Conservatives - what did they have against the USSR?

Miscellaneous General
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Apart from Atheism and abortion, which did not really become a political issue until the 1970s what exactly did the anti-communist conservatives not like about the communists? Brezhnev era Soviet Union pretty much sounds like a conservative`s paradise.

“Gay and lesbian rights” in the Soviet Union? Youre having a laugh. There was no such thing as "dont ask, don`t tell" in the Red Army.

Tough on crime and mild on police brutality? You betcha! Dirty Harry, that quintessential conservative hero would have loved it in the good ole USSR.

Immigration? As conservative as it gets. Not only did they not let people in, they didn`t let people out!

Mistrust of Rock n Roll? Absolutely. The party made it its job to discourage Rock n Roll recordings and long haired freaks in jeans were bound to be wathced and reported on for something by their nosey neighbours.

Gloryfication of the army? Til your ears bled! There was the army day, the navy day, the air force day, the anti-aircraft force day, the airborne force day… And the biggest public holiday had the biggest parade… ever . Evey year!

Anti flag-burning laws? Just for warming up. Not only did you go to jail for burning the flag, but for swearing at it.

Invading Afganistan, fighting Islamofascists and spreading women`s rights? Check. Did have a more hands on approach too.

Death penalty? Of course. Never even an issue.

Automaker bailouts? A giant understatement and that`s putting it mildly.

So as someone who missed most of the Cold War, why exactly did the conservatives not like the communists? Why exactly did Reagan call it an “evil empire”. It seems to me it was really Reagans dream empire. Thats how he wanted the USA to look, no?

I think the only reason conservatives disliked the communists was because by Khruschev`s time the communists were the better conservatives. They even managed to arguably be anti-semitic, just like the good old European Dreyfus afair conservatives!

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And I get accused of trolling…

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I enjoyed this post. It further bolsters my thinking that left and right are virtually meaningless terms. I kind of think of them as the square-circles versus the circular-squares. BTW, Hitler was a vegetarian, anti-gun, anti smoker, hippie.

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You see, you’re thinking. And until you learn not to do that, you’ll never understand conservatism or its principles.

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WW2 was a victory for the New Socialists: Communists over the Old Socialists: Fascists. The problem was that complete communal ownership of production was inneficient, murderious and just plain horrible. So the brilliant W. F. Buckley and others understood the destructiveness of Communism formed their own Communist Lite Movement (Much more like the previous Fascists) out of the old right. These folks believed in the value of foreign interventionism and the control of the world. They engineered the Republican Party to become more interventionist and build a security state at home. Their biggest selling point was that they being Fascist were not Communists so the economy could function unlike the USSR, China, North Korea and later Cuba. And to their credit build an impressive propaganda machine that focused on marginally smaller government at home and lots of foreign intervention abroad.

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marko, i dont understand your post. it does come of as trolling. just because someone is culturally conservative does not mean they would celebrate cultures and societies that exhibit some conservative characteristics in amongst nightmarish exceptions to core principles.

conservatives in politics are no good seeing as they favour the state. but cultural conservatives can not be accused of this.

when you were writing this critique did you mean to paint such individuals as Hoppe and W.BLock with this ‘disliking communists because they were better conservatives’ brush , because this is ‘nonsense on stilts’

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Because they abolished rights in private property and elevated the State above Church and Family.

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how could marko have missed that [:P]

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Maybe he’s wearing Trembley glasses.

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Just like the conservatives did! [:O]

(Only real difference is that they did it in the name of preserving private property, Church, and Family.)

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And your reply comes off as trolling to me. Are you replying to what is actually written, or are you replying to what you think I meant with it? When I will want to say something about Hoppe and Block I will say it. I know how to spell their names, so you will know when I do.

I specificaly said “anti-communist conservatives”. The Cold War warrios. Now as you may know Rothbard fell out with them at National Review so I dont see why I cant poke fun at them, do you?

The meaning of my post was twofold. First it was to ask, tongue firmly in cheek, why did “you” get so worked up about “us” during the Cold War and were always going on about “rolling back” communism? “We” actually minded our buisiness and post 1953 were quite conservative and getting more so, certainly by the standards of your leading conservatives. What was there to rollback?

And second it was to show (once again) “conservatism” doesn`t meaning anything at all. It is a word which means whatever you want it to mean and is therefore devoid of all meaning. What is such a thing as a conservative stance, when later-day communist aparatchiks can for the most part pass for conservatives, particularly for the most bullish old-fashioned throne and altar types of conservatives? (Of course here the altar was to Marx-Lenin, and the trend was toward slow-motion secularisation.)

Yes thats probably it, to be true conservatives they should have elevated the State and Church above family and induvidual.

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marko, i respect you. its all good. i think we were all being light hearted on this thread. but its easy to get sucked into a trollwar thing where none is intended.

at the end of the day its so easy for people to speak past each other. ‘conservative’ is a loaded term with all sorts of meanings and contexts. if you were attacking political cnservatives. then awesome everyone here will join you in ridiculing them. if its cultural conservatives then not so. i’ll assume you were reffering to political ones,.

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When it comes to these “social” issues I am as old fashioned as it gets. But Ill be dead and rotten before I call myself anything with "conservative" in the name. Rather I am a "social reactionary". I frown on neckties. Men shouldnt wear fashion accessories. What is next? Men with earrings?!

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I guess we could call ourselves classical liberals then. Of course, there are already plenty of people in the anarchist movement lined up to piss on Mises’ grave.

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There’s no real difference between political conservatives and cultural conservatives. That’s just newspeak.

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is there a difference between political liberals and cultural liberals?

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Relevance ? Besides, what do you mean by liberals ? Social democrats ?

Political and cultural conservatives are both control freaks. Cultural conservatives’ new tune is that now their system will be voluntary theocracy…or something. What a joke.

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…or something. It sounds to me like the only joke is your understanding of the two.

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Yeah, ‘cultural marxism’ blinds me…I fail to see the merits of war movies, too. All that touching nationalism and stuff.

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Cultural Marxism arose out of the perception that the traditional institutions of family, the Church, the academy, and private property inhibited the success of the Marxist revolution of the economy. Men liked their stuff, their people, their creed too much to embrace the egalitarian ideal. And so, the State had to supplant the heterosexual man with the products of his own labor as breadwinner and social safety net, and the Church and academy had to be infiltrated and co-opted to educate everyone in this new, politically correct way of thinking.

Which is why there should be no distinguishing between the two forms of Marxism when the time comes to line the Marxists up against the wall.