What happened to the witches?

[kılıç_mehmet]

People here in America use the terms socialist and communist interchangeably because they DON'T know what they actually mean. It's fine if you oppose it as an economic system, but calling people communists simply for not following the Religious Right's definition of how the country should be run is just retarded, bigoted, and asinine, which is what most of those people are. What they don't realize is their own god boy would have opposed the capitalist system.

Well, I do not see communism as the sole, polar opposite of capitalism.
In truth, communism symbolizes something.
It's just more than an economic system in my eyes. I believe that it's true for the people who use the term "commie" or "communist" in your country.
For me, it symbolizes the long time of oppression of my brothers under their brutal regime.
For me, it symbolizes the lands long lost.
For me, it symbolizes the destruction of cultures, the confiscation of property, lands, and everything that would wrong a people, because that's precisely what happened in Soviet Russia.
So, really, there is little good I have to say about communism.
But it's dead. There isn't much to be said about it anymore. And I believe that calling someone a communist isn't really much of an insult anymore, if he indeed is a communist, he'd probably take pride in it, if he isn't, he'll either get offended(becuse he too also opposes communism to a degree), or say meh, because he isn't one.

My whole point in bringing it up was to say that certain quadrants of this country have turned witch-hunting into a practice of finding not people who might consort with the devil and practice black magic but people who would ask you to actually live up to your Christian values and standards and do a little good for other people. Socialist, communist, liberal, etc have all become synonymous in the minds of the ignorant with "anti-American." The same ignorant who some 200+ years ago would have burned witches.

And tell me, are they? Do liberals, communists and socialists oppose these so-called christian values, or even secular familial values, customs, and cultural practices?
There has to be a reason why they think that way.
By the way, I have to tell you that maybe not all liberals, but all self-identified communists I've met were staunchly anti-american. Never met an American communist, but I've met a lot both at home, and abroad to state that they were. And well, I can't really blame the ones who are elderly enough to have lived through the cold war, since back then, the Soviet Union(and therefore, communism) was the anti-thesis of America and the NATO, so it's perfectly understandable if they think that communism is actually a synonym for anti-american.
There isn't really much of an ignorance on their part, but I'd say there is some ignorance on your part for that matter.
And for the terms of socialists and liberals...Well, I don't know about "socialists" again, since such an identification alone is generally used by communists, but "social-democrat" and other "social-X" if there are any, are generic political spectrums of today, at least the ones who can hope to have a seat in any parliament.

For liberals, well, liberals advocate...Change? Or progress, as they say it.
For economic policies, well, there we are, again at a crossroad where the context changes. The liberals in America advocate economic policies similar to those advocated by nationalists in Turkey.
The liberals in Turkey on the other hand advocate economic policies that go along with conservative policies in America.
So, it changes.
However, as for social matters, I've always been at odds with liberals, and I don't think that it's going to change anytime soon. I think it's the same with conservatives in America, although we might be on different terms with secularist policies.

People used to get jealous if their neighbor had a good harvest and they didn't. No one liked the chaotic idea that sometimes you can't control crops, and therefore it's just rotten luck - not in a world that had a personal god. Nor would they want to admit if they were lazy. So you make up in your mind that your neighbor's success was due to the devil, not his perseverance and your bad judgement or luck. This bullshit attitude still exists. You don't want to have to help someone out, so you say that if they're disabled or poor, it's their own fault, or the devil's fault, or even God's punishment on them. It's despicable.

I never heard of a story where the success of one's neighbor was blamed on the devil.
Here, it's rather blamed on God.

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But one thing I can note about liberals and communists is that I've come to the conclusion that liberals, and their ideals are generally towards more pragmatic goals, mostly. Communists, anarchists and the like are, however, mostly romantic. They work towards a goal that isn't in sight yet.
Although, for communists, it was already applied somewhere, but it was proven not to work.