7) The older social democrats lived through really-existing socialism, and dislike any kind of palling around with left authoritarianism
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Replying to @PatrickIber
8) And, as a result, it makes them more sympathetic to forms of political incrementalism
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Replying to @PatrickIber
9) The younger group isn't sympathetic to left authoritarianism, either, for the record, but they take a diff. lesson from US's 20th cent.
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Replying to @PatrickIber
10) For younger radicals, the key lesson of the Cold War is not to avoid extremism, but that domestic anti-Communism blocked "good" politics
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Replying to @PatrickIber
11) So they're quite interested in breaking down anti-Communist "culture" in the US
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Replying to @PatrickIber
12) This is a very different reading of the "lessons" of the Cold War; though the two aren't incompatible exactly, they are often in tension
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Replying to @PatrickIber
13) And what's my reading of the history of the US left?
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Replying to @PatrickIber
14) It seems to me that the left has made the most progress in the US when it has been diverse, featuring strong intellectual insurgencies
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Replying to @PatrickIber
15) So I think that the divide is healthy, and not necessarily "divisive", and I'm very happy to be playing a tiny tiny part in it
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Replying to @PatrickIber
PS 1: locked account chipping in with good point that relative strength of US / USSR (or ex-USSR) changes thinking
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@PatrickIber My thinking on these matters is that liberal anti-communist justified from 1945-1953, and anti-anti-communism after that.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
@HeerJeet@PatrickIber what because of Stalin's death? Remember that Western Communists only found out about much of the worst stuff later1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @Vinncent
@Vinncent@PatrickIber Doesn't matter when they found out. Stalin's death created opening for new settlement (as Kennan & Churchill saw).1 reply 0 retweets 1 like - Show replies
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