Dear jayohjo:
A funny story to give you another American perspective. I grew up in an American refusnic family... I am a red diaper baby, the child of American reds. Our leftist tradition is Irish, rather than Soviet, so, we - more influenced by Connolly than by Lennin or Stalen, have a large degree of free thought through the fact that Connonly was an organiser of an anarchist union, the IWW.
Well, I have a number of friends who are ex-soviet scientists working here in the US, all of whom are hugely anti-communist and for the most part, think we American reds are nuts. They back the most right wing American politics. I spend a lot of time trying to explain the folly of a Russian refusnic supporting the status quo over here, that the community most like the anti communists in Russia, are the varrious groups on the left here (as Russian communist was as far to the right, in most cases as one could get...)
Well, one night, two Russians and I were having our usual political debate over several bottles of vodka (I had a liver then). One, asked to use the phone. My wife, reminded him that as a result of our work for Canadian natives, agaist Hydro Quebec, our phone was tapped.
Suddunly he got it. He burst out laughing and said that he finaly got what I was talking about. "I haven't spent an evening like this since leaving (what was then) the soviet union!" he said.
Another funny story, when I was in law school, a rather right wing member of one of my study groups was over having dinner at my house. At the time, we were still so poor (not that we are much better yet) that we had a toilet with a high tank and chain from the 1920's. He said, "This is why you are nuts to be a communist, Larry." he said coming out of the bathroom. "Your house is just like I emagine living in the Soviet Union would be! An overhead tank toilet, bare light bulbs... holes in the walls..." I laughed and said, "Idiot, this is not Russia... this is POVERTY IN AMERICA! That is why I'm a F**king Red! We HAVE a working class in this country that aren't doing very well... I am a red, not because I want to live like they do in Russia, but because I am the son of a kid who went down in the coal mines at 13!"
Cheers Tavarich!
Salude!
Your American cousin, Larry