Saturday, February 5, 2011

Censor One for the Gipper

I was having an interesting discussion about the legacy of Reagan and the Berlin wall. It started with a post I wrote where I briefly described some interactions I've had with various friends from Germany, Poland, and Russia about the fall of the Berlin wall and communism in general. I've known four people, one German, two Russians, and one Polish immigrant. The Polish guy was my boss for a while and was a mostly far right wing believer who was actually contemptuous of Lek Walenska and the Solidarity movement and the others were girl friends of one kind or another. One was fairly left wing like me and the other two were moderate to conservative. The amazing thing was all these people had one thing in common, they literally LOL'd at the idea that Ronald Reagan was responsible for the fall of communism. They had been there and they knew it was due to the people of the region not some American actor who took credit for it. Here is the thread that got published with the comment from LateBloomer2 that I responded to. (Note: click "Expand Full Thread" to see the whole thread)

Here is my reply which Huffpo deemed inappropriate to post:

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" had NO effect?"

It probably provoked a few laughs. The idea that Ronald Reagan had any moral authority to preach to the USSR about human rights is I'm sorry but just laughable.

Yes, the thugs in Eastern Europe who beat up trade unionists and other people of conscience were evil. But compared to the torture centers and death squads in Central and South America and other parts of the world that were created by US puppets the Eastern Europeans were amateurs. Where the East German or Polish secret police would beat you up the Chileans, Guetamalan­s, and the Central American "Freedom Fighters" would torture you to death and then kill you and anyone whose name you screamed as you were being tortured.

As just one example look up Jennifer Harbury, a US woman who married a Guatemalan national who was tortured to death. We know his story only because he married a well educated US woman but there are thousands of other victims of US disdain for human rights.

Just to be clear I'm not saying the Berlin Wall or anything done by the USSR was justified because of what the US did. I'm just saying that the idea that the US had any moral authority to critique the USSR is not supported by facts and that certainly Gorbachev (as well as the majority of educated people outside the US) knew that.

4 comments:

  1. I have a very advanced degree, a background in political science and a good attitude. I was banned yesterday from huffington post for posting a comment critical of AIPAC and their well known wrongdoing vis a vis Egypt. I was amazed as were others who saw the deleted posts and the ban. I am looking for whistleblowers inside Huffington post who can give me evidence of my suspicions that employees at the company are trained to delete political comments like mine or that outside groups pay or attempt to influence the comment bans.

    post here. thank you

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  2. Ronnie responsible for the fall of communism *is* a laughable idea. I can tell you that as a Pole who lived there and witnessed the events leading up to the fall.

    I can also tell you that in Poland, the thugs (state police) did not limit themselves to just "beating up" the unionists and dissenters, but they also tortured and killed many (look up Father Popieluszko, for one).

    BTW, a comment I made on communism where I spoke in mild positive terms about it (pointing out that there was no homelessness or unemployment under communism) was repeatedly censored on HP, and my queries as to why went unanswered.

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  3. "I can also tell you that in Poland, the thugs (state police) did not limit themselves to just "beating up" the unionists and dissenters, but they also tortured and killed many (look up Father Popieluszko, for one)."

    Good point. I take back what I said. My real point was that the US media is highly biased when it reports on human rights abuse. It gives huge attention to the abuse done by people we don't like (Sadam Hussein, the Communist East Bloc) and virtually ignores the crime committed by people the US likes (Saudi Arabia, Mubarak, the South American dictators). But it was wrong for me to minimize the oppression that the Polish people suffered. I apologize.

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  4. Anonymous said: "BTW, a comment I made on communism where I spoke in mild positive terms about it (pointing out that there was no homelessness or unemployment under communism) was repeatedly censored on HP, and my queries as to why went unanswered."

    This is the kind of thing that I find intolerable. If you ever have specific examples, I would love to publish them. If you save the comment (I always archive any comment I think may be censored here: http://huffpofreespeech.blogspot.com/ and could let you know how to do the same) I like to keep track of them here as a record of the ridiculous censorship policy at Huffpo.

    ReplyDelete

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