I wore my Bernie shirt and badge to my Doctor's appointment today

[ghostsinthemachine]

and man, oh man, does he not get it. A Ukrainian guy,about 35 or so, who "has seen communism at work in my own country" and believes that Republicans are for smaller Gov't (and we know that not to be true). He also thinks Corporations have to much control but Republicans are the ones that will fix it.

He also talked of Obama and how the head of the economy is a guy from GE who's company pays no taxes (true) ...
I tried to tell him Bernie's position as a "Democratic Socialist" and how that differed from the USSR/Ukrainian example but it fell on deaf ears.

His staff members however understood.

[Juicy_Bellows]

1. It might be as simple as his staff members aren't doing as well financially.

Probably muttering under their breath "That's why he pays us so little!"

[thereismore]

2. There is a semantic bias you may not be aware of:

In Ukraine, the system that we call communism was called socialism (sotsializm). To him, "socialism" is just as bad as "communism" is to you.

[ghostsinthemachine]

3. I was very aware of it and tried, to no avail,

to get pasy his "Communism=Socialism=bad idealogy but couldn't shake him.

It is going to be one long ass year let me tell ya. every day it is a deep political conversation with almost everyone I encounter....

[thereismore]

4. Sometimes all you can do is try your best.

[ghostsinthemachine]

5. I tried.....

It was a nice conversation but I wish I could have gotten a bit farther...

[LWolf]

6. That's new information for me.

Thanks.

I don't have the typical American gut-reaction to the word "communism;" I have a stronger reaction to "capitalism." Still, it's good information.

[thereismore]

7. Yeah. I grew up in Eastern Europe.

I was averse to socialist ideas for a decade.

[Ken Burch]

8. Life in the Warsaw Pact could have that effect on a person

(I'm personally convinced that Stalin, Kruschev and Brezhnev were involved in a deep anti-Left conspiracy). As a socialist, I'm sorry for what you must have gone through.

Which country did you grow up in, and what happened after you got here to change your views?

[thereismore]

9. I grew up in Czechoslovakia.

In November-December 1989 we were demonstrating in the streets and squares of Prague. It was cold but exhilarating. George HW Bush came to visit after Vaclav Havel became president. I was there, cheering. Then I took all the necessary exams and started graduate school in the US. Then capitalism happened.

The major reason we wanted to get rid of "socialism" was the lack of freedom of expression and freedom of travel. We did not want to live encircled by barbed wire. That kind of socialism failed because it wasn't democratic. There was no pluralism. The major reason I am a democratic socialist now is the gross economic injustice of American capitalism. Bernie gets it exactly right.