"The IRA was and is a terrorist organization..." The Real IRA, you mean?

Col"well I hold the freakishly democratic view which allows you to disagree with me."
That's not freakish, but suit yourself.

"The risk I face is the likes of you do not live up to similar standards and would attempt, through censorship and worse, to stop me expressing my “freakish” views."
Not really. That reveals some paranoia, indicating your views are prejudiced in political discussions.

Steel,

you said: "you should never be surprised if others use nazism/capitalism in the same sentence."

Seeing as how "nazi" was an abbreviation for "National Socialist" I would say that such a statement was a contradiction in terms.

You reference to communism brought back to me a trip I made to the USSR in 1965. I was able to point out to my communist guide:

"I have just come from the Capitalist world where man is exploited by man. Thank heavens here it is the other way around."

"National Socialist"
That is like calling the Liberal party liberal ;) It's a misunderstanding. That's a great one about USSR.

I have always believed that there is far more that unites us than divides us. Many of us disagree with others on issues, however Charlie and some of his generation have had many things handed to them on a plate, which is what every generation hopes for the next, life will be easier for them, Rainer, Col Rouge and I would all wish this for our children.

What we don't wish, it that they take what we have given, and turn on us like snakes, with a lack of gratitude, appreciation or even recognition. Whether we are right or left thinkers is to me unimportant in this matter, Charlie needs to have respect for his elders. Both right and left systems work provided they are democratic, not communist,or facist both have different outcomes for society, the choice is ours, individually and collectively.

Thankfully we don't live in Stalin's U.S.S.R.on the extreme left, or Hitler's Germany on the extreme right.

Steel “That reveals some paranoia, indicating your views are prejudiced in political discussions.”

I suggest you remember, the “values” which I hold allow you, as well as me, to indulge our individual “prejudices”, as we see fit.

My experience recalls when socialists ran an economy which outlawed me from increasing my income beyond the levels prescribed in a deal between government and unions, which I was not a member of.

My experience recalls how an economy was run down to the point there was, supposedly insufficient funds for second time buyers of houses (only enough for first time buyers), when I was moving from one part of the country to another and wanted to sell and buy a property.

My experience recalls the “entryism” of Trotskyites and other pond life into the mainstream socialist party through branch stacking and fraudulent ballots.

My experience recalls how the UK Labour party, in the late 1970’s, included a policy for the appointment of political commissars with right of censorship to all newspapers and magazines in UK and a plan to nationalize the finance sector of the UK economy.

My experience recalls that same labour party was considered to be more “left wing” than the Italian communist party.

My experience recalls the collapse of the Berlin Wall, when ordinary Germans attacked it with hand chisels and hammers as they worked, with feverish prejudice and paraoid zeal, to escape the “nirvana” of the East German socialist state and the accompanying cheering from their neighbours in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary etc.

I could go on with a litany of “prejudices” but that is enough for now.

The real danger lies in forgetting the circumstances which fermented such “paranoia and prejudice”, not just in me but in millions of other people all across Europe and beyond.

I will hang on to my “political prejudices”, I figure you, me and millions of others are alot better off just as long as there are enough people reading the lessons of history and remembering “why” some bad things happened which could have, otherwise, been avoided.