I am not sure why, but I decided to see what communist forums are like and to start a debate. I was shocked to see incredible similarities between the format of this forum and theirs. However, there is probably just a standard format for online forums (I don’t use them often). The biggest difference from first glance however was the color scheme. I immediately started to think of a dungeon. Black, grey, and red do not seem to make an inviting setting. It fits their personalities though.
Yet, this was hardly the worst part. The people there simply stated false assumptions and quoted their scripture. I, on the otherhand, attempted to argue the moral superiority of Capitalism simply based on my own reasoning (as well as facts as the arguement progressed). Not only that, there was a defeatest tone throughout all of their arguements (as well as the rest of the forum) in conjunction with intense hate for those that succeed.
For example:
“Non-Violence? What about the war in Iraq, it is a war propogated by the capitalists in washington to gain control of an area that it believes is beneficial to them, Oil and a good foot in the middle east. It wasnt about saddam or the terrorists, it was about the money. when we buy something at the store, it seems like it is non violent, but when the roots of that product or service, (gasoline) we can clearly see that there is blood on someones hands.”
“The american dream does not exist, it was a foolish attempt to make people more complacent in their positions in society.”
“Rights don’t exist. What you are talking about are state-granted privileges.”
“…uf competition is unregulated then eventually it will lead to violence as competition intensifies. Then you have corporations acting as gangs. How is that free?”
“First, I already discussed the fact that laissez-faire economy leads to gangster-capitalism. Second, if someone wants more in a communist society then they just take more. No violence is needed. Communism is about equal access, not equal distribution.”
My favorite: “i guarantee that i work a hell of alot harder than any business owner. when was the last time you saw a business owner roll up his sleeves and lump a trailer with 40,000 lbs of produce? if we were paid relatively to the ammount of work we output, i would be a millionaire and bill gates would be returning bottles.”
“what you’re misunderstanding is that it is NOT the bourgeoisie who provides the goods. the worker does. the cars that made the Olds family rich weren’t built by R.E. Olds, they were built by factory workers. the business owner does nothing but get rich off of our efforts.”
“you make me vomit. one out of a hundred million poor people become wealthy one day during their life, and you believe there’s “social mobility?” the fact of the matter is that, if you were born poor, chances are, you will remain poor your entire life, and if you were born into wealth, you’ll never see it taken away.”
It’s frustrating reading this garbage, but it reaffirms my beliefs. Also, it seems clear to me that I would be much happier, if for some reason I was a communist (yeah, right), to come here to discuss my views than to spend time with people that seem to hate everything and simply make assertions.
I do not think I did the best job debating, as I do not have the same skill as Ms. Rand, or most of the people on this board. But, I am very happy to know that I was right about the immorality of Communists that is very easy to expose. The link to the debate so far is below if you wish to view it. I would love to get some imput from others on flaws in my arguementation as well as experiences one has had debating online, which is very hard for me compared to verbal confrontations. This is probably due to the large number of issues that were adressed.