"One of the greatest weapons the Left uses is its ability to thoroughly fog the concepts that would permit people to argue with them on any rational basis."

I disagree tom. I think I am using rational basis to combat your fogged reality. I hate to put it that way, but you are accusing me of equivocating where I am not. You are accusing me of jigging and ambling and playing 'mean sophist' because I called you on a false comparison that can't be substantiated.

Your claim that socialism 'enslaves the people who adopt it' is, likewise, unsubstantiated. PolPot was not really a communist, he was a nasty Bear Feces who used communist ideology to enslave the people more effectively. You are confusing communism for the dictator, the clothing worn for the wearer. Marxist communism is a completely failed system, in the few places it has been tried, and Marxism does lend itself to a totalitarian government.

But democratic socialism as practiced by western Europe so far has
1) Not enslaved its own people
2) Not ended in disaster and totalitarianism as yt
3) Has yielded very high satisfaction rates among its electorate
4) Has not left ALL captial in the hands of despotic governments.

So your claims of NECESSARY stalinism and enslavement are, frankly BS and they don't wash any better than the afore mentioned Bear Turds.

"You can call it "Fershlugginerism" for all I care. You know what I'm talking about as clearly as I do, as does everyone reading these posts, and forcing me to try to nail Jello to a tree is just going to encourage me to bring out the blowtorch."

Well, yeah tom, if you name it something that it isn't, I'm gonna climb up on your back. Just like if you told me the moon landings were faked or that electrons are really angels. I am not forcing you to nail jello to a tree, I am attacking you because you equated democratic socialists to stalinists. Furthermore, if I UNIVERSALLY equated Republicans to White Supremicists, you would be all over me like lice.

"Anything to try and plaster over the historical truth of 80 million dead on the altar of Karl Marx, who is still taught in American colleges as having the solution to our problems, even if he isn't mentioned by name."

I lay the 80 million dead at the feat of Stalin, Lennin, Pol Pot and others. Nowhere did Marx go say "lets kill the world". Marx was wrong on nearly every count, and ANY scholar will tell you so outside of Neo Feminism or Post Modern 'crtical' theory. Marx was wrong, but he was just the anorexis justification for the murderers- NOT the murderer. And IN ANY CASE, democratic socialism is NOT marxist economic theory

"Sorry if I'm getting cranky, but it gets frustrating to point at an elephant and have people go, "what elephant?" It's even more irritating to know how easily people can pull my chain on things like this. "

Tom, Get as worked up as you want. Its fine by me and I don't take offense, I would be a hypocrite to do so.

Davin L.