Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
So much did Roger Baldwin and the ACLU reject political, or Stalin Communism as the complete opposite of the individual liberty the ACLU stands for, that when General Douglas MacArthur was placed in charged of setting up democracy and indoctrinating the Japanese to the American ideals of freedom and individual civil rights, he recruited Roger Baldwin to be he primary ground messenger.
Yep, General Douglas MacArthur could find no better expert on freedom, democracy, and American values than ACLU founder Roger Baldwin.
Excellent comment.
You have a portion of Americans who don't think for themselves, and in order to get these dolts to vote against their own self interest you need to invent domestic enemies. The ACLU is one of these chosen because they stand up for the little guy. Right wing elites hate anyone who will stand up for the little guy.
I keep seeing the defenses of Baldwin that involve him not liking Communism in the late 1930s. I keep wondering why he went to the Soviet Union in the mid-20s other than to see just how things were run.
I don't think that anyone who knew anything at all about the Russian Revolution could think that the Bolsheviks were trying to set up anything any less anti-people than what Lenin did. If Baldwin liked the Soviet system so much back in that early period I don't really think that he changed a whole lot.
My college professors were mostly students of the 20s and 30s and none of them ever said a lot about being Communist back then. That was the period of the term "useful idiots" which is what the Communist organizers of the day said about college students.
My professors were amazed at how anyone could be a Communist sympathizer. Of course, I started college in 1950 when the Cold War was just getting going good. Actually the far left leaners on this forum are too young to have even been born in the 1950s so they are mostly "useful idiots" of the modern Party.
I keep seeing the defenses of Baldwin that involve him not liking Communism in the late 1930s. I keep wondering why he went to the Soviet Union in the mid-20s other than to see just how things were run.
Because it was a new and promising idea...and lots of people were interested in it at the time. When it's true nature became apparent, Baldwin rejected it as did a lot of other perfectly normal and sane people.
They were later demonized during the McCarthy nonsense, but for most of them their only real crime was to be overly curious and idealistic. Many so-called communists figured out eventually that they really weren't, including Baldwin.
Quote:
I don't think that anyone who knew anything at all about the Russian Revolution could think that the Bolsheviks were trying to set up anything any less anti-people than what Lenin did. If Baldwin liked the Soviet system so much back in that early period I don't really think that he changed a whole lot.
Remember when this was happening. There was no Internet, no TV to speak of. Information may be no less suspect now, but back then getting access to opposing viewpoints (especially out of the USSR) was no easy task. I'm not prepared to hold Baldwin responsible for knowing everything - especially when it is abundantly clear that when he DID know, he changed his mind definitively.
Quote:
My college professors were mostly students of the 20s and 30s and none of them ever said a lot about being Communist back then. That was the period of the term "useful idiots" which is what the Communist organizers of the day said about college students.
I don't put much stock in what commies say or said. Just like this so-called "expose" (not) of Baldwin - who cares what the Reds thought about the ACLU, who cares what some Party blob wrote to make it look like he was doing his job for Comintern.
Quote:
My professors were amazed at how anyone could be a Communist sympathizer.
I'm not, knowing what was going on in this country before WW2. The deprivations of the Depression had a lot of people looking for alternatives to a system they saw as fundamentally unfair. That doesn't make them communists just for listening, or even for believing the fairy tales that they later learned were not true.
Quote:
Of course, I started college in 1950 when the Cold War was just getting going good. Actually the far left leaners on this forum are too young to have even been born in the 1950s so they are mostly "useful idiots" of the modern Party.
That is a very offensive and ignorant statement. I'm glad you made it.
Because it was a new and promising idea...and lots of people were interested in it at the time. When it's true nature became apparent, Baldwin rejected it as did a lot of other perfectly normal and sane people.
They were later demonized during the McCarthy nonsense, but for most of them their only real crime was to be overly curious and idealistic. Many so-called communists figured out eventually that they really weren't, including Baldwin.
Remember when this was happening. There was no Internet, no TV to speak of. Information may be no less suspect now, but back then getting access to opposing viewpoints (especially out of the USSR) was no easy task. I'm not prepared to hold Baldwin responsible for knowing everything - especially when it is abundantly clear that when he DID know, he changed his mind definitively.
I don't put much stock in what commies say or said. Just like this so-called "expose" (not) of Baldwin - who cares what the Reds thought about the ACLU, who cares what some Party blob wrote to make it look like he was doing his job for Comintern.
I'm not, knowing what was going on in this country before WW2. The deprivations of the Depression had a lot of people looking for alternatives to a system they saw as fundamentally unfair. That doesn't make them communists just for listening, or even for believing the fairy tales that they later learned were not true.
That is a very offensive and ignorant statement. I'm glad you made it.
And you were born, when? I didn't mean you alone since you are not alone here as far as far, far left is concerned.
Speaking of the Comintern, what was that letter doing in their archives? I suppose that hero Baldwin didn't write it.
No it is not....you may think so and the ACLU may think so but if the @nd Amendment is a collective right why isn't the 1st???
As to it 'being covered' by the NRA,so what if it is?
The 2dn Amendment is the most fought over right there is in my opinion,no other right is so restricted...
I always find it amusing how those who so strongly support the 'people's rights' only seem to support the rights they like....
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
