//How do you tell a communist? Someone who has read Marx and Lenin.//

In the meantime, those who of us have lived more or less happily in a capitalist system their whole lives, never read any of the Communist philosophers, but know from the empirical data that it simply doesn't work... still regularly get labelled as Communists by certain people on this forum. I find it quite bizarre, and can only wonder what actual Communists would make of it all.

Toni,

Real old Commos would be spilling their beer laughin'.

Dear Belly,

According to an article in Quora -

"In 2014 ABC News ran a story with the headline -
"Railing against a left that no longer exists."
They advocated that hardline leftist voices have
lost their expression in Australia's mainstream
politics leaving conservative keyboard warriors
effectively shouting at clouds."

According to the article that basically sums up
the Australian situation.

The major two parties just don't seem to have hard left
advocates left. They suggest that our biggest concern
should be hard-right radicals that have been causing
trouble.

I've got a joke for you:

An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a Russian are standing and
staring at a portrait of Adam and Eve.

"Look at the calm, the reserve," says the Englishman. "Surely
they must be British?"

"Nonsense," replies the Frenchman. "They are so good-looking.
Surely they must be French?"

The Russian finally speaks. "They have no clothes, no shelter,
only an apple to eat, and are being told this is Paradise,
They are Russian."

Tony and Foxy agree, but big statement willing to provide evidence for it, the very right uses the term left without knowing what the left is.
Cuba, may still be communist, but for sure and certain it too is a country of semi slaves
We of the center or if you must, left of center are in the minds of some, the new left.
A reaction to extremism will push the right back towards the center in time.
And a future review of our times may well question the shallowness of charges any center party is in fact a left one

A poster highlighted we have a communist party of Australia, yes we do, it runs in elections, and gets some part of one percent of the vote.
They do not have enough members to mount an assault on a field of Tulips
This morning, story SMH tells of pipe bombs, sent to Obama Clinton, and other * left wing targets*
Are the American Democrats, not the Social Democrats, different party, the new left?
How did this come about if it is true
How right has the right become.

Marx's writings were the result of seeing the exploitation of workers during the British Industrial revolution and Communist revolutions are the result of oppression by the privileged and wealthy upper class. Those days and social divisions seem to be returning, although the masses are disorganised and distracted by modern gadgets.

There's a phenomenon called The Overton Window where "normal" public discourse was fairly centred but it has been dragged so far to the Right that what used to be middle ground and genuine conservatism is now regarded as "Left" and radical. Even the term "Socialism" has been redefined and distorted to be interchangeable with Communism.

There was a time where the Extreme Right could be identified but has now infiltrated and been absorbed into the new Mainstream and the public has become desensitised to notions that were once considered radical.