I found this to be timely and and inciteful:


https://restoringtruth.substack.com/p/a-quiet-walk-to-the-gulag


JR

Saturday’s WSJ reviewed a book, Red Memory by Tania Branigan. It deals with the survivors of China’s cultural revolution. Survivors include citizens persecuted and tortured for criticizing Mao, as well as the good citizens who turned in their neighbors and relatives to the young communist enforcers who meted out punishment. One incident in particular relates how a son turned in his mother,who is now an old man and relives what he did everyday.

Just remember to use the correct pronoun and you should be ok.

I just ordered Solzhenitsyn's book. Should have read it long ago.
JR

I read The Gulag Archipelago when it first came out. It should be required reading in high schools and universities.

As frightening as things are now, I know allegedly reasonable people who wish to take AR 15's and other weapons from the law abiding. The Second Amendment, well explained in Federalist 28 and 29, was included because the authors knew that Trippy Biden, Schmuck Tumor, Nazi Pelosi, Adam Schiffhead, Chief Spreading Bull and Bernie Stalin would come along. If the appeasers plan is to be on the last train to the gulag, they will still wind up in the gulag.

“you follow the Babylon Bee” [quote from above linked article]


_______________________________
I’m fooked.

Hook line and sinker!!! What a dope!

We forget (or ignore) Niemöller’s post-war words at our peril.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller

(Happy to let Niemoller’s insight gained though experience stand alone.)

I recently heard a young woman criticize capitalism for giving us a life filled with work that limited our time to enjoy ourselves. I couldn't help but wonder how she had come to such a conclusion, having certainly examined all other economic systems and the history of the world.

Used Bing AI Chatbot to find this.


https://sententiaeantiquae.com/2018/09/29/racists-use-this-fake-quote-from-aristotle/


______________________________
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that. HAL 9000

Life is hard, it's even harder if you're stupid....not Aristotle either. Forgive me but I don't find Bing Chat AI to be all that credible a source.

Solzhenitsyn’s books translated very well.
I read them when they were published in the US.
Gulag was a little dry, but
“A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch” is a very compelling read.
As I think about it, I read it in the winter of 1978, which was a brutal time in Michigan. That was one of our worst winters ever recorded, so I had some thing I could relate to the story.

I think John will find the references to felt boots very interesting, as John lives in the south.

They are very well written books.

Try explaining that to a Teamster.



It’s a search engine.


_____________________________
Hockey Now!

I have been well aware of the book by Solshenitsyn since it came out but have never gotten around to reading it. Now this has got me interested. I looked on Amazon and found three volumes?? Is this just a breakdown of the book into three or was the original in three books?

“A day in the life…” is a wonderful novel.
Gulag is more an explanation of the Gulag system.

I learned that as well, Perry. I ordered Vol. 1 and will see how I do with it.
JR

Or, an RBL owner. Who lives in Detroit. And drives a Cub.

Stupid is as stupid does.


Best,
Ted

___________________________________________________
Detroit, the version of hell for souls that aren’t quite dead yet.

I would think everyone on this site would enjoy reading about Ivan Denisovitch regardless of politics or persuasions.
It’s a very compelling, well written story.

It even had some back story about how the manuscript was smuggled out and published in the west.
Very Cold War environment then.

I give the guy a lot of credit for all he went through to tell the story to the world.

Hook, line and sinker!!! What a dope!


______________________________
Hurricanes 1 Panthers 0 end of first. Hockey Now!!!

John et al. After you slog through Solzhenitsyn you can get started on Kafka.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dei-br...uh4fdy&reflink=article_copyURL_share


_____________________________
It’s a universal law—intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. A Solzhenitsyn

Alternatively, you could just peruse the archive of The Babylon Bee.

It’s the same stuff, but funnier.

https://babylonbee.com/news/progres...fs-render-intolerant-bigot-ten-years-now


___________________________________
Hope this Solzhenitsyn chap didn’t enjoy a refreshing Bud Light after a hard day of writing.

John et al

There’s enough in this speech to keep you busy all summer.

https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/a-world-split-apart


________________________
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. K. Kristofferson

I used A Day in the Life in my classes for more than 20 years. Students like it too. Along these lines some might find Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon informative. It's a very compelling portrayal of the Stalin's great purge. Between these two books we see the effects of communist Russia on an ordinary citizen and a military hero.

How goes the slog through Solzhenitsyn?


____________________________
Need Stan to kick off the Revolution. Take us to the promised land, Stan!

Solzhenitsyn wrote his earlier works before his travels to the west. They were good and relevant reading at the time. The much more important work from Solzhenitsyn is “Between two Millstones” and his warnings to the west, that went mostly unheeded, in his opinion, about the dangers of socialism.

Profoundly relevant.



Best,
Ted

_____________________________________________________________________
“What I could not attain by my pen, I would never be able to achieve by shouting orders.”

Solzhenitsyn

So it’s basically like what Lenin said, you know, you look for who will benefit and uh, uh . . .


_____________________________
I am the walrus?

Those Jan 6 Rainbow Warriors could learn a few things from Wagner.

Who do we see swinging from a light pole? Putin or Prigozhin?


______________________________
Slava Ukraini

Another scenario is Prigozhin checks himself in to a state run hospital and is “diagnosed” with “depression” and “jumps” off a bridge.




____________________________
Heroiam Slava.

Lonesome, I thinks the most problematic issue that Prizoghon presents to Putin and his media mouthpieces, at home and abroad, is that he started speaking truth to power when he became disfavored.

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...-benefit-elites-accuses-moscow-of-lying/

But nonetheless, they both should swing for their war crimes.

Hopefully, we will not need George Orwell to remind us again of the immediate and prolonged dangers of socialism. Stalin thought that being the counter of the votes
was most important. Honest elections should be the U.S.goal. It is a commentary on Russian leadership that the last two major leaders were former directors of the KGB.
As a combat veteran who has actually fought communism in Indo -China, my judgment indicates we are fast eroding the basic rights and freedoms a previous generation fought hard to protect.

We should well be conservative, because there is much to conserve.




______________________________________________
It is not the critic who counts..., the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena ... T. Roosevelt
Only the dead have seen the end of war- Plato

Hi 1916XE,

You may be interested in learning that Orwell wrote about the immediate and prolonged dangers of fascism & totalitarianism, and that he was pro democratic socialism according to his non fiction writings.

https://iep.utm.edu/george-orwell/

https://news.stanford.edu/2016/02/16/orwell-alex-woloch-021516/#:~:text=In%20it%2C%20Orwell%20famously%20stated,%2C%20as%20I%20understand%20it.%E2%80%9D

Nonetheless his writing is still on point and relevant for today.

Nca225? Really animal farm and 1984 kinda say it differently

Hi mc,

I appreciate your skepticism.

While everybody is free to take from any author's writings, what they want, I find that both novels, Animal Farm and 1984 warn against the evil of the corruption of power rather the ills of Socialism.

In Animal Farm for example this can be seen in the different mentality of the several pigs. The character, Snowball, who was instrumental in rebellion on the farm, for instance was striving to set up an animal socialist society along the lines of what Old Major had envisioned ie the wealth and fruits of their labor being spread across the farm's population. However after Old Major had met his end, Snowball was quickly expelled by Napoleon and his soldier dogs, and under their propaganda (squealed out by Squealler) was made to be the root of all the farm's evils that befell them, while in reality it was Napoleon and his rise to absolute power, retention of the farm's wealth, and control over all aspects of farm life that was concealed from the farm population. Not so much a warning of the evils of Democratic Socialism as opposed to the evils of the power hungry that corrupt to their own ends and pervert it into communism under a totalitarian regime.

1984 on the other hand had nothing to do with any type of economic system. 1984 was strait up about the evil of the absolute power of a totalitarian regime, Big Brother, which controlled all aspects of its subjects lives right down to what words you can say, and how one should think under the regime's instruction. Unfortunately for Winston, he had a bad run of it against the regime in Oceania.

I have to admit, these are very good reads and I haven't thought too much about them respectively since grade school, but your response made me pick them up again. I appreciate that. There are other writing and essays of Orwell you may want to check out to gain a further understanding of his warning to us. I hope you enjoy them should wish to read them.
'

I want to second nca225's interpretation of the two novels. And I'd like to recommend Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language where he shows how the misuse of words by politicians signals a corruption they seek to hide. 1984 takes the misuse of language to its ultimate conclusion' but it's easy to see how many current "leaders" twist the language to support a twisted reality. The notion of "alternate facts" is a corruption Orwell foresaw.

Animal farm is the Russian revolution,animal farm shows the willingness of people to follow a failed ideology I have read his worries in his life it is a lot different then what most people regurgitate.1984 absolute power corrupts absolutely

Rocky Mountain bill ,,,are you serious?????

mc, I'm serious about things I consider important. From your reply I have to say it's hard to tell what you mean. If you want to argue with my post, say what the hell you think.

I orwell saw the facts of a too powerful government being able to ban what is considered normal life ,banning books crushing creativity not manipulating with language but with a big stick,,that's whst I mean

Oh, That explains everything.

Uh oh, mc. You have prodded the captain proletariat, donning the pride pink cape, able to leap constitution kryptonite in a selective bound.

Rocky mtn.bill I agree with you politicians twisting and using language to corrupt and hide misdeeds,Biden and his son have cornered the market don't you think! I really didn't connect biden till you pointed it out thank you for pointing out the truth.

mc, who is it that's banning books? And here's Craigd with one of his utterly incomprehensible responses. Hi, Craigd. It's nice to hear from you once more. We haven't had an exchange in quite a while. It's good to know you're still out there. On another topic altogether, Orwell's essay Shooting an Elephant will be of more interest here than what he has to say about language. Ps: If Biden has broken the law, let him pay the price. In the mean time, let your hero pay his price; his crimes are out there for everyone to see who cares to look.

Before we get personal. Orwell, (Blair) was a professed Social Democrat, which happens to be the prevailing direction of a large part of Europe today. That doesn't mean in any way that he was statist or in the new understanding "Progressive". Animal Farm is a warning about communism which by definition is complete statism even if it is " for the people". If I am incorrect in this then please attempt to set me right.

And now Keith in for the lock!

He’s out there, he’s queer, and won’t drink Bud Light beer.


_____________________________
Queer as in odd. Not, you know . . . gey.

I know people get settled in their viewpoints, and close their minds.

In the case of “A day in the life…”

It is an awful missed opportunity to read a very good story.

It’s not even long. The sentences as translated are simple.

Too bad petty politics manage to ruin the opportunity to just enjoy a good story.

No one is banning books some parents don't want there 7 year olds subjected to an alternate life style anyone over eighteen can buy any book ,my father is my hero served 1937 1966 usn . we were talking language and Biden has lost much of his .shooting an elephant would apply to hunter and Joe right?

Hey Bill. If anything is incomprehensible, it would be, why it's such a struggle after nap time, trying to choose between red or green jello. Open wide jo, here comes the airplane, gonna land some yummy for your tummy. Who cares if he's a criminal hiding in a children's playground, God save the queen man, he likes Brit doubles?

This thread is hilarious. I hope we can keep it going. Nowadays, a little humor helps a lot. PS: Orwell's Shooting an Elephant is not about assassinating Republicans. It is his reflection on having shot an elephant in Burma. It says much about what motivates people in authority. mc, why would you want to ban books from other peoples' children. Why shouldn't every parents get to decide what reading is available to their own kids. I second ClapperZapper. Read A Day in the Life. You'll be glad you did.

mc,

With respect to book bans, I took the liberty to do a little research. I offer it to you below to review if you would like.

https://pen.org/report/banned-in-the-usa-state-laws-supercharge-book-suppression-in-schools/

If you researched this as well I would not mind reviewing the sources you came across.

Chief,



Nothing to correct here Chief, other then just adding and highlighting that the goal of the rebellion on the farm was to set up a democratic socialist system whereby the wealth of the farm was to be spread across all the farm animals. All the animals supported this. It was the small faction of greedy pigs that corrupted the system into communism and intentionally mislead the farm's population about it, and then established a means of control to keep the farm's population from questioning it. The farm animals did not willingly "follow " a failed ideology. They were forced into it by the power hungry pigs.

You mean like twenty year, "educators"? Good point Bill, you really can't blame the book, even if it has more than ten pages in its magazine. Blame the pusher, who's sugar coating books, and hooking impressionable children.

craigd, People who fear books are largely people who don't read. They just somehow know that books convey irresistible temptations to the unsuspecting. They don't read 1} because they don't like to, 2) because they want to guard themselves against hearing something that could threaten their mind set. Stupid people fear books because they resent smart people who know things they don't. Stalin and Hitler tried to defend themselves by banning books. They're the model for book-banners today.

mc, why would you want to ban books from other peoples' children. Why shouldn't every parents get to decide what reading is available to their own kids. [/quote]

Guess what Bill? That's what parents want, the right to decide, and if decide they don't want their children being sexualized and groomed by reading alphabet society propaganda, they don't want some pervert in the school system supplying it to them on the sly. If YOU want to corrupt your own childrens minds, that's on you, you can spend eternity contemplating the wisdom of that in Hell, just don't do it to someone else's child.

Tim, No one has denied parents' right to decide what THEIR children can read. If you believe that teachers and schools have corrupted children, you must have been reading about Catholic schools. The idea that the gay, lesbian, ect. crowd is grooming children is just plain silly. They have their own issues to deal with. There are preditors out there, but they aren't using books to promote their aims.

Well now. I wouldn't necessarily want my eight year old to read "A day in the life" or any other thing written at that level. Orwell was at least a later junior high read for me. I thought "1984" to be a lot more relevant to me in 1970! I have to echo Tim in PA's concern. Parents with children in a school system should be able to filter what their children read at school. Tax payer's dollars. I am thoroughly convinced that there are plenty of books for children to read that don't make a political or religious point at all and yet demonstrate positive, inspirational and moral values. At home the reading material may be up for discussion, a private matter. See there were no books banned, burned or any other thing. Simply regulated.

banning books and electronic media is banning free speech...

we got a constitutional amendment that protects adult free speech...

dont like what a media says, then dont read, watch or listen...

an as fur school media, that may be the exception...

its the responsibity of parents to determine what their children injest...

but, if local social services determine that individual children are injesting media, that is deemed as abusive and damaging, then child services may have to take action, against the parents..

if media child abuse is found within the public school system and the parents cannot correct it, then the governor of the state could be petitioned to take over the school and bring it back to state standard...

and if individual citizens of a community cannot live with the customs and standards of the majority of that community, then they could move to a community that is more comfortable for them...

EDDis an idiot

people who call other people names, usually dont have anything of value to say...

R U fur real, daw gon it?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CATMUU_enUS1048US1048&sxsrf=AB5stBi4FqkhM6UFwD5arMPHajNrpJ__kg:1688266134827&q=are+you+talkin+to+me&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjm4K6ge__AhU9M1kFHbnxCZMQ0pQJegQIDBAB&biw=1138&bih=537&dpr=1.2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:cdf3bab8,vid:tp6KExqs_3o

Didn't the fauxdemic let parents into teacher union controlled, public school classrooms? "Educator" laziness allowed parents to sit in zoom classrooms with their children, a very un Catholic school characteristic, and parents were stunned by the progressive agenda being pushed, right Bill? Does fake civilty make you feel like you're telling the truth?

In both Kali and ny, and of course, many places in between, minors at least as young as twelve, can seek their own school based "healthcare". Did you lie about the lbg agenda being painted by your left wing policy makers, that you voted for, as being a healthcare issue? Just kidding, when Bill is displaying faux civility, then we're all in this together, right Bill?

are you for real?

Wrong Bill, look up images from the books "Gender Queer" and "This book is gay". This is what your fellow "education professionals" are putting in school libraries against the wishes of parents. If parents can't prevent this crap from being available to their children in schools, then their rights are being denied. And yes, this is in union represented public schools.

The idea that the alphabet society is grooming children isn't silly, it's just happening slowly. This constant need from leftist perverts to perform sexually in front of children, the weakening of laws regarding pedophilia and talk of lowering the age of consent, the renaming of pedophiles as "minor attracted persons", just one step at a time. Try googling up Joseph Bruno Francis Parker school project veritas, there's video of him bragging about giving school children sex toys, great teacher. Just because your union newsletter won't talk about this doesn't mean it isn't happening.

As for that crack about the Catholic Church, that's on your side of the political aisle. If the church hadn't been infiltrated and infested with leftist homosexuals, most of that wouldn't have happened. That's right, it was mostly all predatory homosexuals, not pedophiles. The vast majority of victims were male, and the vast majority of them were old enough to be pedophiles, these "priests" weren't pedophiles, just predatory homosexuals with an interest in younger partners.

Can you say indoctrination,

This Thread has it all... Politics, Insults, Name Calling, advancement of Communist and Socialist Dogma... everything except Double Gun content. I've stayed out of it to see where it goes, just to see if all of the usual whiners and crybabies who complain to Dave Weber about 2nd Amendment Threads and off-topic "bad manners" would complain. Over two weeks has passed, and we hear crickets.



And there's Billy falsely suggesting that it is Conservatives and MAGA Republicans who are banning books. This is the same guy who repeatedly used this Forum to advance the false Democrat narrative about Trump colluding with Putin. But censorship and student's access to certain books has happened for decades, usually due to offensive or sexually explicit content.

https://www.rd.com/list/books-banned-the-decade-you-were-born/

Public School Boards have always regulated the content of the curriculum, and determined what is taught, and what books are purchased for classrooms and libraries. As a retired English Teacher, Billy knows this, but is once again parroting Democrat propaganda, and supporting the perverted sexualization and grooming of children by pedophiles, Transgenger sicko's, and the entire LGBTQIA++ crowd.

Not so many years ago, we were asked by the sick Liberal Left to merely accept the queer lifestyle, but now this and other mentally sick behaviors are being crammed down our children's throats in order to normalize perverted behavior. At G-A-Y Pride Parades this month, these sick bastards are chanting and bragging, "We're coming for your children." Children are being chemically castrated and counseled by sick Liberals without parental consent or knowledge. Billy is once again telling lies when he says this is only happening in Catholic Schools, while parents who dare to complain are labeled as Domestic Terrorists by the Democrat controlled DOJ and FBI when they speak up at Public School Board meetings.


A couple weeks ago, new data came out showing that reading and math scores among 13 year olds are at the lowest point in decades, and these sick Democrats are complaining when Conservatives simply want kids to be taught normal and useful things instead of being groomed by agenda driven pedophiles with books like Gender Queer, etc. We spend more on public school education per pupil than any nation on earth, and once again, our retired English Teacher shows us he still cannot spell a simple word like "predators". And he also cannot tell the truth about what his anti-gun Liberal Democrats are doing to destroy this nation.

https://apnews.com/article/math-reading-test-scores-pandemic-school-032eafd7d087227f42808052fe447d76

I have always taken an interest in modern history though there is one exception , it is just I wanted to look inside the people who where outstanding in their way good or bad. So I have found these books made me look at things and happenings from another perspective.

Seven Pillars of wisdom by T E Laurence. I now believe recommended reading in Military Academies across the world. Such insight i to the way a terrorist mind will work.
Long walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela. Full of insight into the way South Africa was during the Apart ide system. Full of things I did not know sadly.
An American Life Ronald Reagan. "Nancy I forgot to duck" those words intrigued me so I read the book
Iliad Homer. 800 BCE Just a good read and shows that things have not changed for the human condition especially War.
My final book is very controversial. Strangely enough I could only find an English version in Germany. Though things have changed now.
Mien Kamph A Hitler. It is a very long look into the mind of a man who changed the world we once had to the one we have today.
Just food for thought, banning of books is only a stones throw away from "where they burn books in the end they will also burn human beings" Heinrich Helm.
Things have not changed much for a lot of people across the globe in all that time from Homer to today.

This country has not been the same since September 11, 2001. Much of our problems and division started with Obama. A number of us saw him for what he was and tried to warn voters. In many ways, the current idiot is just a prop for Obama and his team.

In 2016 my thought was "This is the best we can do?" - Clinton vs Trump.

In 2020 my thought again was "This is the best we can do?" - Trump vs Biden

In 2024 I suspect my thought will be again "This is the best we can do?" - Biden vs Trump II.

Until we come up with new, young leadership that believes in our founding, history, heritage, and role within the rest of the world, it will never get better.

We also have to stop allowing the 10% fringe to control the rest of us. Sadly, the Communist, Marxist, Socialists, whatever you want to call them have wormed their way into all aspects of our life. Much of what we are seeing is right out of their playbook. And again, it started with Obama.

A good example is how they are using the "Pride" phenomenon to further their agenda. Now to be clear, I don't care what people do in their private lives. However, don't force me to accept it because it is not. And don't teach it to minor children in school that it is normal because it is not. Parents raise their children with the most say, and teachers should stick to writing, reading, history, math, and science. But again, the left has successfully taken over our school systems, and school boards.

We have seemingly overnight gone from awareness, to tolerance, to acceptance, forced acceptance, and now forced acceptance - or else. That is fundamentally wrong in our country.

"Fundamentally transform the United States of America" - Ring a bell?

The conservative " mind" is a strange thing. It sees danger threatening from all directions, coming from people who aren't recognizably from the same tribe. The core belief seems to be that all would be well if only everyone was just like me. To have whole sets of enemies is a comfort that takes away the difficult job of actually confronting tough issues. It's called scapegoating, one of the world's oldest con games. "IT all started with Obama" ??? Imagine that. Up 'til then, everything was perfect. But it took just one bad apple to spoil it all. If liberals were somehow behind all Americas' problems, then conservative might as well give up and slash their wrists because they're way too far outgunned. Look, there are real threats out there. Some of them can be dealt with conservatively. Some are better approached from the other direction. Anyone who believes that all our woes are the fault of the other party is simply gullible. There are battles to fight, but they won't be won by stupidity. Yeah, we ought to have better candidates, but often the choice isn't between a good one and a bad one. There is a meaningful difference between a not-so- good one and one who's even worse.