этикетки и коробки, свобода и власть

(Imagine eavesdropping late on a conversation)

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A: So, what explanation can our right wing conservative colleagues give for Russia?
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B: Civil society was completely destroyed by the Progressives.

Putin is not a Progressive.  Lenin and Stalin were 
the Progressives who destroyed Russian Civil Society and suppressed the Orthodox Church.  

Putin is just a thug.  But thugs are the only ones who can rule after the 
shambles created by 80 years of Progress.
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A: Personally, I'm trying 2 figure out why you feel a need to put everything in a box...

In this case progressives (= socialists =  communists) belong in the box labeled "command economies." 

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The problem is there are a myriad of variables at work in any living society. The first thing I notced in this debate is that the role of democracy in all this social assessment is never mentioned. Lenin & Joe Stalin were anti-democratic, and ran not just a command economy, but a command society in which all authority emanates from the top and rains down on those below. Their "communism" wasn't communism at all, but its opposite -- authoritarianism. In this regard they differ from modern day Republicabrones only in their economic convictions.

Progessivism is by necessity democratic, and if  it isn't, it ain't progressive, it's something else.

Communism is perfect democracy (hence impossible), and anything that isn't 100% democratic in implementation & constitution isn't communism, but another veshch.

Putting stuff in boxes in a debate is analogous to getting in a prize fight wearing handcuffs, of typing with 

boxing gloves on.

One last thing Mr. S -- Do you believe in "All Power to the Soviets?" Mr. Stalin didn't like the idea either.