I ended up listening to the entire speech. I had forgotten that this absolute gem was literally part of an off the cuff response to an audience question.
Someone asks basically “does it make sense for us in the US to look at the Soviet Union as a model to be followed”, and he goes off on a 5 minute response encompassing 1) no, the soviet union is a very different place, very poor and destitute historically, so revolution wouldn’t look the same in the prosperous US, and 2) he covers the implication about AES countries being poor with an absolutely iconic speech about comparing these countries not to the US or europe, but to what their conditions looked like before the revolution, with several detailed and exceedingly passionate examples. then 3) he gives the quote you posted about liberals demanding perfect liberty for the fascists, 4) he mentions not supporting revolutions completely unqualifiedly/uncritically, and fighting/not supporting the “reaganite” regimes that do the opposite. 5) he encourages everyone to learn more about the unique and innovative changes in political organization that come out of AES countries, and evaluate each on its own merits and choose which we might want to emulate vs which we don’t want.
Quite the helpful and revealing diatribe for a very “bait”-y audience question.
I ended up listening to the entire speech. I had forgotten that this absolute gem was literally part of an off the cuff response to an audience question.
Someone asks basically “does it make sense for us in the US to look at the Soviet Union as a model to be followed”, and he goes off on a 5 minute response encompassing 1) no, the soviet union is a very different place, very poor and destitute historically, so revolution wouldn’t look the same in the prosperous US, and 2) he covers the implication about AES countries being poor with an absolutely iconic speech about comparing these countries not to the US or europe, but to what their conditions looked like before the revolution, with several detailed and exceedingly passionate examples. then 3) he gives the quote you posted about liberals demanding perfect liberty for the fascists, 4) he mentions not supporting revolutions completely unqualifiedly/uncritically, and fighting/not supporting the “reaganite” regimes that do the opposite. 5) he encourages everyone to learn more about the unique and innovative changes in political organization that come out of AES countries, and evaluate each on its own merits and choose which we might want to emulate vs which we don’t want.
Quite the helpful and revealing diatribe for a very “bait”-y audience question.