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Fake History That Inspires Today’s Progressives
American Spectator ^ | July 12, 2018 | Crosby Kemper III, Rex Sinquefield

Posted on 07/14/2018 7:08:36 AM PDT by Twotone

Mindful of Voltaire’s dictum (“To hold a pen is to be at war”), we take up the pen against five enduring myths about the Russian Revolution and the advent of socialism. The five myths are long-standing pillars of falsehood — used to curtail liberty, justify past atrocities, and (in the name of “progress”) lead free people into servitude.

Calling themselves “progressives,” many people today readily accept most or all of these myths as the truth. Filled with socialist yearnings, they have become a new force to be reckoned with in American politics.

Myth #1 — The false story of a heroic beginning to socialism — as a popular uprising by an oppressed people against social injustice and the cruelties under the Tsar.

In truth, the Russian revolution did not really begin until after the military coup that brought the Bolsheviks to power on Nov. 7, 1917. The coup was an almost bloodless event — “as easy as picking up a feather,” Lenin admitted. The Bolsheviks were just one of several parties contending for power in Russia following the abdication of Nicholas II, the last Tsar, early in the year. Credit Lenin with some real foresight: He was quick to realize the advantage that might come from putting together a private army from soldiers and sailors set adrift by the collapse of the old regime. It was a small group of disaffected soldiers — not alienated workers — who stormed the Winter Palace in Petersburg, arrested members of a feeble Provisional Government, and catapulted Lenin — who enjoyed no widespread popular support — into power. The historian Bertram Wolfe quipped:

Lenin seized power not in a land “ripe for socialism,” but in a land ripe for seizing power.

(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...


TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: myths; progressives; revolution; russia

1 posted on 07/14/2018 7:08:36 AM PDT by Twotone
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To: Twotone

bookmark


2 posted on 07/14/2018 7:23:42 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: Twotone

So much of liberalism and the Democrat party is right out of Orwell.
Example:

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell 1984


3 posted on 07/14/2018 7:34:26 AM PDT by Sasparilla ( I'm Not Tired of Winning)
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To: Twotone

bfl


4 posted on 07/14/2018 7:35:41 AM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: Twotone

Each new wave of communists, calling themselves socialists and progressives, believes that the implementation of socialism has escaped success because it wasn’t done the right way, as they will be sure to do.


5 posted on 07/14/2018 7:49:42 AM PDT by Blue Collar Christian (Socialism is for losers.)
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To: Twotone

bkmk


6 posted on 07/14/2018 7:52:53 AM PDT by sauropod (I am His and He is mine. #FreeTommy)
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To: Blue Collar Christian

“because it wasn’t done the right way”

But it was done the right way. It is meant to be a system where the power hungry gain more power. The problem is people eventually wake up and see the lie.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2013/11/12/horowitz-blasts-left-heritage/


7 posted on 07/14/2018 8:01:07 AM PDT by lizma2
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To: Twotone

Communism is a pack of lies bound by a string of lies.


8 posted on 07/14/2018 8:31:05 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator (Enforce the Law. Build the Wall. Deport them All.)
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To: Twotone
Progressives! How many time do you have to tell them that 1984 was a warning, not a guide!
9 posted on 07/14/2018 8:59:16 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (Opportunities multiply as they are seized.)
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To: VRW Conspirator

And all this confusion about what constitutes the true nature of human endeavor, that somehow, everybody will start and stay on the same page all the way through.

The mulish and truculent disposition of even a small number of these souls banded together for the “greater good” quickly attacks and rips up this neat little pretty package of “scientific socialism”. At that point, the leadership of the “socialist” movement is compelled to apply draconian methods of “getting everybody’s mind right”, a fool’s errand, because they themselves do not always know their own minds. And sure enough, any number of the leadership council soon find themselves in the crosshairs of an even more orthodox practitioner of the One True Way.

First Trostky was denounced, then even, for a while, Lenin, as Stalin consolidated his power. Once deceased, Lenin was resurrected as one of the architects of the Soviet State, but never Trotsky.


10 posted on 07/14/2018 9:04:27 AM PDT by alloysteel ("No" is a complete sentence. On so many levels.)
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To: Blue Collar Christian
The left of today couldn't even run a lemonade stand. They would be at each others throat before they even got started.
11 posted on 07/14/2018 9:52:28 AM PDT by Peeps47 (Democrats are as corrupt as they are incompetent)
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To: Twotone

In the end, there is little that is genuine about marxist socialism. It is founded on fallacies, propagated through lies, and sustained through tyranny. Its sole consistent product is misery.


12 posted on 07/14/2018 12:31:15 PM PDT by IronJack
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