Comments on: Oh, That Commie Media

By: aphrael

aphrael — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 03:42:36 +0000

What this says to me is that a large number of people in the east aren’t happy with the fruits of reunification. No big surprise. It will take a generation or more for this to pass.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 19:14:30 +0000

The abbreviation was right, but I butchered the full name in the original post. It’s fixed now.

By: The Lonewacko Blog

The Lonewacko Blog — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 18:46:51 +0000

What you’re calling the “NSDAP” is more commonly abbreviated “NSPD” unless I’m mistaken.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:17:59 +0000

Up until the 60s or so, West Germany was one of the strongest economies in Europe. Then we brought about the fall of Communism. Had Communism fallen back when West Germany's economy was still more or less free of Western-style "democratic" socialism, the impact of reabsorbing East Germany into a reunified Vaterland would have been far less of a problem. Thing is, between the 1960s and reunification in 1989, Germany took a left = not right = wrong turn. And that's why Germany's economy is doing so much more poorly than it might.

By: PoliPop

PoliPop — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:03:30 +0000

Trouble Brewing in East Germany?
Xlrq has a great run-down of the latest election that was held in Germany that had decendants of the Nazi party picking up 9% of the vote, and the former Communist party, the same that terrorized its citizens and built…

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 16:59:08 +0000

There was a piece in last Sunday’s L. A. Times about the situation in East Germany.

The weird thing is this: Up until the 60s or so, West Germany was one of the strongest economies in Europe. Then we brought about the fall of Communism. Part of the fallout of that was German reunification. East Germany brought its poverty and misery into the family, the East German Mark was put on a par with the West German Mark, the vast number of unemployed had to be supported by the West, and things went steadily downhill from there.

So it’s little surprise that socialist and communist movements are gaining ground over there.

The problem with the communist ideal of absolute equality is that the result is absolute misery – instead of everybody being pulled up, all are pulled down.

By: resurrectionsong

resurrectionsong — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 16:45:05 +0000

Nazis, and Commies, and Press, Oh My…
Read this and this….

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 15:59:40 +0000

It depends on whose terminology you are using. If you’re Arnold Schwarzenegger talking in English about the “socialism” of his native Austria, it means one thing. If you’re talking about the “socialist” states of Eastern Europe, it means something quite different. There, the difference between socialism and communism is not one of degree, but one of means vs. end. Communism is the nirvana-like state where everyone shares everything, holds hands and sings Kumbaya, while the state withers away. Socialism, where the state runs everything is the means toward that end.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 15:31:51 +0000

Thanks for making the distinctions between the two parties clear. However, I’ve never really seen much of a difference (other than in magnitude) between a Socialist and a Communist.