Communists might take the position that disadvantaged citizens should prosper, but do they act on it very well? Or at all? If not then you'd have to show me the ethics.

Technology has been playing it's role in humanity for 1000's of years.....it's been constant.

@Twill I'd say that technology has greatly accelerated it's role in humanity. so we'll have to agree to disagree on that.

As to the competence of the Communists to act on their principles, my impression is that they were poor at it (albeit better that in capitalist societies). The failure of communism seems to come from the same corruption that afflicts all systems, the placing of friends in power who are unfit to serve in that capacity. China's communism seems to be a step up from Russia's historic communism, but still inflicts severe thought control and intimidation. China's enlarging of it's middle class is a positive story but remains to be seen as to if it can be sustained (without becoming a new colonial power).

Please explain

@twill why not just go upstairs to the main floor and talk to your Mommy about it?

@AnneWimsey She's on the phone right now. Maybe later

Hmmmmm......Are they supposed to like each other?

"Hitler remains a persistent mystery on one front—his religious faith. Atheists tend to insist Hitler was a devout Christian. Christians contend that he was an atheist. And still others suggest that he was a practicing member of the occult.

None of these theories is true, says historian Richard Weikart in his new book Hitler’s Religion: The Twisted Beliefs that Drove the Third Reich. Delving more deeply into the question of Hitler’s religious faith than any researcher to date, Weikart reveals the startling and fascinating truth about the most hated man of the twentieth century: Adolf Hitler was a pantheist who believed nature was the only true “God.” (click here to listen to an interview with Weikart on the History Unplugged Podcast) "

Petter I've always been uncertain about Hitler's religion. So I googled it.

One thing i am certain of, is that Goebbels' vaunted propaganda machine was less about turning people into fascists, than simply connecting with their Inner Fascist, and therefore converting them to Fascism, i.e. The Nazi Party. What do you suppose was the connective tissue for the tribalism, hatred of Jews ? (asking for a friend....)

Whatever was under their surface, some seemed aware of it and were eager to join in the killing. Others simply went along for the ride, Because..........who doesn't LOVE power? (probably mostly non communist, non-religious people don't......) .

Anyway, I'm answering my own questions here....HELP!

@twill Extract from link:
"The evidence that Hitler was a staunch Christian is overwhelming. He banned secular education in Germany on the basis that Christian religious instruction is essential to moral development, repeatedly vilified atheism, and although he often clashed with Catholic bishops over his ill-treatment of Jews, Hitler did not perceive himself as being anti-Christian, but rather as bringing the Church back to what he saw as its proper, traditional role in persecuting the pestilent. While negotiating the Reichskonkordat, Hitler said to Bishop Berning that suppressing Jews was, “doing Christianity a great service by pushing them out of schools and public functions.”"...from Mein Kampf (“only fools and criminals would think of abolishing existing religion&rdquo, to Hitler’s letters (1941: “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so&rdquo

[inference-review.com]

It is critical to understand that after WWII, Christians have worked to sanitize Christianity's role in the Holocaust, even casting Hitler as an atheist (an obvious lie) along with the absurdity that atheism played any role in the atrocities of the 20th century. Atheism may have been endorsed by some of the communist thought-leaders, but they really sought to replace religion with communism itself, and later, to replace religion with personality cults.

Surely some people were killed in the name of atheism, but it's likely they'd have been killed anyway for opposing the existing power structure. The number of those actually killed in the name of atheism were an insignificant fraction of those killed in the name of religion by religionists.

@racocn8 Excellent! Thank you