> I think you have a point here. We have to remember that what most
> Americans mean by "anti-communism" is not necessarily what leftists
> might mean. Ever since 1917, very diligent right wing/big business
> propaganda in the U.S. dinned the equation "left = horrible, loathsome
> Bolshie monsters slaughtering and starving innocent Russian peasants,
> etc." into Americans' ears, to the point that no self-respecting
> middle-class American (or American aspiring to middle-class status,
> which is just about everyone in the working class) would want to have
> anything to do with anything that might oppose big business.
>
> This propagandizing has been so thorough and so successful that even
> today, long after the "communism" of the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s has
> had any actual presence in the world, I would bet you that most
> Americans still shudder at the mention of the "C-word."
No. Most Americans will not shudder at the mention of the "C-word" and it's the Left's inability to be more assertive in light of this fact that is the Left's fault. While I don't have raw numbers at my fingertips, let's assume that everybody under the age of 30 has never been exposed to anti-communist propaganda. It might be that everybody under the age of 35 haven't been exposed to any anti-communist rhetoric. I'm 38 and grew up with it, but I was 24 when the Berlin Wall fell. There wasn't much anti-communist propaganda around that time, so America has two generations that haven't been exposed to any form of systematic anti-communism.
I realized this back in 1999 when I was a lone protester outside the NATO summit in Washington. A group of high school guys from Pennsylvania came by and asked me to pose with them for a tourist photo. This was a sea change from being a student activist during the 1980s when you would
get more hostile reaction from people for advocating leftist views and protesting.
This is why 9-11 was such a dangerous opening for the American right. They can no longer rely on anti-communism to demonize leftists, but now "terrorists" are the new bogeyman. The extremist right is already trying to use anti-terrorism to link radical groups like ELF to liberal organizations like th Ford Foundation. I don't think they will be successful unless there are more 9-11 level attacks on American soil.
Anti-communism is dead, so let's get out there and be ourselves!
<< Chuck0 >>
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