Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site tty3b.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!mgnetp!ltuxa!tty3b!mjk From: mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly) Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics Subject: Re: Re: Criticism of US foreign policy Message-ID: <514@tty3b.UUCP> Date: Mon, 24-Sep-84 11:05:13 EDT Article-I.D.: tty3b.514 Posted: Mon Sep 24 11:05:13 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 05:58:36 EDT References: <479@tty3b.UUCP> <1731@sdcc6.UUCP>, <5971@mcvax.UUCP> <1380@qubix.UUCP> <5978@mcvax.UUCP> <137@rlgvax.UUCP> Organization: Teletype Corp., Skokie, Ill Lines: 34 >From: plunkett@rlgvax.UUCP (S. Plunkett) >Truism 1: Criticism of the Soviet Government by a Soviet citizen, >in the U.S.S.R. is personally dangerous. Truism 2: Criticism of >the U.S. Government by a U.S. citizen, quite apart from it being >a method of governing here, is not personally dangerous. > >However, to the extent that such criticism is congruent to >Soviet policy and aims, it is dangerous to the U.S.; certainly >it is not the same degree of danger for the Soviet critic in >the U.S.S.R., because the U.S. is big enough to absorb and with- >stand alot of abuse. But criticisms based on Soviet propaganda, >or criticism believed to have been produced independently of >Kremlin machinations yet nonetheless friendly to the Soviet >point of view, undermines the ability of the West to survive. >So it is that the above quoted remark is used in an attempt >to bring some sense of personal responsibility to the "useful >idiots" who even unwittingly parrot the Kremlin line. It is odd that some of those who most fervently defend the U.S. show such a profound lack of understanding of what the U.S. is really all about. It is as if they think the U.S. is good only because it lets them buy all the dishwashers, microwaves and cars they want. The fact that there is no such thing as "acceptable" and "unacceptable" dissent seems to them an afterthought, something willingly sacrificed for the dishwasher. Your theory, Scott, would qualify you for a high position within the politburo. You even make the reference to "idiots"; in the USSR, though, the term is "criminally insane". Perhaps that's really what you meant, hmm? Mike Kelly