Are Americans against Leninist-type Totalitarian Communism or just Communism in general?

Question

well only 23% of the country is behind you on that one ... so.. ill disregard your "answer" (since it really wasnt an answer)

Well maybe not in practice (we havent seen that on large scale yet in history)

However, what about the idea? Marxs idea of Communism?

Answer 1

What Bush has given this country makes Totalitarian Communism look like a small affair. He has made every effort possible to destroy the earth, and has done this country and the entire planet no good whatsoever. This man has a heart of ice, if he has a heart at all. Why do most people just think of him as a failed leader, a liar and a hypocrite and not see the evil incarnate in this man?

Answer 2

Americans first of all don't understand Communism, or any degree of Marxist theory. Socialism is just a slur to many Americans. When really pressed, most Americans can not realistically describe to you the goals of a Communist. They feel secure in assuming that all Communists, all through history, were misguided silly-heads or devil-worshipers.

Second of all, American culture has developed a very negative narrative that all discourse of "Communism" is sucked into, which, in turn, prevents Americans from learning more about that part of history, that part of philosophy, that part of moral theory, that part of science, that part of economics, that part of life.

In the end, the problem is not whether Americans stand against Leninism or the entire, broad spectrum of Communist theory (Lenin, Marx, Engels, Bakhunin, Trotsky, Kojeve, Lukacs, Brecht, Fassbinder, Pasolini, Berman. Debs, Gorky, Liebknecht, Luxemburg....) but that they simply can't tell the difference.

Answer 3

I'm no advocate of communism, but judging from the posts on Yahoo Answers, Americans haven't got a clue what communism actually means. For them, it's a generic insult; calling someone a "communist" is equivalent to saying "this person is a pedophile who eats live kittens for breakfast."

Answer 4

Nothing irritates me more than people trying to answer for me. I am against Communism in general. And yes I do understand the differences.

Answer 5

I am only against the totalitarian forms of governance. I have no real qualms with socialism or communism, but don't think that they'd work particularly well on a large scale, but then neither does democracy.

In fact, my own political beliefs might best be classified as socialist.

Answer 6

Communism is a known failure as far as types of societies are concerned. You will only find support for Communism in the far left segment, which is really unbelievable to me.

Answer 7

Actually, many of them aren't against communism itself. Many of them don't really understand what communism and capitalism are, it's just that they've been told by their government that capitalism is good and american and communism is bad and unamerican. They hate communism, but they do not understand their own hatred or what it is they hate. In a very real sense, they hate a word, not an economic system. They trust that their government is right when it tells them what to hate, and never look into the matter any further than that. Their government said it, and so it must be right, why investigate something you know must be right?

Answer 8

Communism has failed every time it has ever been tried. Communism is responsible for more than 60 million deaths worldwide. I do not see it as a viable form of government in any flavor.

A dog is still a dog, no matter what you choose to call it.

Answer 9

Most Americans don't have a clue as to what "Leninist-type Totalitarian Communism" might mean. Most Americans don't know what "communism" really is; other than brief news segments over the years, most Americans have never studied or researched "communism". They know what they're told by our governmental leaders, and they choose to accept such dribble as fact.

In fact, most American don't even know the true definitions of "conservatism" or "liberalism", yet they hold on to false beliefs, touting one preference or another without much concrete evidence of their personal dogma or ideals. As can be witnessed on this forum virtually every single hour, those who oppose conservatism - or those who oppose liberalism - rarely have solid arguments; instead, they lower their standards and resort to vulgar innuendos, insults, juvenile barbs, childish name-calling and idiotic, non-factual "sources" such as Fox "News" or the Rush Limbaugh "show", citing such drivel as documented evidence for their beliefs.

As Winston Churchill said years ago: "The best argument against a democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." -RKO- 08/26/07

Answer 10

I don't think most Americans know enough about communism to differentiate between subsets of communism. So, communisim in general is the correct answer.

Update: Sweetpea, did I say ALL Americans? I said MOST Americans. The question is "Are Americans...." not "Are you..." It's called English, you may want to learn it. Thanks for proving my point about nuance by the way.