Sensible, pragmatic, post-ideological centrism = 42.4% | Terrorist sympathising, looney, ideological, west hating left = 40.1%

In the wake of WWII, as the Allies uncovered the full unquestionable magnitude of the crimes committed by Fascism. Extermination of Jews, Homosexuals, Slavs, Romani, the Disabled, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses and many others. A crime against humanity of such horror that the world was, for once, united under a common cause. "Never again".

The crimes of the holocaust, and of fascism, were widely taught. Those who deny the holocaust? Shunned. Neo-fascists? They face effective social exile. Democratic, liberal societies have been "inoculated" against Fascism.

This has been very successful. We now live in a world with zero Fascist governments. Fascist parties are only barely relevant in a handful of countries (Syria, Greece). Our education system seems especially adept in this regard.


Despite decades of trickling indications of massive atrocities occurring in Communist-ruled nations, the magnitude of the atrocities they have committed - of a scale comparable to Fascists, became undeniable in 1992. A giant "told you so" moment for anti-Communists as the archives were opened and many of their criticisms were proven true. Tens of millions dead. Multiple instances of genocide. Suppression of every single human right. Even the "good" instances, such as East Germany, managed to do worse than the "good instances" of Fascism such as the Estado Novo.

Again, the world said "Never again". Far-left political parties, long financially backed by the Soviet Union, imploded in a spectacular fashion. Some of them fragmented into dozens of competing groups commanding less than a thousand or so members each. Some of them were outlawed, particularly in Eastern Europe. Some of them had their members run off to join Green parties. China was liberalising. Democracies switched from being a minority to being a majority of countries. "Never again".

Make no mistake, these crimes weren't a result of "not real Communism", or "a Dictator hijacking the movement", or even "it being too early". These crimes are the direct, inevitable result of the application of Communist ideology. Marx and Engels fully advocated for the suppression of political opposition by force. A suppression that never ended. Some (such as Professor Grover Furr) deny these undeniable crimes. Some communists claim they back a "different" communism. Many, however, outright say the victims of Communism deserved and still deserve it. A visit to /r/leftwithsharpedge would have demonstrated this in the case of Anarcho-Communists, but that subreddit has now been banned for (among other things) uploading a song advocating for the rape, murder, mutilation and cannibalism of another reddit user.


The inoculation has failed.

Venezuela, Cuba, Ethiopia, Angola, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, Vietnam, Nicaragua, North Korea. These countries continue to have Communist or near-Communist governments. All of them with a correspondingly abysmal human rights record. One of them is currently undergoing a total economic, social and political collapse induced by catastrophically erroneous economic policies, and this is bringing with it new heights of suffering for it's people.

The failure of the world to clean up the last remnants this ideology completely, at least for a time, looked harmless.

But recent changes in elections show, that's no longer the case. Greece has a far-left government now. Spain, Portugal and France have had fairly close calls with Communists. And now, in the UK, Corbyn gets dangerously close to forming a government filled with his closest Marxist (and even Stalinist) political allies.

The inoculation hasn't even worked in the slightest.

Those who deny the crimes of Communism? Who cares? Neo-Communism? It's a prestigious and profitable position to take. Book deals made, music sold, column space gained, tenure given, political commentator digs permitted. Shunned? Hah, they're practically celebrated. Do they face social exile? No, they get closer and closer to electoral success across the west with every passing day.


What now?

A pattern has emerged over recent elections. Who supports these groups the most? The young. Those who weren't alive when the Berlin Wall fell. They enter the voting base after years of schooling, and back the far-left in astonishingly disproportionate numbers. Clearly, the education system is failing. Following the Holocaust we used it to diminish Fascism. But now, in 2017, it provides a steady stream of far-left into the voting base.

Why?

Is there something wrong with the centre-left media?

In the US, when Trump ran, the centre-right media abandoned him in droves. In 2012, Romney received 35 endorsements from major (top 100) newspapers to Obama's 41. In 2016, it went 57 Clinton, 2 Trump and 4 Johnson.This was undoubtably the right move. It didn't work, but their actions were commendable regardless.

In the UK, instead, when a similar populist (but from the left, and arguably more extreme) runs, the supposed "centre-left" media continued to back him regardless.

The centre-left media provides column inches to the far-left on a regular occasion. If the centre-right media did the same for the far-right, it would cause an outrage.

Is the centre-left unable to properly "kick out" the far-left?

Similar to the above, centre-left parties don't seem to properly protect themselves from the far-left. They get seen as bumbling, harmless and misguided, but not seen as an enemy. This is half of how Corbyn even got into a leadership position in the first place. They can't even manage to kick out far-left antisemitism effectively.

Is there something wrong with the curriculum?

I know that when I went through the education system (quite recently in fact), not a single bad word was ever uttered about the ideology of Communism. When we learned of the soviet union, we learned that it was great under Lenin before Stalin ruined it. Ignoring, of course, that Lenin started the concentration camps, the secret police, the repression, the imperialistic adventures in Poland, Finland and Central Asia. These are things I was left to uncover for myself, in unpopular books and ignored articles. Why oh why did my education never teach me this?

Is there something wrong with Universities?

Far left political groups operate freely on University Campuses. Far right groups don't. Perhaps the far left should face similar barriers to operating on campuses. I have heard suggestions that certain types of courses, and the professors that teach them, should also be investigated by the government. We know about how islamic extremists have tried to hijack the secondary education system in certain places. I have no doubt that there are similar far-left extremists in the university system. Some of you may even know a few.

Is there something wrong with counter-extremist strategies?

The risk of far-left Extremism in the UK remains comparable to that of the far-right. Pre-planned riots, firebombings, arsons, assaults. Many of these don't receive widespread publication, but they are there and they are known threats that multiple police departments in particular hot spots have to pay special attention to. This is treating the symptoms, not the cause. Quite frankly, the cause-treating is so bad that any random with a few hours on his hands and a good grasp of internet digging can uncover far-left extremist plans that the Police or MI5 should have dealt with yesterday.


If it's not "Never again", it's "be back soon"

/r/ukpolitics Thread