Allen, When I taught high school history I hammered the point that Commies killed more people. I have little doubt I was the only one in the school who did.
People aren't taught that when WWII started, Hitler and Stalin were on the same side because "Socialism", and that other than the purge aspect, FDR agreed with the economic ideals of Socialism. So the modern media and education systems focuses on the ideals and not the messy way those ideals are enacted or what does ideals really look like in practice. The real question is how, in the 21st Century, do we allow Venezuela to happen and the world simply shrugs their shoulders and acts as if Socialism has nothing to do with it.
Lem, That was long ago. You have no idea what a free thinking, libertarian teacher like myself was treated by other teachers back in 1998-2002. Well, maybe you do.
In the 4th grade, my teacher was Mr. Miller, a WWII vet. He was old, even back then, but he was a tall man, but a nice man. There was a time in his class when we did sort of a 1930's/1940's appreciation hour. He played WWII songs, like the Andrew's sisters, my favorite song being Rum and Coca-Cola, and we played bingo where the prize was his giant collection of Wheater pennies. I still have them. We found out that he was in the European Theater and was a part of the invasion of Germany, was on Normandy and moved his way in. One day he went off script and told us shit that shocked us. I think he popped for a few minutes and came back around, but he apologized and said that war and the things you see in war can be 'different'. He apologized and we all moved on. I never forgot that.
One thing a lot of people don't realize is that Nazism is also a part of the leftist landscape. People always associate nazism with being on the right. It isn't and never has been. It's a different aspect of the left. When I tell people this, some of them say, "Well, what about the Commies fighting the nazi's?" to which I said, yeah, that's like two guys from the same union fighting in a bar. It happened, it didn't mean they were opposed ideologically. Russia didn't want their leftist aspect of communism/collectivism to be replaced by a different leftist aspect called Nazism. It's that simple. Both abhorrent, evil ideologies, but Nazism died in 1945 and Soviet Communism died in 1989.
That's why people don't pay much attention to nazism.
The Narzis thought they were the true socialists, but it's also not appreciated that Uncle Joe figured to invade Germany some day, but was beaten to the punch.
That's why the Red Army was in such good shape (lots of men, lots of tanks, watching what the Nips were doing) when the Krauts came to call.
PS In school (53 - 66), a lot of my teachers were WWII vets (7th Fleet, 8th AF, SHAEF, SWPA, POA). We didn't get a lot of old war stories, but it was an interesting experience when the head of the music department, who flew a B-17, met an exchange student who'd been one of the people he bombed in Hamburg.
Nazi were of the left. It was not full communist in the abolition of private property, but it was still socialist, and all individual rights were subordinate to the state.
The Nazis also had their racial Aryan stuff going. The Communists were supposedly universal and "international" but when push comes to shove every communist state reverts to its own national tribal identity (Soviets hate ChiComs, ChiComs hate NorthVietnamese, NorthVietnamese hate Cambodians, etc., etc.)
12 comments:
It should be. It has killed more people. Nazis dressed the evil part better.
Because history isn't taught any more.
As I mentioned previously, Bill Burr does a great bit on this very topic. It's funny and thought provoking.
And, if we're asking questions, why no posts on how Trump got rolled this week by Dem and Rep?
Allen, When I taught high school history I hammered the point that Commies killed more people. I have little doubt I was the only one in the school who did.
I remember a teacher in Massachusetts telling us things that were not necessarily in the book.
People aren't taught that when WWII started, Hitler and Stalin were on the same side because "Socialism", and that other than the purge aspect, FDR agreed with the economic ideals of Socialism. So the modern media and education systems focuses on the ideals and not the messy way those ideals are enacted or what does ideals really look like in practice. The real question is how, in the 21st Century, do we allow Venezuela to happen and the world simply shrugs their shoulders and acts as if Socialism has nothing to do with it.
Lem, That was long ago. You have no idea what a free thinking, libertarian teacher like myself was treated by other teachers back in 1998-2002. Well, maybe you do.
In the 4th grade, my teacher was Mr. Miller, a WWII vet. He was old, even back then, but he was a tall man, but a nice man. There was a time in his class when we did sort of a 1930's/1940's appreciation hour. He played WWII songs, like the Andrew's sisters, my favorite song being Rum and Coca-Cola, and we played bingo where the prize was his giant collection of Wheater pennies. I still have them. We found out that he was in the European Theater and was a part of the invasion of Germany, was on Normandy and moved his way in. One day he went off script and told us shit that shocked us. I think he popped for a few minutes and came back around, but he apologized and said that war and the things you see in war can be 'different'. He apologized and we all moved on. I never forgot that.
One thing a lot of people don't realize is that Nazism is also a part of the leftist landscape. People always associate nazism with being on the right. It isn't and never has been. It's a different aspect of the left. When I tell people this, some of them say, "Well, what about the Commies fighting the nazi's?" to which I said, yeah, that's like two guys from the same union fighting in a bar. It happened, it didn't mean they were opposed ideologically. Russia didn't want their leftist aspect of communism/collectivism to be replaced by a different leftist aspect called Nazism. It's that simple. Both abhorrent, evil ideologies, but Nazism died in 1945 and Soviet Communism died in 1989.
That's why people don't pay much attention to nazism.
The Narzis thought they were the true socialists, but it's also not appreciated that Uncle Joe figured to invade Germany some day, but was beaten to the punch.
That's why the Red Army was in such good shape (lots of men, lots of tanks, watching what the Nips were doing) when the Krauts came to call.
PS In school (53 - 66), a lot of my teachers were WWII vets (7th Fleet, 8th AF, SHAEF, SWPA, POA). We didn't get a lot of old war stories, but it was an interesting experience when the head of the music department, who flew a B-17, met an exchange student who'd been one of the people he bombed in Hamburg.
Nazi were of the left. It was not full communist in the abolition of private property, but it was still socialist, and all individual rights were subordinate to the state.
The Nazis also had their racial Aryan stuff going. The Communists were supposedly universal and "international" but when push comes to shove every communist state reverts to its own national tribal identity (Soviets hate ChiComs, ChiComs hate NorthVietnamese, NorthVietnamese hate Cambodians, etc., etc.)
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