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From: matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt )
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Redbaiting and Bad Guys
Message-ID: <1265@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 6-Jan-86 09:36:40 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1265
Posted: Mon Jan  6 09:36:40 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Jan-86 19:52:12 EST
References: <1657@bbncca.ARPA> <1884@teddy.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 51

> I have never expressed admiration for the Stalinist or Maoist
> regimes.  Your redbating paranoia is showing.  [LARRY KOLODNEY]

> The first step in understanding any historical situation is to divide
> the participants into Good Guys and Bad Guys.  Since the political
> leaders of the above-mentioned communist countries are responsible
> for these atrocities and economic disasters, it is beyond question
> that they are Bad Guys.  Thus, if any policies of, say, the Cuban or
> Chinese governments appear humane, enlightened, or constructive, this
> is necessarily an illusion:  we know that these countries are run by
> Bad Guys.  
> 
> I am currently trying to determine whether the Sandinistas are the
> Good Guys or the Bad Guys in Nicaragua.  Any assistance will be
> appreciated.  [RICHARD CARNES]

It's easy, Mr. Carnes.  If they're Marxists, they're Bad Guys.  There
may be some humane, enlightened, or constructive policies they follow,
but they're still Bad Guys.  They operate as if the whole country is
an army in the service of some ideal, with each citizen a draftee in
that army and entitled to no freedom to do other than serve the ideal.

Sure, there's redbaiting -- I'm engaged in it right now, Mr. Kolodney,
as I write this.  How come I've never heard the words "Nazi-baiting"
or "racist-baiting"?  Is it because the Nazis have killed so many,
enslaved so many, tortured so many that we KNOW they're Bad Guys?
Is it because the racists have lynched so many, enslaved and apartheided
so many, sjambokked and imprisoned so many that we KNOW they're Bad Guys?
Even if the South Africans removed press censorship, freed Nelson Mandela,
recognized free black trade unions, and abolished capital punishment (all
humane, enlightened and constructive steps), they'd STILL be bad guys
as long as they endorsed apartheid and baaskaap (white supremacy).

So, Mr. Carnes:  Is their press censorship in Nicaragua (is there ANY
non-government press in China, Cuba, or Vietnam)?  Are there free trade
unions in these places?  Are there lots of political prisoners?
Would you be pleased if the changes taking place in Nicaragua were
taking place in YOUR home state?  If not, then the people running the
Marxist states are Bad Guys -- regardless of the fact that the Czar,
Chiang Kai-shek, Batista and Somoza were also Bad Guys.  The people
of these countries are not guinea pigs, for use in some Grand Experiment
to show how a New System can build a New Socialist Man.  They are human
beings just like you and me, and if WE wouldn't like to live under such
an experiment, THEY shouldn't have to, either.  And as long as the
Marxists endorse the Marxist view of the purpose of man, they will be
Bad Guys, like the South Africans.

I hope this helps.
					
					-- Matt Rosenblatt
					(matt@amsaa.ARPA)