Socialists the most repressed minority? Really?

[gendoikari]

Overheard one friend of mine say that we were? Personally I disagree but that may have something to do with the fact that i'm one of those rabid anti capitalists that will pick a fight with a tea bagger. What are yall's thoughts on the matter.

[Weezer]

We're pretty repressed considering no socialist candidate has been elected in the US since the 1960's, I believe.

[gendoikari]

We're pretty repressed considering no socialist candidate has been elected in the US since the 1960's, I believe.

... Between that and the MaCarthy witchhunts, I have no logical denial.....

[Leftsolidarity]

I would say the far left in general is the most repressed political group in the USA.

[Aspiring Humanist]

We're pretty repressed considering no socialist candidate has been elected in the US since the 1960's, I believe.

Unless you consider Bernie Sanders, who is a democratic socialist and still in office
Last time I checked socialists can still marry and see their partners in hospitals in all 50 states, LBGT on the other hand

[Zav]

I'm pretty sure that the poor have always been the most repressed/oppressed minority. Exploitation of labor, war, caste systems, etcetera.

EDIT: Holy shit, I'm tired. Well, they're the most oppressed group of people, anyway.

[Leftsolidarity]

I'm pretty sure that the poor have always been the most repressed/oppressed minority. Exploitation of labor, war, caste systems, etcetera.

spelt the word, fancy

[Zav]

spelt the word, fancy
As a computer geek, I deal with enough acronyms and abbreviations. Plus, it just looks better, especially in the middle of a sentence.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Political repression and social oppression are apples and oranges IMO. We are repressed because of our politics, but it doesn't really extend into our non-political lives. Besides, who cares who the MOST repressed are, there's, unfortunately, much to go around.

[Leftsolidarity]

Political repression and social oppression are apples and oranges IMO. We are repressed because of our politics, but it doesn't really extend into our non-political lives. Besides, who cares who the MOST repressed are, there's, unfortunately, much to go around.

Agreed, there isn't just one form of oppression and not just one way to 'measure' how much a certain group is oppressed.

[Caj]

... Between that and the MaCarthy witchhunts, I have no logical denial.....

Don't forget the Palmer Raids ;)

[Mind_Zenith]

Wouldn't worry me if the Comrades were in the margins of the political spectrum. Even if there were 2 of us left, there'd still be ways in which they can help the oppressed, even if they couldn't exactly incite revolution.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

The irony of seeing a group of educated comrades typing on their computers that they are the most oppressed group, when the very theory they study is supposed to tell them that there are people in society with nothing.

But yeah, i'm sure the >1billion people who, as a result of colonial dependence and free trade, live on less than $1 per day, will agree that Socialists are the most oppressed group in society.:rolleyes:

[ifeelyou]

The idea that socialists are the "most repressed minority" is ridiculous. Although socialist political activists without doubt face political resistance to socialist ideas, socialists (at least in the US) have not faced social oppression like the Jim Crowism that Black people have historically experienced nor have they endured the kinds of educational segregation and anti-miscegenation laws that other ethnic/racial groups like Mexican Americans have also historically dealt with. I also don't believe socialists are disproportionately poor in the ways that Blacks and Latina/os are. They also aren't disproportionately affected by health issues such as HIV and diabetes like Latina/os and Black people are. They also don't face the kinds of sexual oppression that LGBTI communities have historically faced nor have they been oppressed because of gender in the ways women and trans folks have been. And the list can certainly go on.

I'm not trying to engage in oppression olympics, but let's get real.

[CynicalIdealist]

Most silenced? Yes. Repressed/oppressed? No.

In any case, we shouldn't be trying to figure out who is the most/least oppressed.

[ifeelyou]

Most silenced? Yes. Repressed/oppressed? No.

In any case, we shouldn't be trying to figure out who is the most/least oppressed.

I'd like to know what you mean.

[CynicalIdealist]

I'd like to know what you mean.

Communism is the most terrifying ideology to the ruling class. Therefore, they are kept off the airwaves because the ruling class would hate for even the slightest possibility of such an idea spreading. When the idea does spread, repression of communists is pretty much guaranteed.

Furthermore, any country that has even remotely defied capitalism is virtually guaranteed to have coup attempts against its leaders or a war on its hands, due to capitalist powers like the U.S. having the intent to restore capitalist institutions.

[ifeelyou]

Communism is the most terrifying ideology to the ruling class. Therefore, they are kept off the airwaves because the ruling class would hate for even the slightest possibility of such an idea spreading. When the idea does spread, repression of communists is pretty much guaranteed.

Furthermore, any country that has even remotely defied capitalism is virtually guaranteed to have coup attempts against its leaders or a war on its hands, due to capitalist powers like the U.S. having the intent to restore capitalist institutions.

I don't know if I agree that it's the "most silenced minority" because I'm having a difficult time accepting socialists/communists as a "minority."

And I'm also not sure that communism is the "most terrifying ideology to the ruling class. Therefore, they are kept off the airwaves..." I mean, speaking specifically about the US, I can't help but think about the various racial histories of resistance and ideologies that have seldom been written of or spoken about. Here I'm thinking of complex accounts of African American history that include radicals like James Baldwin, Zora Neal Hurston, Martin Luther King later in life, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, etc. I'm also thinking of the civil rights movements and achievements of other ethnic/racial groups like Chinese Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican Americans-- complicated social histories and ideologies that are just beginning to surface after decades and decades of silence.

[gendoikari]

Don't forget the Palmer Raids ;)

what is the exact state of the Macarthy witchhunts? Can open socialists still get a job? cause that's why i keep my mouth shut a lot of the time.

[gendoikari]

Political repression and social oppression are apples and oranges IMO. We are repressed because of our politics, but it doesn't really extend into our non-political lives. Besides, who cares who the MOST repressed are, there's, unfortunately, much to go around.

very good point.


I'd like to know what you mean.



Poor little kids not old enough to remember what a black list is, much less the House Un-American Activities Committee.

[Aspiring Humanist]

Poor little kids not old enough to remember what a black list is, much less the House Un-American Activities Committee.

OH GOD THEY PUT YOU ON A LIST??

shut up there are still people dying because they don't have food and your worried about lists

[electro_fan]

it's totally the wrong way of looking at it. if you start to look at it i nterms of simplistic identity politics (and turning "socialists" into another identity) you'll get nowhere,

basically, yeah, left wing groups are repressed and in some countries, socialists, anarchists and other anti-capitalists etc are tortured and killed, but not because they are some sort of minority, but because they represent the interests of the working class, which is actually the overwhelming majority of people. the capitalists know this, which is why they take these types of measures against left wing groups, and also against working class organisations like the trade unions (which often include very few, or no, conscious "socialists")

[gendoikari]

srsly, repression aside is it safe to be an out of the closet socialist in america today, you know and still expect to have a decent job?

[Aspiring Humanist]

Bernard "Bernie" Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. Previously, Sanders represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives. Sanders also served as mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
Sanders is a self-described democratic socialist,[1][2] and has praised European social democracy. He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist.[3] Sanders caucuses with the Democratic Party and is counted as a Democrat for the purposes of committee assignments, but because he does not belong to a formal political party, he appears as an independent on the ballot. He was also the only independent member of the House during much of his service there.

It's not like everyone is accepting of leftism, far from it. But its not like some social stigma that will make people refuse you employment
Leftists are persecuted but not nearly to the extent of LBGTQ or undocumented migrants

[gendoikari]

It's not like everyone is accepting of leftism, far from it. But its not like some social stigma that will make people refuse you employment
Leftists are persecuted but not nearly to the extent of LBGTQ or undocumented migrants

There were in the 60's and 70's and even more so with very few exceptions for the like of J. Robbert Oppenheimer ... and I can't think of many more. basically being a commie meant no job or worse.

[Aspiring Humanist]

Well yeah back then everyone was so scared of the reds but now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, Cubas a shell of its former self, vietnam and PRC are state capitalists and the DPRK is just out there people have stopped thinking of socialism as a threat to their freedom (beside glenn beck) so that type of shit doesnt happen anymore

[Jimmie Higgins]

Well yeah back then everyone was so scared of the reds but now that the Soviet Union has collapsed, Cubas a shell of its former self, vietnam and PRC are state capitalists and the DPRK is just out there people have stopped thinking of socialism as a threat to their freedom (beside glenn beck) so that type of shit doesnt happen anymoreThey're probably right not to worry too much about socialists and anarchists right now for the most part (though the US has spied on socialists and raided the FSRO in the last few years and has been trying to set a precedent for using "counter-terrorism" against anarchists) because, for the most part, we don't have much of a broad hearing among the working class. But the are certainty terrified of the mass class anger out there turning to organized commutativity either in the form of new left-wing parties or union militancy. I have no doubt that as people in this generation of austerity radicalize, they will unleash much more overt repression (probably as part of a combination of tactics such as granting limited reforms etc). And they are not just afraid of the domestic population, they are afraid of mass popular movements everywhere and Egypt I think was as much a signal to them as it was to us about the volatility in society that the economic crisis has brought about.

In other words, no, they don't generally harass us as much as they could or have in the past but for how limited our efforts are currently, they pay a disproportionate amount of attention.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Communists are oppressed/face repression when they gain enough agency as a group that those in power start to take notice.

Other than that, though...not really.