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To leave Commie, hyper to
http://commie.oy.com/commie_leaving.html
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On Sat, 21 Oct 2000, Jarmo Lundgren wrote:
> Really? I see the same happening in Finland, too... of course in a
> much smaller scale, because it was only about ten years ago, when the
> Evil Communist Empire still existed in our close neighbour. Ten years
> ago Finnish communists were a parliamentary force which had to be
> taken somewhat seriously...
well, during the 80's the image of the communists improved a lot.
gorbachev was quite friendly (at least compared to khruschev, brezhnev,
etc) and americans saw he was really trying to improve the USSR. the SALT
treaties did a lot for the soviet image, as did perestroika and
glasnost. also, ronald reagan was a very "all-american" president and he
was always smiling and happy with our old friend gorby.
americans got a new enemy in the 80's, too: the middle east. starting with
qaddafi and moving to various terrorists and now to saddam hussein and
various terrorists.
i wouldn't say we're communist friendly now, but we're certainly more
tolerable.
> There must be something sexy in communism again... Otherwise I can't
> explain why a party which had serious difficulties to attract young
> people ten years ago suddenly have more youngsters on their election
> list than any other party...
now, i can't explain the finnish mindset (surprise! :) ), but i can
explain why young americans have latched onto communism/socialism. the
glory days of america have come to an end - we're now starting to
experience terrorism with us as the target, so people are seeing that it's
time to take a hard look at america and its problems. kids in america are
becoming more politically-minded. the mind is more open and receptive to
extreme ideas when it's young and angry, so they're mostly going out
towards the edges of political thought. we have neo-nazism and hardline
religious conservatism, but we also have socialism and communism.
it makes your first year at university very interesting - other kids
screaming at you from two ideological extremes. ;)
> Haha... The same thing in Finland... The SDNL (The Democratic Youth
> Alliance) folks used to have the best parties... They recently changed
> their name to "Left Youth". The change was a lot bigger than just a
> name-switch... They don't seem to drink that much alcohol anymore as
> SDNL folks used to... :(
"left youth" sounds a lot more like picket signs and berets and
goatees. ;)
> Hehe... "Left Youth"... Is it supposed to mean "leave your youth
> behind and become a leftist" in English? ... ;) In Finnish the
> abbreviation is even more ridicuous: "VaNu", which means "cotton"...
cotton being soft and comfortable, maybe that's a statement, too. :)
micah stupak
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
international bright young kook
