This thread is still open? I’m surprised, given Tuba’s stated preference for closing it. But since it’s still open, and it’s my thread, I’ll respond to this one.
If you read the full threads, and every other thread Commissar ever posted in, since he joined, you will find that he was a blatantly obvious troll. Those “unpopular opinions” were obviously chosen solely for the purpose of getting a rise out of people. And were written in the most inflammatory way he could come up with. It was obvious to anyone (who actually knows what communism is about) that he knows nothing about it. Or any other subject he weighed in about. In fact, the only thing NOT obvious about him, that is at all questionable, is why the mods didn’t ban him a lot sooner. I take the charitable view that they wanted to avoid banning someone with a new and interesting (although unpopular) perspective until they’d had a chance to “learn the ropes”.
Unless it’s a truly blatant over-the-top sort of deal we do tend to give newbies more benefit of the doubt than perhaps some of the community would like. We always hope that it’s just someone learning the ropes and they will be making more reasoned/reasonable/meaningful comments over time and as they gain experience and understanding. Sometimes it works out that way; there’s people who had a rocky start who turned out to be really great members of the Straight Dope community. Sometimes there’s no change and it doesn’t work out.
I think Cheshire Human summed it pretty nicely. Commissar wasn’t banned for voicing unpopular opinions, but the way he voiced everything was virtually begging to get a rise.
I don’t think I know any really deciated Communists, but I do find it difficult to accept the style of communication was anything more than trolling.
What hijack? That’s where the thread wound up going. I did know a dedicated communist. One of my Political Science professors in school was a genuine member of the Communist Party of the US. He taught me quite a bit about it. Commissar didn’t know squat about the subject.