Khemer Rouge, Gulags in USSR, The Great Leap and Cultural Revolution in China etc. Sorry , Commies/Left too sold themselves to people as crusaders of justice and there by order. The trains on time, thing was also promised in India esp. in a era that is remembered in INDIA as "EMERGENCY", and that violation of civil rights was brought to you by....(drum roll) Center-Left Indian National Congress.
> Khemer Rouge, Gulags in USSR, The Great Leap and Cultural Revolution in China
I agree these groups are radical left (Communist) and did horrible, horrible things. However, I don't think they are examples in this case:
1) I was talking only about some specific problems as characteristic of the right wing: nationalism, xenophobia, and religious prejudice. The Communists were anti-nationalist; a core tenant was internationalism, effectively erasing national borders for their movement (their anthem was The Internationale[1]), incompatible with xenophobia. Secularism, or an outright rejection of religion, was another principle, IIRC.
2) I was referring more to current parties in democracies (though I did bring up the Italian fascists as an example).
So I agree, the radical left can be just as dangerous as the radical right - in fact I agree with many who think the political spectrum is more of a O shape, with the extremes closer to each other than to the center. But in my comment above I was speaking about the characteristics of the current mainstream-to-far (not extreme) right.
> The Communists were anti-nationalist; a core tenant was internationalism, effectively erasing national borders for their movement (their anthem was The Internationale[1]), incompatible with xenophobia.
In theory, sure.
In practice, have you no idea about ethnical relations and discrimination in USSR?
I agree that theory and practice are much different. However, Russia long has had those problems (and still does); I don't see it correlated with the Communists. Also, the USSR supported communists all over the world, from China to Angola to Nicaragua.
