Twenty years after the wall

[Vuk]

Vuk I often agree with you in the Backroom but this is insane. Nationalism (hence National Socialists) is a classic feature of any right-wing state. The Nazi's believed in a particularly brutal form of ethnic nationalism, and that is why they attempted to exterminate all the 'inferior' races. The left wing, from Leninists to modern liberal lefties, is international in its nature, and believes in a global revolution, because people from all races are not divided by nationality, but by class. Of course, this class divide led to some brutal treatment in certain communist states. I am not defending that, I'm just showing the difference between left and right wing ideologies.

You can be right-wing and violent by exterminating inferior races/cultures. You can be right-wing and peaceful by believing in independence for all nationalities (this sort of utopian nationalism was seen a lot around 1848). You can be left-wing and violent by exterminating the bourgeoisie. You can be left-wing and peaceful by attempting to reform through gradual social change.

Both sides need to stop trying to make the other seem to be monstrous murderers.

Ok, right...so it is not about freedom, it is about racism? You really believe that racism is part of rightwing policy? You have been talking to CA for too long I believe. Look at rightwing revolutions: The American Revolution, The Hungarian Revolution of 1848-49, etc. They are revolutions against oppressor states, not races or cultures. In both cases, the revolutionaries were of mixed race and culture, and were battling an oppressive government, NOT a people. By your own line of reasoning I could say that religious persecution is a leftist policy. Heck, Stalin did it, as did many of the 'communist' countries in the bloc, and minimization of religion is a large part of leftist doctrine in Western states today. You know what? I could make a MUCH better case for that then you could for racism being part of rightwing ideology.

EDIT: And nationalism is a thing of the right, correct? Ok...right. Tell that to all the bloc countries and the USSR. Sure, there was ideology there just as there was in rightwing places, but Nationalism played a BIG part.