Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Mitch Graves's avatar

Going behind that wall changed my life.

I was raised by two teachers who both became DEM politicians. They would not have a TV in the home so we all read a great deal. My parents were both very smart and I believed what they said. When I was about 8 I asked my father what all the fuss was about communism vs capitalism. He said, "They are just two different political systems, neither one is better than the other."

A few years after that I got a job as a senate page. It didn't take long for me to realize that they were mostly fools and snakes. But I still believed the entire leftist playlist.

When I was in prep-school I had an ex-marine for history. He made the class read a book called, "You Can Trust A Communist To Be A Communist". Since it contradicted everything I "knew: from my parents and the media I dismissed it as yellow journalism.

Fast forward to 1972; I took off to hitchhike around Europe for 4 months. On a whim, near the end of the trip, i decided to go into East Berlin. I had paid for the trip with monies from drug sales. I was quite used to being around dangerous thugs. My 'spidey senses' were well hones and I knew killers on sight. As we got to the first checkpoint of communist troops I was keenly aware I had never in my life been in more danger than that moment. Those young men had absolutely dead eyes. Souless, vicious, and hopeless. My buddy was not from my world so as soon as I could speak unobserved I told him to not move suddenly, be very very polite, and to show no emotion whatever. It was that serious.

We went through 6 more checkpoints filled with these killers as they prodded us with their machine guns, smirked at us and entertained themselves by trying two scare American hippies with shoulder length hair.

Upon getting inside it was even worse. It was as if an anvil sat on your chest. The atmosphere was so thick with fear it could been seem on every face. We literally never saw one person smile. If we tried to approach a citizen on the street they ran from us. I said to John, "If this isn't hell it must be close." We left after a very short time. And as soon as we were out it felt as if we could finally draw breath.

It was then that (I believe) GOD brought back to my mind that book I was required to read.

In an instant I knew that it was all true and that the media and my own parents had misled me in a terrifying way. This clash between the two political systems, was at that time the most dangerous geopolitical issue the world faced and my "brilliant" father hadn't a clue.

A few weeks later I visited my parents and confronted my dad. I told him the story. I emphasized the seriousness of his, and most Americans ignorance of reality. I said, "If you were that wrong about what is probably the single most consequential issue right now, what else have you taught me that is wrong?"

That was when I began to seek out and read the opposing side of every major DEM talking point.

For two years I felt like I must be the dumbest person around.

It seemed like everything I believed was wrong.

The greatest mystery to me is how so many people will cling to things they have been told with no desire to test them. The truth may tick you off, but it really does set you free.

Jason Stephenson's avatar

The problem with the modern narratives on this subject is, it makes it all about the economy and ownership. I was born in 1976, when I was in school and learned about the differences between the different types of governments, it went beyond just economy and ownership.

It went into how their societies operated and how the citizens interacted with each other. From Monarchies to Republics, they all breed distrust amongst their citizens. Capitalism works because it promotes trust amongst the society that uses it. Not only does it promote trust it promotes blind trust, because unless both sides have worked together in the past, we have to blindly trust that each party will follow through.

Todays America we have no trust and specially no blind trust in each other. We demand check marks my our online profiles, require certifications, permits, licenses issued by the government. All this distrust in American society today is propagated by our governments.

Think about it everyday we are bombarded by our government to turn in our fellow Americans, see something say something, turn in your neighbor for having family over for the holiday, we now expect wifes and husbands to turn each other in, we expect sons and daughter to turn in their parents, mother and fathers to turn in their sons and daughters.

What does this remind you of? Maybe, Germany during WW2, Russia, Britain, all of the rest of the world.

Sorry this response turning to a article, but it's a major part that left out today when we talk about the different forms of governments.

15 more comments...

No posts

Ready for more?