Oddbean

Good question. I would say there's a lot of groups that are anti-communist but even some of those who used to be pretty stringent are now pushing various forms of populism, which is essentially Communism-lite. For example, Heritage recently changed positions and now say that a free market is not the ultimate goal, but a civil and secure society. So if the market isn't facilitating such a society, government should make it so. Even the group I used to work for has started off in an odd direction. It used to be fairly libertarian then pushed a warhawk (among other problems) for president. Crazy that I have to sit here and think this hard about who, as a groups, may be the best positioned to really push back.

Not what I was suggesting. It’s good to have people who aren’t going to go the Fascist route thinking about combatting the communist flavor of collectivism. And many underestimate just how fast people will go that way under pressure.

One item that I believe John Birch does get correct is their spectrum of freedom and government. I'll see I can find it. Fascism isn't the opposite of communism. It's a step or two away from it. Going to fascism doesn't combat communism, it brings us closer.

thank you the colorful chart 📊 🤓 since your heart and intent are really good, this is what I meant: Adolf Hitler described an event he was present at, where he saw a coming destruction wave of communism. He crafted his reactionary world view in response to it, to combat it. But wound up becoming just as bad if not worse. I see this same tendency emerging now on the edges , so I am glad to see people thinking in different directions.

> Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. Ronald Reagan

Bastiat makes that point. That humans default to the easiest route. If they can use government to take from others than they are likely to do so. It tends to be the minority that is willing to be true stalwarts and stand on principle.

The problem is setting up a society Y that you can go to. When the US was formed, that was exactly the purpose. Even as the US expanded, most of those willing to move west were those who wanted to remove themselves from the society present in the previous location. Today, there's a government pretty much setup everywhere. It's really not an easy case to pick up and move somewhere freer. We really need to talk enough folks into implementing that change.

I agree to an extent. Orania, for example, has become self-sifficient and is in the middle of nowhere. So I think you can still make it happen, but it is hard work. I think you need to change minds by showing people and at the same time it means you actually live up to your own standards. It creates an undeniable truth effectively.