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BOGOT A theology teacher I knew used to tell me, a mocking grin on his lips, "you're the last communist left," to which I would reply, smiling, "and you're the last evangelist." In today's upside-down world of thieving politicians and self-righteous saints, corrupt and holy men, such concepts as communism have lost their sheen. Others, meanwhile, have gained undeserved respectability.

Especially in our country, where you have to carry out acts of faith in order to feel like you belong, a Colombian version of McCarthyism has reached unexpected heights. There is, it is murmured in the university cafeteria, a renewal of Inquisition methods and fascist tactics that recall the reign of ultra-conservative leader Laureano Gmez in the early 1950s.

Since the not-so-distant days when "communist" was synonymous with being a virtual armed guerrilla, the term has lost its meaning if not grossly misrepresented. The supporters of lvaro Uribe, the conservative Colombian who served as president last decade, (who could equally have back the likes of Gmez or of Spain's General Franco), use the word as an insult.

In these neo-liberal times, our age of so-called post-modernity, a communist seems like the last of a threatened, exotic species. Or is this one of the last expressions of romanticism? Years ago, the communist was inevitably suspect, but also an irreverent soul who sought justice in the midst of social inequalities. The communist was a humanist, standing behind the exploited.

To those who thought liberalism was sinful, being a communist was positively hellish: You were a companion or an incarnation of the devil. In my view, it was once and remains today, synonymous with fighting for progress and intelligence, science, arts and development for all, and against inequalities. The communist agreed with the Cuban poet Jos Mart (who was not a communist) that nobody should beg for their rights. You must fight for them.

Do not expect to profit or prosper from communism today. Its yield is zero: Call it a junk bond. Our times call on everyone to be an individualist, but always, mind you, on the side of Big Brother inanities, constant oversight and the pummeling of majority rights by big interests. Neo-liberalism has given a firm reply to the people's aspirations to a dignified life. A smack in the mouth. More money for the rich, and more poverty for the poor. Or was it the Neo-conservatives who said it? It's really all the same.

They're now calling our patrician president a communist

Communism may have been one of the "big ideas" invented by humanity, but it is now thoroughly discredited by capitalism's friends that it has been turned to trash. Even worse: its meaning has been stripped. Indeed, they're now calling our eminently patrician president a communist this, for a man who like his ultra-conservative predecessor, has privatized, auctioned or practically given away the country to please the International Monetary Fund and friends.

They say communism is a simple idea. But as Bertolt Brecht said, simple things are the hardest to achieve. Or as the Spanish communist Francisco 'Paco' Frutos, put it, no ideal of humanity was so thoroughly "turned into a piece of shit by those who transform ideals into dogmas, temples and churches." Capitalists and pseudo-communists worked together to send it all to the heap.

I suspect our home-grown fascists in Colombia do not want to end the systemic iniquities they have denounced, seeing as they helped create and sustain them, but rather want to hold the system in their dirty hands again, to eliminate more rights and pump the state for all its worth.

Today like yesterday being a communist means striving to build a fairer society, an alternative to the monstrous conditions strangling so many people with its economic, political and media tentacles. It is a system that both God and the devil could inhabit, as Mark Twain would say, the former for the weather and latter for the company to keep.

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The Meaning Of Being Communist Has Been Hung Out To Dry - Worldcrunch

The San Luis Obispo Tribune

California's liberal Legislature voted for communism The San Luis Obispo Tribune Since the Bolshevik revolution 100 years ago, the legacy of communism has been tens of millions of people executed, tortured, starved, imprisoned, worked to death in labor camps, impoverished and psychologically scarred for life. Unfortunately, that ...

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California's liberal Legislature voted for communism - The San Luis Obispo Tribune

FrontPage Magazine

Communism Victims Remember FrontPage Magazine Do not listen to what the Communists promise, just watch their actionsSearch the truth by talking to victims of Communism, recently warned Truc Brown, a refugee from Vietnamese Communism. Available for public appearances in the Anticommunism ...

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Communism Victims Remember - FrontPage Magazine

Victims of Communism Memorial / Wikimedia Commons

BY: Faith Bottum June 9, 2017 4:11 pm

The Truman-Regan Medal of Freedom was awarded to Matt Laar, the former prime minister of Estonia, at the 10th Annual Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom and Roll Call of Nations Ceremony held Friday at the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Larr has worked for the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, the Human Rights foundation, and the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial. He also founded the Unitas Foundation.

The award is given to prominent opponents ofcommunism and other forms of tyranny. Ithas previously been given to such figures as Pope John Paul II, William F. Buckley Jr., and Michael Novak.

This year, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation filled the square around the memorial with flower wreaths, each representing a country victimized by communism.

The memorial was dedicated by President George Bush in 2007 for "the more than one hundred million victims of communism" around the world.

The keynote remarks were delivered by Vytautas Landsbergis, the Lithuanian statesman and scholar. He spoke about how the horrors of communism remain, in some peoples minds, "no tragedy, only statistics" and how the struggle of communism and freedom is an "existential rivalry between humans." Venezuelan violinistWuilly Moiss Arteaga performedto protest the Maduro regime in Caracas.

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Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom Awarded to Former PM of Estonia at Victims of Communism Memorial - Washington Free Beacon

Today, Romania-based developer Sand Sailor Studios and publisher Square Enix announced that their atmospheric puzzle game,Black The Fall,is set to launch for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on July 11, 2017.

Black The Fallis a game that takes place after decades of toil, where an old machinist (who you play as) plots his escape from the oppressive grasp of the Communist regime. Along the way through hidden passages, shadow, and grief, the old machinist will befriend an abandoned little robot, and together, the two will try and escape the bleak and deadly world they find themselves in.

Black The Fallwas born back in 2014, as an art project and as a black and white stealth-platformer. The games concept came as a way to illustrate and express rebellion against the mechanisms of a heavily corrupted system, rooted in decades of communism that Romania endured.

In the month to follow, the game changed to a puzzle game as it was a better way to illustrate what it means to cope with a restrictive regime.Cristian Diaconescu, Creative Director at Sand Sailor Studio continues:

We lived in times where there was no freedom of speech, intellectuals were thrown in prisons and tortured, food was subject to rationing, there was no access to contraception. Access to western culture was minimal. It sounds Orwellian, but unfortunately it happened in real life in most of communist countries. And the worst part is that its still happening in some parts of the world. Also, as we explored this path we realized that the oppressive mechanics apply to the western world today, where a lot of people feel trapped in conforming with a system they dont believe in. With Black the Fall, we are offering an alternative course of action, where anyone has the chance to outsmart the system and escape it.

In collaboration with Square Enix Collective,Black The Fallhit Kickstarter in 2015, successfully raising 28,485. Now, the game is finally poised to release.

Below, you can check out the release date announcement trailer which accompanied todays news as a well as a batch of screenshots of the game.

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Escape Communism in Square Enix's Black The Fall; Launching on ... - DualShockers