Commies?!?

Lately, I've noticed in increase in the use of the word 'Communist’ as a slur for Liberals or just anyone who doesn't like Bush or the Neocon Agenda. My first reaction is to giggle, as it's 2004, not 1954 and there really aren't all that many Commies in this country, certainly none that are a threat (unless you consider the Trust Fund Trot at the corner coffee shop a threat).

So, is it just Cold War lingo dredged up out of the meme pool or is there more to it than that?

Well considering that the further into time we go, the closer the two parties get to each other, I'd say its just people trying to drudge up the commie hate/fear of yesterday. YEA SOCIALISM IS THE DEVIL!

Haven't you heard, homeland security is the new McCarthyism!

Yeah, but do we have to recycle the same tired old slurs? Can't they come up with some new ones? Or just go for the little used, like Pinko or Quisling? All I'm asking for, is a little bit of ingenuity, put a new face on the same old conformist rhetoric.

I have also knowticed this. It makes me chuckle, but I also wonder why I am branded with this term when I argue against Homeland security.

I prefer the more dignified "pinko."

It's a cop-out for those who don't know what the fuck they are talking about. Same goes for those who call the other side "nazis".

I'm personally fond of Michael "Savage" Weiner's "red diaper doper babies".

But I really like what the Bush administration calls us:

"the reality-based community".

Ah, yes! The reality-based comminuty! Would that make us Realies?

If that makes me a realist then what does that make them?

I actually find it kind of amusing. I thought they were aware that communist isn't scary anymore.
I call myself a social-democrat all the time.

Well look at who the ones throwing the slur around. They usually aren't known for their political activities.

I sometimes call myself a socialist, just to watch people's eyes bug out. But I as well define myself (in my head, mostly) as a Social-Dem. One of those Quislings who'd like the US to be mor elike Canada or the UK. And somehow, my desire for Universal Health Care and decent Public Education makes me a "Commie". Go fig.

Probably start hearing it even more, once Russia starts doing its oil trade in euros instead of us dollars..
Not that they're commies anymore or anything

Hey like I say "Better Red than Dead" >runs<

[Edited on Nov 01, 2004 by Knights_Cross]

Ah, yes... now that guy's a loon. And a botanist, apparently...

March 8, 1970

"Dear Allen:
After speaking to you on the phone about how nice the black-white thing is in mountain villages in Fiji, I walked downstairs to the school courtyard, where a little-known black brother looks at me, takes my hand gently, we do some old-world Lower East Side finger tricks, and he peacefully kisses the back of my hand - I do the same for his hand. I told him about our brief talk, and he says, "I must have felt the vibes."

Michael Weiner
Botany Dept.
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, HI

(from michaelsavagesucks.com)

Okay, I just googled that, and I wasn't aware that he actually said that. Amazing...

[Edited on Nov 01, 2004 by Attack_Macaque]

[Edited on Nov 01, 2004 by Attack_Macaque]

and his son owns Rockstar energy drink

Yea it kind of blew my mind when I started hearing "commie" being thrown around.

It's meme tactics, nothing more. Using a familiar word in order to enoke a pre-programmed response in the majority of Americans.

I sure know that I knew that the Red Skull was the super the villian in Captain America. That the commies where the evil bad guys in Rambo, and that the Smurfs was a communist conspiracy. So in all honesty, the use of the word does still draw me back to my childhood when it actually WAS a dirty word.

So, it's a meme tactic.

Face it, we're as pre-programmed as the computers we type on.

Well, Papa Smurf DID wear a red hat...

I guess it is because straw men never go out of style.

Historically speaking though, the accusation of "Communism" has been very effective in dividing the Left (and working class/union politics). I saw this trend really pick up after September 11. The strategy is roughly: call the liberals radical, watch them turn on the far Left to distinguish themselves as a separate group, and then push forward a conservative agenda without meeting unified resistance. They try to force the "we're not the radicals, these other guys are" response from the liberals.

The same thing is going on in terms of patriotism. If the far Right accuses liberals of being unpatriotic and giving them guilt-by-association with Leftist defeatists, then the liberals will turn on the far Left.

Kerry, however, has proved very effective in preventing this sort of digression. I can remember the influence this sort of tactic had on intellectuals in 2001 and 2002 though.

Anyway, as a Marxist, I can't really complain when I'm called a Communist... (and I have no trust fund).

I'd be psyched if someons said i might as well be "in league with the Red Skull!"

Anyway, wasn't he the nazi that killed bucky? Did he end up a communist?

I always thought Doom was cooler. I think I'll start the Legion of Doom. Oh, wait...

I DIDN"T MEAN IT MISTER G-MAN!!! DON"T TAP MY PHONES!

heh, the Commiebots..good punk band

I'm gonna start using that, but not much...

could someone explain to me why "reality-based community" is a slur?
i'm australian, i don't understand

pinko