Addendum to the KGB Defector's speech

Two things I wanted to add to the KGB defector's speech that wasn't really covered:<br><br>1. The US was not actually weak in the 70s in the way the speech describes. They were still the strongest nation on earth but the media made it out to be way weaker than it really was. I think it's important to note that the current portrayal of the US as weak relative to the rest of the world in the media is fairly obviously a similar tactic to worn down the public's confidence in their own nation.<br><br>2. The speech mentions that the US way of life is capitalism. Capitalism is not the same thing as liberalism. Capitalism refers to the economic system defined by the ownership of the means of production by private individuals. I think it's important to know the difference between that and what's being attacked in the US today. The US does not have a classical liberal form of government but rather a democratic federal republic. Classical liberalism is the ideology of giving the maximum amount of power to the individual. The US has a complex system that makes it hard to define it as one ideology, but it is generally more individualistic than collectivist. Was this what the defector meant when he said the US way of life is capitalism? No, I think he meant classical liberalism, but it's a confusing thing to say. When the US 'way of life' is attacked in the media, it is actually liberalism being attacked by progressivism, essentially an attack on individualism by collectivism.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>It's interesting to hear his perspective on things.