GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Powered by Genesis

Well, This Explains a Lot

September 29, 2017 by V the K

As hinted by commenter Sean L yesterday, it seems that Senser Rapone — West Point’s Antifa-supporting, Che Guevara loving, socialist revolutionary — was “mentored” by an Islamic Supremacist professor.

A professor at West Point Military Academy who wrote a book on Islam has been placed on administrative leave, and while the school says it has nothing to do with 2nd Lt. Spenser Rapone – the former cadet and Army officer who was recently exposed as a socialist organizer – Dr. Rasheed Hosein had mentored Rapone up to his graduation in May 2016.

His left-wing supporters are claiming that Lt. Rapone should not be criticized because he wears an Army uniform; as did Timothy McVeigh and Major Naial Hassan.

Filed Under: Socialism in America

Comments

  1. Tom says

    September 29, 2017 at 11:57 am - September 29, 2017

    As did Benedict Arnold.

  2. runningrn says

    September 29, 2017 at 12:07 pm - September 29, 2017

    Great point, Tom! Benedict–the left’s first Antifa hero! So Rapone, Hassan and Cindy Sheehen have ultimate moral authority because they and Casey Sheehen wore the uniform. They are above reproach. However, taking a knee to denigrate the flag under which those uniforms served is honorable, brave and totes ok. Got it!

  3. Ted B. (Charging Rhino) says

    September 29, 2017 at 12:35 pm - September 29, 2017

    Sounds like the Military chain-of-command has some explaining to do…
    Both at 10th Mtn, Division and at the USMA. Rotted apples don’t spoil by themselves.

  4. Cas says

    September 29, 2017 at 2:21 pm - September 29, 2017

    Absolutely, V the K,

    … because nothing speaks to equivalence better than equating the wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt to the actions of mass murders.

  5. Lobogris says

    September 29, 2017 at 2:31 pm - September 29, 2017

    4. So….throw on a Hitler shirt and show everyone just how little it means. Cas.

  6. TnnsNe1 says

    September 29, 2017 at 3:00 pm - September 29, 2017

    #5, Heck, just wear a MAGA hat and watch the Progressives go super crazy SJW on your @ss. MAGA first used by B. Clinton in 1991.

  7. Ted B. (Charging Rhino) says

    September 29, 2017 at 3:03 pm - September 29, 2017

    The Lay Muslim Chaplain Rasheed Hosein, a professor of Middle East history at USMA*, comes courtesy of the Univ. of Chicago, as does Moochella Obama.

    Muslim?, check.
    Black?, check?
    Radical from Univ. of Chicago?, check.
    Canadian?, …maybe

    ​Ph.D., History of the Middle East, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Chicago, IL. Dissertation: Tribal Alliance Formations and Power Structures in the Late Jāhiliyah and Early Islamic Periods: Quraysh and Thaqīf (AD 530-750 CE).
    M.A., Islamic History, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Chicago, IL.
    M.A., Islamic History, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, Toronto, ON.
    B.A. Honours, First Class Standing, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Winnipeg, MB.

    Cadets Advised:
    Bryan K. Houp ’15, I2
    Ruben A. Maldonado ‘15
    Jacob T. Sanborn ’15, D1
    Troy S. Szwaczkowski ’15, H1
    Zachary C. Affrin ’16, I1
    Spenser R. Rapone ’16, H3

    Other Activities:
    USMA Muslim Lay Chaplain
    Emeritus Faculty Advisor, Phi Alpha Theta
    OIC, Muslim Cadet Association
    OR, USMA Women’s Army Rugby

    – the official West Point USMA website.

    [*- …at West Point? Really? WTF!! ]

  8. Peter Hughes says

    September 29, 2017 at 4:08 pm - September 29, 2017

    Cas would be more outraged if the little punk wore a t-shirt with the Confederate flag on it.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  9. Cyril says

    September 29, 2017 at 5:28 pm - September 29, 2017

    @8

    Comment #4 could indeed be read like a nuclear bomb in irony — of the mother of all bombs sort of thing.

  10. V the K says

    September 29, 2017 at 5:36 pm - September 29, 2017

    Damm I was like typo city this morning.

  11. CrayCrayPatriot says

    September 29, 2017 at 6:47 pm - September 29, 2017

    Lt. Rapone should not be criticized because he wears an Army uniform; as did Timothy McVeigh and Major Naial Hassan.

    There’s a huge difference between him and the other two, as Cas already said.

    Also, not all abortion protestors are doctor killers

  12. KCRob says

    September 29, 2017 at 7:07 pm - September 29, 2017

    Seems to me that as communism is antithetical to our system and as communist states are our enemies (whether or not we think they are, they think they are) an argument can be made that Rapone is, objectively, on the other side.

    It’s a free country and he’s entitled to love communism, join the CPUSA, and have an altar where he worships Pol Pot, Che Guevara, Joseph Stalin, or Rocket Man.

    But he is not entitled to a position in our military.

  13. Sean L says

    September 29, 2017 at 7:17 pm - September 29, 2017

    Wonder if any of the other cadets this man “advised” will be getting asked what the good doctor discussed with them…

  14. Cyril says

    September 29, 2017 at 9:26 pm - September 29, 2017

    One can safely experiment with the retarded idea of committng to communism in a free society. They just need to buy a parcel of land and invite whoever wants to join the village to experience first hand what their pursuit of equality of outcomes can bring them.

    One cannot safely experiment with capitalism (or, for that matter, any other endeavor requiring individual freedom) in a communist society.

    I cannot help but wonder, who in their sane mind would need to keep the question open after dozens of millions of (dead, murdered or starved) victims of communism (and counting) in just the last century alone.

    Does anyone really need to try forcing others 60 times in a row to walk across a busy 8 lanes freeway before finding it out that it’s unlikely to ever work out for them?

  15. Ted B. (Charging Rhino) says

    September 30, 2017 at 2:15 am - September 30, 2017

    I know it’s a stereotype, but after reading a number of unvetted-articles about Mr. Rapone and “Dr.” Hosein (Hussain?) I’m wondering about what other “special mentoring” may have been going-on. You don’t “just go” on expensive overseas trips with your professor while going to a service academy, nor pose in matching outfits.

    Mentoring? Grooming? Exercising undue influence by a senior officer?
    “Luggage-carrying”? Something more. ..intimate?

    Something profound (or corrupt and evil) happened to an experienced paratrooper at the USMA that altered his life.

    Tool? …or victim?

  16. Hanover says

    September 30, 2017 at 2:43 am - September 30, 2017

    So much was infected & corrupted by the Democrats & their pathetic toadie president. It literally take us years to root it all out & clean house. Rats. All of them.

  17. Aerinyes says

    September 30, 2017 at 8:41 am - September 30, 2017

    Cas,

    Would you say that the wearing of a Che Guevara-imprinted shirt tend to indicate support and approval of Che Guevara and his actions?

    Especially accompanied by, say, messages about ‘communism will win’ and ‘we need to write our own book on guerilla warfare’?

    Admittedly, Che’s not in the same league as Timothy McVeigh or Nidal Hassan, by a long shot.

    CrayCrayPatriot,

    (And may i add, everytime i see your name, my mind links instantly to CCCP. Was that intentional or a unfortunate coincidence?)

    The huge difference between them is that Rapone hasn’t killed anyone.

    Yet.

    He admires a mass murderer who thought that justice and evidence were ‘archaic bourgeois details’, and who treated homosexuals with particularly ill will.

    And despite this admiring of a man who had no friends unless they shared the same political thoughts, Rapone dares to consider himself liberal.

    Rapone may not be a doctor killer. But he sure seems to be studying hard to make that leap. And possibly worse – Che, after all, wanted nothing more than to bomb the USA into an atomic wasteland.

  18. TheQuietMan says

    September 30, 2017 at 9:15 am - September 30, 2017

    Aerinyes (#17), I have thought the same about the CCP CCCP, uh, coincidence.

    Ted B. (#15) Hosein/Hussain–it’s a transliteration issue (from which the bearer’s origins may be able to be inferred as the transliterated spelling is based on the accent). In Arabic it’s spelled the same way.

    Going back to the mentor, when I was in college, admittedly not a service academy, my advisor was my choice if I didn’t want just some bored faculty member to sign off on the form at registration time with minimal advice. So I think Rapone sought out his mentor, not got assigned to one and got corrupted.

    And it’s not that strange to have Middle Easterners teaching about the Middle East at a service academy. Our officers should know from the people in the area what they are facing.

  19. Heliorope says

    September 30, 2017 at 10:26 am - September 30, 2017

    Oh, puh-leeeze, Cas !!!!

    … because nothing speaks to equivalence better than equating the wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt to the actions of mass murders.

    The link V the K provided says this:

    Rapone also posted a second photo of himself in uniform, and he is seen wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt underneath his uniform jacket.

    So, commie-soft Cas cries mere “equivalence” nothing more. Just a boyish prank, don’t you know. Pay no attention to the sea of rules at the USMA, the dress code, the Antifa flag on his wall, the “communism will win” liner in his hat. Nothing indicates that he is anything less than a full-blooded American patriot ready to die honorably for the United States of America.

    Well, now, the Cas definition of “equivalence” is only knowable by judging the snarky innuendo by which she flipped off V the K.

    When CAIR went ballistic concerning “anti-Muslim bigotry” after 9/11/01, the G.W. Bush Administration went wobbly and over reacted on the the “religion of peace” crapola to the point that they decided Muslims should be able to referee all sorts of government activities in the name of “fair and balanced.”

    Obama openly brought the Muslim Brotherhood into the White House. The Arab coalition Trump and Tillerson have put together has designated the same Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.

    Do you begin to see the confusion and conflicts?

    G.W.Bush and Obama preached about good Muslims. Bush called them the “evil-doers” and Obama went on his Arab Spring lovefest in which he loved up the Arabs and denigrated the United States. Obama “successfully” lost the gains in Iraq, turned Afghanistan into a quagmire, permitted the growth of ISIS, the genocide of the Yazidis, the assassination of Qaddafi, the overthrow of Egyptian order, Benghazi, mass migration and huge Syrian refugee camps.

    In short order, President Trump has engaged Saudi Arabia and the Arab coalition in cutting the duplicity and getting the Religion of Peace to take stern and positive action against radical Islam. Who better to ferret out the perps than their own kith and kin?

    This leads us directly back to West Point. Dr. Rasheed Hosein, who has mentored Rapone, may well be a fifth columnist, just a radical or even benign. But his utility at West Point needs to be ascertained. Better the Trump Administration check him out than the Obama crowd.

    In years gone by, if the photo of Rapone pulling open his tunic and exposing the Che T-shirt reached the commanding officers at West Point, Rapone would probably be on his way out of West Point. It would not be just because of regulations regarding the dress code, but because of the image on the shirt and because of the other supporting evidence that Rapone is at least too flippant about his obligations, if not an actual threat to the mission.

    Of course, commie-soft Cas is not interested in any of this. Her’s is not to reason why, her’s is but to chirp and fly.

  20. salg says

    September 30, 2017 at 11:54 am - September 30, 2017

    I wonder if cas and cray cray would feel any different if rapone wore a hitler t-shirt, because there really wouldn’t be any difference.

  21. CrayCrayPatriot says

    September 30, 2017 at 5:46 pm - September 30, 2017

    Ae & QuietMan,

    Thank you for your responses. CCCP is not a coincidence, because my name isn’t CrayCrayCrayPatriot. If I intended a connection, I would have went with that name. I heard those initials “CCCP” as a kid, but they had been long forgotten after the fall (but Russia seems to be laying the groundwork for a return to the old Soviet Union). If I consciously intended a connection, I would have went with CrayCrayCrayPatriot. As it is, I’m CrayCrayPatriot, a self-deprecating play on “GayPatriot” (“CrayPatriot” didn’t have the same ring for me at the time, so I added another “Cray”). For the seven long years I’ve been posting here, I’ve been variations on my real name, as well as the name of my old blog “Cinesnatch,” until I finally settled on CrayCrayPatriot about two or three years ago. During its creation, seeing how I’m regarded by most here as a troll, I was poking fun at the blog as well as myself. At the end of the day, I’m just a human and like to have fun, while also trying to seek the truth. It also serves as a bit of a protective shield for me, as there are those here who twist my words around and try to project beliefs on myself which I don’t share. I just have to sit back and laugh.

    Cheers,

    CCP

  22. V the K says

    September 30, 2017 at 6:28 pm - September 30, 2017

    Rapone also posted a second photo of himself in uniform, and he is seen wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt underneath his uniform jacket.

    I frequently have asked the left-wing trolls on this site why the left lionizes a brutal, racist, homophobic mass murderer like Che Guevara. Never really gotten an answer.

  23. CrayCrayPatriot says

    September 30, 2017 at 6:59 pm - September 30, 2017

    Che Guevara started off with beliefs I agreed with, but turned out to be an awful man. There are lots of leftists I disagree with, don’t lionise, and criticise, which I voice on this blog from time to time. But, I’m sure someone here will do the honours of twisting my words into something they’re not.

    *shrug*

  24. V the K says

    September 30, 2017 at 8:29 pm - September 30, 2017

    Personally, I think it’s because Che Guevara was given license to commit mass murder on behalf of an authoritarian Communist state and many, many leftists fantasize about doing the same.

    “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary … These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution!”

    Feminists who think men accused of rape should be punished without due process agree.

    One other thing, in addition to being a murderous, racist, homophobic sociopath, Che Guevara was one other thing besides… an avowed enemy of the United States.

    “If the nuclear missiles had remained, we would have used them against the very heart of America, including New York City…We will march the path of victory even if it costs millions of atomic victims…We must keep our hatred alive and fan it to paroxysm.”

    So, we’re back to the question, is a Che Guevara T-shirt somehow less inappropriate for US soldier than a T-shirt depicting Hitler, or Osama Bin Laden?

  25. Aerinyes says

    September 30, 2017 at 9:11 pm - September 30, 2017

    CCP,

    One of Che Guevara’s beliefs was that Socialism would bring about higher moral character, and that morality of action was very important.

    Another was that violence was inherently necessary to overthrow capitalism, and to restrain the wealthy so that their wealth might be appropriated.

  26. Cas says

    September 30, 2017 at 11:04 pm - September 30, 2017

    V the K Aerinyes, and Peter,
    I don’t have to “lionize” Che in order to point out what CrayCrayPatriot already said:

    There’s a huge difference between him and the other two, as Cas already said. Also, not all abortion protestors are doctor killers

    For clarification, the “him” above refers to the newly minted Army Officer and “the other two” being McVeigh and Hassan.

  27. Aerinyes says

    October 1, 2017 at 12:36 am - October 1, 2017

    Cas, what would your opinion be, assuming you were an abortionist, on walking up to your practice and finding one of your employees was wearing a shirt honoring a man who killed abortionists, with a sign on their hat saying ‘abortionists will get their due’?

  28. fortdixmike says

    October 1, 2017 at 5:04 am - October 1, 2017

    Speaking of Muslims, I ran across this: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-rights/egypt-hunting-down-gays-conducting-forced-anal-exams-amnesty-idUSKCN1C50D3?il=0

  29. Peter Hughes says

    October 1, 2017 at 10:29 am - October 1, 2017

    And as usual, Cas and al-Cray-da are vehemently defending their Muslim peeps and socialist icons.

    You two should hook up sometime.

    Regards,
    Peter H.

  30. V the K says

    October 1, 2017 at 1:53 pm - October 1, 2017

    I should very much enjoy Cas or CCCP explain why it’s OK for a United States Army officer to wear a t-shirt celebrating Che Guevara but not OK if that t-shirt celebrated Osama Bin Laden or Timothy McVeigh. The intellectual contortions would be cirque du soleil worthy.

  31. Heliorope says

    October 1, 2017 at 5:16 pm - October 1, 2017

    Cas has been trolling here for a BFF since her gerbil went AWOL. Finally, Cas and CrayCray are hooked-up, plugged-in and fused. Or confused, as the case may be. I wish them well.

  32. V the K says

    October 1, 2017 at 6:59 pm - October 1, 2017

    Che Guevara started off with beliefs I agreed with, but turned out to be an awful man.

    IOW

    “Hitler had some good ideas; shame about the Jew-killing.”

  33. TheQuietMan says

    October 2, 2017 at 10:02 am - October 2, 2017

    CCP (#21) Thank you. Since I studied, somewhat, the Soviet Union in college, CCCP remains in the memory to be quickly dredged up without too much provocation. (To borrow from an unrelated radio presentation years ago.)

  34. Cas says

    October 3, 2017 at 7:23 pm - October 3, 2017

    Hi Aerinyes,

    Cas, what would your opinion be, assuming you were an abortionist, on walking up to your practice and finding one of your employees was wearing a shirt honoring a man who killed abortionists, with a sign on their hat saying ‘abortionists will get their due’?

    First, I would ask if that in fact is the right comparison. “Get their Due” is really the same as “will win”? One seems an implied threat. The other a statement of support for anti-abortionism, and optimism for abortion’s end–as written. Also, is it on the hat or in the hat–visible to all, or, only to those the individual wants to show?

    The whole point seemed that the young man was hidden in his statements, right up to the point he decided to “out” himself. I would like the analogy more if the young man went up to get his diploma or what not in the T-shirt, with the hat that clearly said this for all to see… What do you think?

  35. aerinyes says

    October 4, 2017 at 5:18 am - October 4, 2017

    Hm.

    It seems you don’t like CrayCrayPatriot’s analogy, Cas.

    Personally, I thought it worked quite well.

    After all, I’m an avowed capitalist libertarian with something of a vested interest in the continuation of the COTUS, while Rapone took an oath:

    “I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

    To support and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

    Communism is antithetical to the COTUS. Every single communist leader that I am aware of has as one of their goals the absolute destruction of the United States – many wishing to do so in nuclear fire, such as our dear friend Che Guevara.

    Every communist manifesto I have read or heard of declares that it is neccessary to use violence to tear down the old social order and instill a new one.

    Every communist and socialist revolution I have ever heard or read of has involved mass bloodshed, frequently at the beginning, usually in the middle, and definitely at the end.

    So if you don’t like the analogy, Cas, of a trusted employee secretly honoring someone who wants you dead – directly and specifically. And writes posts about how they’ve been reading about the best ways to do it online, and suggesting that he’s going to be writing a new best way soon…

    Why don’t you suggest a better analogy then some idiot high schooler who -isn’t- in a position of trust, -isn’t- dishonoring their vows, and -isn’t- planning on gaining more trust specifically to betray those they swore to protect at a later date?

    I had some respect for you, Cas, after our last debate. This equivocation you are displaying now is unseemly.

  36. Cas says

    October 4, 2017 at 4:38 pm - October 4, 2017

    Wow, Aerinyes, respect me or not–that is your choice. I would prefer politeness and civility whatever you ultimately decide. As for my equivocation–please set forth where you see this–given the question you asked. I am sorry that I did not understand that I was supposed to put this in the context CrayCrayPatriot’s comments. I did not realize that!

    As for the young man–perhaps we should ask him what he was doing? Perhaps we should see how deep his commitments go and how much he knows of this individual that he wears a t-shirt for? Because if you are going to skewer him with the oath he takes, then we might also want to know what he actually believes? You appear to have the answers to these questions–I didn’t get that from the original post. Please feel free to give me some links to follow up your claims, so I can make a judgement for myself, about what the young man actually believes rather than see him as part of an abstract comparison in a question you asked without a shared sense of context you assumed. I would appreciate that.

  37. aerinyes says

    October 4, 2017 at 5:02 pm - October 4, 2017

    Cas,

    Short memory?

    http://www.gaypatriot.net/2017/09/28/west-point-antifag-is-real-guys/

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/27/chelsea-manning-inspired-communist-west-point-graduate-to-infiltrate-the-military/

    https://www.reddit.com/user/SRap1

    Topic just prior to this one.

  38. TnnsNe1 says

    October 4, 2017 at 10:06 pm - October 4, 2017

    aerinyes you will soon find that Cas is very lazy. It like to play stupid and coy and polite. It is all an act.

    I am coming around to the idea that Cas is a paid troll.

  39. Cas says

    October 5, 2017 at 1:34 am - October 5, 2017

    Ah, and you were doing so well, TnnsNe1, so well …

  40. Cas says

    October 5, 2017 at 1:56 am - October 5, 2017

    Hi Aerinyes,
    My memory? Maybe, but not in this instance, Aerinyes. It might shock you to know that I don’t read every post put on GP–so I missed that one. Thanks for the other links. The thing that is interesting is the reddit posts–they are bizarre. If they are him, I have to wonder if he is mentally well–if he was trying to secretly infiltrate the institution, surely the plan would not include bragging about it to all and sundry on public forums?–but then again, I am not up on current radical theory, so I am quite puzzled by it all. If it looks as it looks (I know that sounds odd) than I don’t know how he stays an officer. You can’t go around denigrating the President, VP, Senator McCain, etc, as an Army officer. So I grant your point–.

    But I am interested by your position, and I want to understand it better: As to being a communist–if he doesn’t say the disparaging remarks and proudly identifies as a communist only–is that enough for you to want him kicked out of the armed forces? If he agrees to abide by the Constitution and defend against foes foreign and domestic, can he do that and still be a communist?

    Also, what is COTUS?

  41. aerinyes says

    October 5, 2017 at 5:36 am - October 5, 2017

    Cas,

    For some damn reason, a lot of people behave as if the internet is some super private place where nothing they do will ever be exposed to people they don’t want it to be exposed to.

    If a communist was in the armed forces and honestly intended to keep their vows, and their command was aware of the potential conflict, I have no particular objection. However, I am uncertain that would ever happen – as I previously stated, I believe communism is antithetical to the Republic of United States , and the constitution which binds us. As such, I will admit I would be deeply skeptical and wary of an avowed communist in officer’s ranks in our military forces.

    COTUS: Constitution of the United States

  42. TnnsNe1 says

    October 5, 2017 at 6:19 am - October 5, 2017

    “Ah, and you were doing so well, TnnsNe1, so well …”

    Who made you hall monitor?

    “It might shock you to know that I don’t read every post put on GP–”

    Big fat juicy Progressive lie.

    ” I am not up on current radical theory”

    Another one

    “Also, what is COTUS?”

    Lazy

  43. Cas says

    October 5, 2017 at 4:54 pm - October 5, 2017

    Hi Aerinyes,

    I believe communism is antithetical to the Republic of United States , and the constitution which binds us. As such, I will admit I would be deeply skeptical and wary of an avowed communist in officer’s ranks in our military forces.

    I can’t help but think that your comments are driven by a need to be attached to some great enemy–The Soviet Union springs to mind. I don’t think that Cuba counts (soon be reabsorbed into the capitalist economy) or North Korea (weird small anomaly run by weird small anomalous human being) or China (which hardly looks communist anyway). Who is going to be the Great Satan that will benefit from the US being taken down here? Is it the idea of communism itself or the idea of communism attached to some country that is driving your thinking here? As an idea, it argues for the redistribution of productive property towards the people–after (if?) the state ever naturally withers away. The totalitarian experience of the 20th Century is not the only possible outcome of communism. If it is democratically popular, what exactly in the US Constitution do you see as being antithetical to communism–itself an economic system? I admit that I am looking at communism from the mindset of Marx’s 1848 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts

  44. Cas says

    October 5, 2017 at 5:11 pm - October 5, 2017

    Hi TnnsNe1,
    I know you meant your barbs as insults, but I want you to know that I was extremely flattered to realize that you believe that I know all about what is happening with GP posts and that I have up to date knowledge of the field of radical studies.

  45. TnnsNe1 says

    October 5, 2017 at 5:12 pm - October 5, 2017

    How thoughtful? Cas thinks Communism is compatible with Democracy. Next up : Islam and Sharia are compatible with Democracy.

    I wonder if Cas is thoughtful enough to name one Communist country or era that has true Democracy.

    “American and Democracy may not be perfect but we don’t have to build walls to keep people in.”

  46. aerinyes says

    October 5, 2017 at 5:13 pm - October 5, 2017

    You can practice communism in a capitalist society.

    You cannot practice capitalism in a communist society.

    Liberty before all.

    We’ve had this discussion before, Cas…You’re the one who blinked and walked away.

  47. Cas says

    October 7, 2017 at 12:18 am - October 7, 2017

    Hi Aerinyes,

    We’ve had this discussion before, Cas…You’re the one who blinked and walked away.

    Hmm. OK, so, I guess you are saying that communism is not antithetical to the US Constitution. How do you square that with your earlier claim that:

    Communism is antithetical to the COTUS. Every single communist leader that I am aware of has as one of their goals the absolute destruction of the United States – many wishing to do so in nuclear fire, such as our dear friend Che Guevara.

    Excuse me for making the claim, but I get the feeling that your views appear to be predicated on an understanding of communism as a state actor sometime in the past Cold War style environment, something that appears much less likely or viable or even possible today. But, if you feel I “blinked,” whatever that means, so be it.

  48. Aerinyes says

    October 7, 2017 at 2:37 am - October 7, 2017

    It was the conversation about freedom, rights, and communism.

    My views on the subject are complicated and subject to evolution.

    There’s a couple of points – on a small scale, practiced with good hearts, there’s nothing wrong with communism entered into on a voluntary basis.

    The line drawn in the sand is when people start thinking ‘hey, communism is good for us…so it’s good for everyone. And anyone who says different is evil.’

    Most communist/socialist ills did not start when they were state-level actors. They started well before that. Che Guevara was a jackass before he was state sponsored.

    There’s a quote from CS Lewis that applies even to ‘goodhearted communists.’

    “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

  49. Cas says

    October 7, 2017 at 11:26 pm - October 7, 2017

    Hi Aerinyes,

    My views on the subject are complicated and subject to evolution.

    The ideas we have change–I am OK with that. I am not interested in a gotcha style of conversation. The issues we discuss are complex, and sometimes you have to take an idea out for a spin in order if it feels right or not. The main thing–for me–is to feel that the person I am talking to is interested in the ideas and where they may lead, rather than in trying to put me down. If there is an apparent contradiction in your thought or mine, there are ways to explore it that don’t rely on a destructive conversational approach (an approach that is all too common here) but rather look for creative solutions or avenues of exploration. I find that stimulating and fun.

    And as for CS Lewis–I am not a fan. He likes to reduce things to logical categories of exclusion–e.g., either Jesus is a liar (and should be ignored). a madman (and should be locked up), or he is the son of God (and we should worship him as such–that one seriously bugged me.

Categories

Archives