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geek tragedy

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72. If people aren't punished for their political beliefs or disabled from

Reply to leveymg (Reply #71)

Fri Jul 12, 2013, 10:37 AM

Jul 2013

organizing politically to change the government and replace those in power, it's not Big Brother.

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Remember the old Soviet Union? [View all] SheilaT Jul 2013 OP

but atleast we have over 400 TV stations olddots Jul 2013 #1

And I-shit! - nt HardTimes99 Jul 2013 #87

I remember. I was playing chess with some Russians back in the day The Straight Story Jul 2013 #2

Do you remember those Radio Free Europe public service announcements? Art_from_Ark Jul 2013 #3

"We were not so different then, and less so now..." Kolesar Jul 2013 #29

You are discussing details The Straight Story Jul 2013 #33

flag colored glasses Kolesar Jul 2013 #35

Oh, I know it was worse than it is here NOW The Straight Story Jul 2013 #39

So, when were the golden years of USA freedom? geek tragedy Jul 2013 #75

indeed. cali Jul 2013 #79

Yessirrrreeeee! ReRe Jul 2013 #134

The US is freer than at any time in its history. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #136

You mean when the government was keeping dossiers on nuns who were for (gasp) peace? Spitfire of ATJ Jul 2013 #161

"we need passports to go to Canada" as opposed to being SHOT for trying to leave the USSR. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #55

That was all true in the 1950's America, 1960's America, etc etc. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #53

I do remember. bluedigger Jul 2013 #4

"Over there, they don't know the truth. The newspapers tell them what to think." NBachers Jul 2013 #5

Yes. That is why I am so appalled by the fact that the Obama administration is arresting JDPriestly Jul 2013 #6

But passing a bill does make it law. COLGATE4 Jul 2013 #48

True. But as I pointed out, people accepted segregation as the law for a long, long time JDPriestly Jul 2013 #131

I agree. You can either work to change the law so that it COLGATE4 Jul 2013 #133

We're worse? Really? MirrorAshes Jul 2013 #7

Soviet Union under Stalin had an incarceration rate of about 800 per 100,000 davidn3600 Jul 2013 #10

Thank you... ReRe Jul 2013 #15

What percentage of the U.S. prison Jenoch Jul 2013 #70

Depends who you talk to. Igel Jul 2013 #89

"If you look at those arrested for political views per se, pretty much none." Jenoch Jul 2013 #100

But the US has it set up so that it doesnt take much to be convicted of a crime anymore davidn3600 Jul 2013 #142

I have family who lived through the Jenoch Jul 2013 #143

At least in the US it is actually pursuant to conviction of crime treestar Jul 2013 #129

Those Data From Stalinist Russia Come From Where? ProfessorGAC Jul 2013 #137

Under Stalin 1.7 MILLION died in gulags. Another 799,455 were executed outright. DevonRex Jul 2013 #139

Damn right. DeSwiss Jul 2013 #14

So, when is Obama going to send you to a Gulag and have your family shot geek tragedy Jul 2013 #56

Seriously. n/t MirrorAshes Jul 2013 #97

This crap is becoming the norm on neoDU. It's horribly embarrassing. nt tridim Jul 2013 #102

Unrec treestar Jul 2013 #8

I'll second that. great white snark Jul 2013 #19

guess the "Stasi" did not work either treestar Jul 2013 #23

& this is Ms. Unhappy's climax of a decade of DUing. Kolesar Jul 2013 #30

YUP ... up next ... comparisons to Mao and China. JoePhilly Jul 2013 #47

LOL great white snark Jul 2013 #50

Perfect!! JoePhilly Jul 2013 #58

Pol Pot is the next logical step I think. nt geek tragedy Jul 2013 #59

If they go there JustAnotherGen Jul 2013 #156

Just keep telling yourself that. hobbit709 Jul 2013 #24

What does that mean? treestar Jul 2013 #123

"What does it all mean, Mr. Natural?" hobbit709 Jul 2013 #124

People around here have seriously lost their freakin' minds. Scurrilous Jul 2013 #105

Well said oberliner Jul 2013 #166

+1 JustAnotherGen Jul 2013 #154

America was never that great. Starry Messenger Jul 2013 #9

Just like how conservatives claim the 1950s were the golden age davidn3600 Jul 2013 #12

McCarthyism was rampant during the Red Scare and black listings of actors, comedians, and others. Major Hogwash Jul 2013 #22

Was not institutional though, in that the Civil Rights Movement was able to take place treestar Jul 2013 #126

And we weren't so wonderful to Native Americans... polichick Jul 2013 #159

Americans were free to criticize the USSR, but those who criticized the USA, well they got their own leveymg Jul 2013 #11

Yes, there is virtually no one who criticizes the US government in our society. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #65

There are 2 approaches to police states: Big Brother and Great Fear leveymg Jul 2013 #71

If people aren't punished for their political beliefs or disabled from geek tragedy Jul 2013 #72

Even dissent can be an instrument of Big Brother. Goldstein was actually a double agent, and the leveymg Jul 2013 #76

So, is Skinner working for the government then? geek tragedy Jul 2013 #78

We all are, quite willingly, because expression of difference is a shared psychological need leveymg Jul 2013 #95

A lot of busted unions, detained peace activists, brutalized Occupiers, and jailed environmentalists NuclearDem Jul 2013 #168

What rights did unions have in the USSR? nt geek tragedy Jul 2013 #169

Wasn't defending the USSR. Nice deflection, though. NuclearDem Jul 2013 #170

Yes, that was rampant. Kent State was repeated on college campuses and towns cali Jul 2013 #80

Most people don't remember Jackson State that happened the same weekend. leveymg Jul 2013 #111

Where's the photos of the 101st Airborne? telclaven Jul 2013 #81

One doesn't forgive the other or disprove the point. leveymg Jul 2013 #112

This message was self-deleted by its author ReRe Jul 2013 #13

I got so see some of the last of those lines. Igel Jul 2013 #90

This message was self-deleted by its author ReRe Jul 2013 #132

I will JustAnotherGen Jul 2013 #160

The Soviets had a tradition of 'samokritica'--self-criticism pinboy3niner Jul 2013 #16

Thank You For Sharing - Yes We Have Become Our Worst Fears cantbeserious Jul 2013 #17

Remember how they dragged sick grannies off to prison for smoking a plant? Remember when they Warren DeMontague Jul 2013 #18

This message was self-deleted by its author LumosMaxima Jul 2013 #20

nobody is going to send you to die digging a canal in the Arctic, Maximo...eom Kolesar Jul 2013 #27

This message was self-deleted by its author LumosMaxima Jul 2013 #32

" all those evils committed by Communist governments -- are happening here now." Kolesar Jul 2013 #36

This message was self-deleted by its author LumosMaxima Jul 2013 #37

Sheila the O/P really blew this one...eom Kolesar Jul 2013 #38

No, the appeal to glandular anti-government and anti-American hatred geek tragedy Jul 2013 #66

Yes, I remember. It's one of the reason I have been so appalled with the actions our Cleita Jul 2013 #21

I've been living 8 years now in the former USSR... MattSh Jul 2013 #25

I bet she never met anyone who experienced the Holocaust either. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #67

I've met holocaust deniers. Igel Jul 2013 #92

Project much? MattSh Jul 2013 #107

You're denying that the USSR was a totalitarian regime that had zero tolerance for dissent. nt geek tragedy Jul 2013 #109

Only those born before 1970 would remember much of these people. Igel Jul 2013 #91

I'll bet they called your teacher a rootless cosmopolite, to boot. Hekate Jul 2013 #162

I read the Gulag Archipelago and you didn't ... eom Kolesar Jul 2013 #26

Actually, I have read all three volumes SheilaT Jul 2013 #120

You become what you hate. bemildred Jul 2013 #28

Except the USSR died 25 years ago. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #64

No, we are not worse than the old Soviet Union, or even the new Russia. n/t pnwmom Jul 2013 #31

Unrec. Pointless exaggeration. FSogol Jul 2013 #34

The visiting Republicans would say DU, DailyKos, New York, and Chicago ... eom Kolesar Jul 2013 #40

Where would America's Siberia be? GliderGuider Jul 2013 #41

Yes and no. Igel Jul 2013 #94

Russia is not a friend to civil rights. MineralMan Jul 2013 #42

Where is the "blind praise" in the OP? GliderGuider Jul 2013 #45

You're right, it's delusional hate of the United States and its government. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #57

But we're "worse than the old Soviet Union?" MineralMan Jul 2013 #113

Whatever your opinion on that, GliderGuider Jul 2013 #119

I see. Thanks. MineralMan Jul 2013 #121

"we are even worse than the old Soviet Union" Huh?? DCBob Jul 2013 #43

Neil Young got it right: GliderGuider Jul 2013 #44

But I thought we were Nazi Germany? JoePhilly Jul 2013 #46

The mouth-foamers are running out of hyperbole. nt geek tragedy Jul 2013 #54

They have gone so far around the bend ... JoePhilly Jul 2013 #61

The paranoids have always had a lot more in common than they realized. geek tragedy Jul 2013 #63

Gulag Archipelago. Javaman Jul 2013 #49

How about this... Fearless Jul 2013 #51

So now Obama is Stalin, and America is now Amerika.. DU has become the Tea Party geek tragedy Jul 2013 #52

Is the implication here that the US has NO REASON arrest or even question Snowden? nt kelliekat44 Jul 2013 #60

The implication is that the Tea party is right about Obama. When we warned people geek tragedy Jul 2013 #62

Andrei Amalrik wrote 'Will the Soviet Union Survive until 1984?' Octafish Jul 2013 #68

Yes. I rather liked that book. Igel Jul 2013 #98

MI-Complex needed USSR to justify its budget. Octafish Jul 2013 #117

Communi$t, Terrori$t, the Briti$h Are Coming! leftstreet Jul 2013 #174

Well we don't have to stand in line to buy bread or TP. Autumn Jul 2013 #69

Nonsense but DU does have an "America sucks" clique that will eat it up. great white snark Jul 2013 #73

Is this your honest opinion snooper2 Jul 2013 #74

Remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn? cali Jul 2013 #77

And yet Solzhenitsyn said that he had it easy. Igel Jul 2013 #99

Rofl. "Worse than the old Soviet Union." Skinner Jul 2013 #82

Nothing ignorant at all. Some people recognize where the nation is heading. Octafish Jul 2013 #83

The OP is using the present tense. Skinner Jul 2013 #84

I took an undergrad course in Solzhenitsyn Kolesar Jul 2013 #86

Absolutely. And it's 39 recs now. Number23 Jul 2013 #150

Thanks for posting. I was sure you'd been sent to Siberia. JoePhilly Jul 2013 #96

+1 thanks Skinner RZM Jul 2013 #106

No shame here. Some posters rec. for the conversational content. canoeist52 Jul 2013 #110

"Russia: Worst Human Rights Climate In Post-Soviet Era" (HRW) DevonRex Jul 2013 #118

+1 Cali_Democrat Jul 2013 #125

What's sad is that you probably think that's accurate Recursion Jul 2013 #85

O/P isn't participating on her thread any more. Kolesar Jul 2013 #88

I simply don't spend as much time here SheilaT Jul 2013 #122

Aren't you worried about being arrested by the Obamastapo for criticizing geek tragedy Jul 2013 #127

I just noticed the date on the OP Adsos Letter May 2015 #178

and that is exactly why Snowden chose to go to China, Russia and now maybe Venezuela Sheepshank Jul 2013 #93

682,000 people shot from 1937-38 RZM Jul 2013 #101

I think comparing the Soviet Union Jenoch Jul 2013 #103

to become like Russia, we would have to lower our incarceration rate markiv Jul 2013 #104

Well, plus the millions who were deliberately starved to death due to Stalin's ag policy. nt geek tragedy Jul 2013 #108

Over 80,000 in solitary confinement right now. Catherina Jul 2013 #115

She said the Soviet Union. Stalin alone murdered MILLIONS in gulags. DevonRex Jul 2013 #140

Sureveillance wise, we sure are. Starving people? We sure are. Catherina Jul 2013 #114

OMG this is fucking ridiculous. DevonRex Jul 2013 #116

Didn't I see you marching the other day? BeyondGeography Jul 2013 #128

Down memory lane where a one party Progressive dog Jul 2013 #130

I saw Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (his motorcade) once. 1-Old-Man Jul 2013 #135

The Tea Party, Ron Paul, and all of his supporters fully agree with you. nt. NCTraveler Jul 2013 #138

When is the US going to sequester an area the size of the Ukraine and take away all the food? Hekate Jul 2013 #141

My relatives were starved to death and SheilaT makes light of it...eom Kolesar Jul 2013 #148

Exactly what do think the US did when it sequestered all of the land occupied dipsydoodle Jul 2013 #149

That was 150 or something years ago. Dash87 Jul 2013 #167

Soviet Russia, where road forks you? Apophis Jul 2013 #144

Duck and cover Life Long Dem Jul 2013 #145

I really do want to thank everyone for the discussion SheilaT Jul 2013 #146

Anyone who says the US is worse than the Soviet Union was doesn't remember it. (nt) Posteritatis Jul 2013 #147

Excellent. Except for the last sentence, which is utter BS. Ask Solzhenitzen. kestrel91316 Jul 2013 #151

You know nothing about us or the Soviet Union arely staircase Jul 2013 #152

But, she'll get a lot .. "right on!" Cha Jul 2013 #164

I don't know JustAnotherGen Jul 2013 #153

!!! zappaman Jul 2013 #155

I love that pic! JustAnotherGen Jul 2013 #157

Yeah, there's some of our guys in charge Cha Jul 2013 #165

revising history for snowden sigmasix Jul 2013 #158

Your burning stupid hyperbole weakens any point you're Cha Jul 2013 #163

"burning stupid hyperbole" zappaman Jul 2013 #171

Hahahaha!!!!!!!!! Major Hogwash Jul 2013 #172

thanks zappa.. I thought Cha Jul 2013 #173

Post removed Post removed May 2015 #175

My cousin was in the Air Force stationed in England in 1959. He ran across a travel Cleita May 2015 #177

You seriously know nothing at all about SheilaT May 2015 #179

I also remember how we were brainwashed into believing that communism was Cleita May 2015 #176