re: #211 We’re Way Beyond Snark

Back in what are beginning to look like the good old days of the cold war, I had a serious uphill struggle to get people to realize that the Soviet Union wasn’t normal — they didn’t realize that in that sort of place, there’s no such thing as a private sector.

I had to tell a conservative friend of my father’s that Putin was no commie but rather a right wing nationalist. His response? Well have you ever personally talked to the man? Uh no but Putin’s actions are of a right wing nationalist not a communist. Trotsky’s big thing was to spread the Soviet revolution to other country which Stalin ironically did later after years of being a proponent of socialism in one country. Putin is a pan-Russian nationalist. He sees Ukraine, Belarus, and the other countries as being part of Greater Russia.