Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Insidious Date:   7/22/2019 5:44:24 PM

While I give respectful thought to your point in general, the Russian are socialists, not communists.  And I honestly don't believe the Russians are to blame for what has happened in this country.  Back in the mid-60s, we decicded to throw out all the rules - and every since then, we have been doing just that.  Sometime after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, we decided that everyone had to be equal as a matter of principle.  At least you had to hand it to MLK, he led his people for a goal and it was achieved.  Then came all those programs to make sure that everyone had an equal opportunity and people were relatively happy with that.  But then came Welfare - in the beginning it was an embarassment to be collecting public assistance.  But in an effort to be more and more fair, we allowed the rules for welfare to be stretched and stretched until it became a way of life, and for generations to follow.  Then they added Social security disability and people started to figure out just how little they needed to do and suddenly, their life was being funded by the government.  Hard work was for "fools".  

Then came along my generation - women wanted fulfilling careers and eventually it became that women had to work to make ends meet.  And they felt guilty that they weren't at home with the kids (and both parents were exhausted from working all the time) so they started buying things for their kids.  And we worried about their self esteem and we didn't want them to be hurt in any way, so we started giving them everything they wanted and now they think they deserve everything.  We've so impressed upon them that life is always supposed to be fair - so everyone gets a trophy for showing up - and then they go into the workforce, they whine if their every act is not praised and recognized.  WE did this, not the Russians.  

Remember the Hippies, the Yippies, the Yuppies?  We came into the 60s off the success of WWII - we saved Europe and then helped them rebuild; then came Viet Nam.  We started into it slowly, but we never really knew what success would look like - and then we decided that we would try to overwhelm them - except we didn't know how to fight that kind of war, a lot of our people got killed and people began to question why we were even there.  Remember the Domino effect that we were sold?  Eventually it became too unacceptable to be there (and too expensive) and we pulled out.  The Russians didn't invent the lie of the Domino effect  - we did.  Then came Nixon, and we found out that our government would lie to us whenever it was convenient.  

They haven't destroyed our heros - we did.  We found out that they weren't perfect, that they were people of their times.  They were slave owners and adulterers and liars and they went broke.  Now, it is not just your accomplishments but your failings that are put on display.  

I don't believe the Russians infiltrated us and did this to us - we did it to ourselves, and where we are now, is where drove ourselves.