killed.

Any dictator would have killed those people. Communism is different from a dictatorship. Communism is an economic policy, not a method of governing. Comparing communism to a dictatorship is like comparing an apple to a steak.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are among a group of economic doctrine.

Democracy, Dictatorships are part of political governing doctrines.

In the US, we have a capitalistic democracy.

[Ibanez]

Ask the 40-50 million people Stalin killed.

Should we ask the capitalist Andrew Jackson, the master of the indian removal program, how his ethnic genocide went?

History is one of my worst subjects, but I recently read a book about the Cuban revolution and I saw how obvious it was that the U.S. was afraid of communism, they did everything in order to convince Cuba to sway from communism. Growing up I always thought of communists as savage people who had to be taken out of power, but this is obviously not the case. Are these fears against communism justifiable and necessary?

Workers rights usually get lumped in with communism. You can see this in the 1917s when the miners were striking for 8 hr days and better work conditions and were labeled as communist threats.

[miscipedia]

Ask the 40-50 million people Stalin killed.

correlation doesnt mean causation. With that same logic, americans would be afrid of christianity.

[frankenstein]

An appropriate response to why communism is terrible is a lengthy one. It requires the constant violation of people's civil and economic rights. It sounds nice on paper, but in reality it assures that everyone is dirt poor, except the politicians. Competition is the strongest driving force that advances mankind. It gets destroyed by communism and thereby destroys nearly all the potential for a society. The shortest overarching answer as to specifically why the US despised communism is because it requires the nonstop violation of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

[jetblackz1]

Because of the greed of few dictators.

There's nothing inherintly 'bad' about comminusm as I understand though,

[leafs43]

how does everybody become poor in the long run?

from what I understand, the only thing bad about communism is that it causes people to lose ambition to work harder than they have to because everybody is given the same thing.

I'll give reps to anybody who can help me understand this better....

Communism attempts to put everyone on the same level. That means poor equal the rich. Now by conservation we just can't give all the poor the same amount of money that rich have, because that is of course is preposterious and impossible because of limited supply.

Therefore to make the poor equal the rich the government has to redistribute wealth. Basically it has to take money away from the rich to give to the poor. Now if the majority is poor and the minority is rich how do you think this redistribution works? It breaks down the rich and puts the rich at the same level as the poor, so in essence it makes the rich poor.

The only ones that have money, usually through corruption, are the people that redistribute the wealth because they have the all the power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely as we know.

[Rambo26]

No private property...

Sounds like a nightmare, I'd have been scared

[Poindexter2291]

k, i have somewhat of a better understanding... thank you

[HoosierBoy]

Any dictator would have killed those people. Communism is different from a dictatorship. Communism is an economic policy, not a method of governing. Comparing communism to a dictatorship is like comparing an apple to a steak.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are among a group of economic doctrine.

Democracy, Dictatorships are part of political governing doctrines.

In the US, we have a capitalistic democracy.

Has Communism ever existed absent dictatorship? Shouldn't that tell us something?

[leafs43]

Has Communism ever existed absent dictatorship? Shouldn't that tell us something?

It actually has but not in nation form.

I believe some native americans perfected communal living which is communism. But that is a smaller amount of people who are in the immediate area.

Large scale communism however always needs a dictator as long as people are greedy, which is forever.

[frankenstein]

Because of the greed of few dictators.

There's nothing inherintly 'bad' about comminusm as I understand though,

It sounds nice theoretically. But in practice it requires control, control, control. Central planning doesn't work well at all. The ridiculous central planning ideas put forth by the US govt fail constantly, let alone in a communist state.

[Vadim Beliaev]

Communism is the worst nightmare of the overly materialistic consumerist society which is the USA and Western Europe.
Easily to see why it is hated so much.

[kev108]

Any dictator would have killed those people. Communism is different from a dictatorship. Communism is an economic policy, not a method of governing. Comparing communism to a dictatorship is like comparing an apple to a steak.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are among a group of economic doctrine.

Democracy, Dictatorships are part of political governing doctrines.

In the US, we have a capitalistic democracy.

x2 reps

[leafs43]

Communism is the worst nightmare of the overly materialistic consumerist society which is the USA and Western Europe.
Easily to see why it is hated so much.

U mad?

[Vadim Beliaev]

why would i be?

[jetblackz1]

It sounds nice theoretically. But in practice it requires control, control, control. Central planning doesn't work well at all. The ridiculous central planning ideas put forth by the US govt fail constantly, let alone in a communist state.

Correct. Though I was looking at it as a collaborative thing like Anarchism which supposedly worked well in places like Spain but for different reasons maybe.


see below:

It actually has but not in nation form.

I believe some native americans perfected communal living which is communism. But that is a smaller amount of people who are in the immediate area.

Large scale communism however always needs a dictator as long as people are greedy, which is forever.

[US_Ranger]

It actually has but not in nation form.

I believe some native americans perfected communal living which is communism. But that is a smaller amount of people who are in the immediate area.

Large scale communism however always needs a dictator as long as people are greedy, which is forever.

Exactly. Ask an anthropologist, communism/anarchism only works in small groups.

[nordicnacho]

The funny thing is China is paying for a large part of the war in Iraq.

[rampagefc77]

Any dictator would have killed those people. Communism is different from a dictatorship. Communism is an economic policy, not a method of governing. Comparing communism to a dictatorship is like comparing an apple to a steak.

Capitalism, Socialism, and Communism are among a group of economic doctrine.

Democracy, Dictatorships are part of political governing doctrines.

In the US, we have a capitalistic democracy.

communism is possibly a good idea, but it has never been implentmented successfully. It is always coupled with a harsh dictatorship. So sure, on paper these are separated, but in real life that isnt the case. Stalin, Mao zedong, dude from cuba, they were all communist.... howd that work out for them? their countries?

[_tehOak]

Communism is the worst nightmare of the overly materialistic consumerist society which is the USA and Western Europe.
Easily to see why it is hated so much.

LoL, repped.

[Nagalfar]

Maybe because communism has killed more people in the 20th century than all other wars COMBINED..

Pol Pot, est 1.7 million people.

Stalin, est 23 million people.

Mao, est 49-78,000,000 million people (some U.N. estimates go as high as 300 million)

Kim Il Sung, 1.6 million people.

I am not even going to bother listing all the wanna be thugs who made it close to 1 million but ran out of people or time before stopping.

[Dave22reborn]

Well let's see, state control's pretty much everything, religion is eliminated, individualism is wiped out.

[J_Mart2387]

Communism ****ing rules!

[PickItUp]

communism is possibly a good idea, but it has never been implentmented successfully. It is always coupled with a harsh dictatorship. So sure, on paper these are separated, but in real life that isnt the case. Stalin, Mao zedong, dude from cuba, they were all communist.... howd that work out for them? their countries?

All of those options are better than what's going on in Rwanda and other countries that have a dictatorship with NO concern for the citizens.

Communism at its heart has the people in mind. None of those vile human beings was actually implementing communism. Afterall, human greed pretty much defeats what communism is after. Capitalism at its core thrives on money and greed. Either of these doctrines taken to the extreme will cause disasterous consequences.

Once you taste the power, you have been corrupted.

I feel that a properly motivated communist society has every chance of survival as does a capitalistic democracy. It's when you factor in human greed, and the fact that most communist dictatorships tend to DISARM the people...that the tables of control get all ****ed up.

When the US govt. starts taking away our guns, it's time to worry.

[Beatitude]

Because they are opposite economic ideologies. An individualist would value market liberalism and personal success or failure, and communism embraces collectivism.
It's like dumping oil and water in a cup together and being like "Why can't they just live together?"

[jay81]

Maybe because communism has killed more people in the 20th century than all other wars COMBINED..

Pol Pot, est 1.7 million people.

Stalin, est 23 million people.

Mao, est 49-78,000,000 million people (some U.N. estimates go as high as 300 million)

Kim Il Sung, 1.6 million people.

I am not even going to bother listing all the wanna be thugs who made it close to 1 million but ran out of people or time before stopping.

Hey ... let's not forget the 20 000 people who die each and every day from starvation alone, though...