Sadiq Khan?

Posted by JamieMartin earlier:

Was stemming the 'spread of communism' worth it in terms of the oppression and bloodshed done in 'our name' - Especially, as post Vietnam, the argument would have been that the North Vietnamese / Viet Cong victory should have accelerated the spread of communism, but didn't.

Problem for me, is that it wasn't really about preventing the 'oppressive nature of communism' because in doing so, we allied ourselves as nations with equally repressive and brutal regimes.

It was about wealth and power and who would 'own that', them or us.
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In the late 1960s, I knew members of the Socialist Labour League (later the Workers Revolutionary Party) and its junior wing the Young Socialists - they were quite active in the Croydon area at the time.
I remember in 1968, at the height of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, bumping into one of the local leading lights of the SLL on a train. He was gleefully reading reports of American deaths to me from the Times. He certainly hoped that a communist victory in Vietnam would help the progress of world revolution that he craved.
As for the "we allied ourselves as nations with equally repressive and brutal regimes", it is hard to envisage regimes more repressive and brutal than the communist ones. In body counts their deeds even exceed Hitler.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Only if you want to turn right into a genocide top trumps (that in many cases fed into the rise of hard line communist insurgencies). For example, without the systematic murder and suppression of trade union leaders and workers rights advocates in Colombia, the rise of groups like FARC would never have been an issue.

The threat of communism in the West, wasn't beaten by suppression, but compromise with the issues that were feeding unrest and resentment that could lead to 'class war'. In the UK, the popularity of the Communist Party never really topped around 5k in membership, because more reasonable methods of obtaining change existed, which addressed the issues that people really wanted.

Socialism works best as a critique of the excesses and failures of capitalism. Only by failing to address some or the extent of those issues, does the 'spectre' of communism start to rise. Suppression doesn't really address the issue long term unless you address some of those issues.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

How many Christian fundamentalists have been holed up in Aleppo and now return to Europe battle hardened and trained in terrorist tactics?

The recent ban on laptops and tablets on planes - is this resultant from 'chatter' picked up between Christian fundamentalists?

You are confusing reality with ideology. Something a fundamentalist of any hue would do.

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

You are talking about America though. In Britain most 'Christians' are all but secular. The most active and pervasive religions in Britain are as far as I can see are Islam, Catholicism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Judaism and Evangelists of foreign origin.
Domestic Christian fundamentalism in the UK is all but non existent.

In America, there is a strong Christian Fundamentalism, the likes of which we need to avoid by not pandering to and encouraging religious communities and those who claim to represent them.
All we do by denying this threat is open the door for medieval ideas about law, sexuality, science and life in general driven by political ambition.

I think you know I know that. Hardly a surprise that oppression and suppression, breeds oppression and suppression in response. Doesn't really matter if your left wing or right wing, violent suppression tends to result in the rise of a different suppressive regime.

Probably because in the process of 'stamping out all threats to the state' the oppressive regime murders it way through all the moderates and reasonable people. Its usually only the groups that go underground that tend to survive.

Then when its their turn, they react in the only way they know how. Violence, suppression and oppression.

Left wing and right wing doesn't really come into it.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]