We had that conversation before Foxy in fact you hosted it and came to the conclusion "communism was still an issue contemporarily".

CM,

No. that was not what I stated.

What I stated was that judging from the comments
made on that particular discussion - Marxism was
still an issue. You read your own
meaning into that.

What is needed from the major political parties in Australia 2019 to meet, and then satisfy, the social, economic and political aspirations of the vast majority is a high degree of conformity to the well established boundaries of acceptability. The gap between moderate politics, and what is seen as excessively extreme is very narrow in an Australian context. This extreme bears no resemblance to the historical extremes of communism or fascism.

The conservative edge within the Liberal Party, as identified with Abbott, firstly as prime minister, and later as the nemesis of his replacement Turnbull, the politics of which, but not limited to, was viewed as unacceptable by the electorate. Clearly through policy, Abbott, with the help of conservative cronies within, had made himself and therefore the party un-electable, a change to the moderate Turnbull was absolutely necessary. The change alone was not enough, the belligerent Abbott and co were left to their own devices. The result was the toppling of Turnbull in favour of the compromising Morrison. Too little, too late, in my opinion.

//Do communists still exist?//

Not in the way CM thinks they do. He uses his own definition for Communist that differs from the definition most people use - whereby a Communist is basically anybody who disagrees with CM. This leads to the interesting situation where you can have somebody who is both in favour of capitalism and a Communist, simultaneously.

It seems a bit weird and nonsensical to most of us, but there is a coherent internal logic to it. It just leads to difficulties in the effective communication of ideas when CM tries to talk about Communism with people who don't adhere to his own personal definitions, and leads him to estimate a much larger number of Communists in Australia than people who follow more conventional definitions of Communist would estimate.

I generally just ignore him when he starts banging on about commies. Since we're relying on markedly different definitions of Communist, there seems little point in responding because we'll just be talking at cross purposes.

Australia already has an overdose of politics. What's needed is for those in authority to grow some decency & manage what they got voted in for, namely the economy & services for this Nation.
It is our responsibility to keep them in line & we haven't got a hope in hell with the way the average Australian voter behaves in their demands for nothing in return, particularly those Australians on paper only.
Loyalty must be to the Nation not to the party that takes off the worker & gives to the public servant for what ? Reduce the pays of the public service if we want a return to a more sensible Australia.

Hi Toni,

John Hinckley Jr. fervently believed Ronald Reagan was a communist. I once watch an interview with an American White Supremacist, his name is forgettable, this guy believed Adolf Hitler was too liberal.
So its all in the perception.