@randahl "anti-communist" is a vague statement here. It may mean nothing or mean something different than most of us Poles understand it. Care to elaborate?

@ThePolishDispatch @randahl
Are there even any old-style totalitarian communists left with a power base in Europe that it's meaningful to be anti? Or does Poland have pro-Putin tankies that say they're communists but are actually anti-democratic pro-oligarchists i.e. actually fascists?

@petealexharris @randahl Thet's part of the confusion. In Poland the word 'communism' is used mainly as a moniker for soviet-era totalitarian regime. In that respect being anti-communist in Poland basically means nothing, as you pointed out.
'Communist' is also being used as a moniker in personal attacks by politicians: PiS calls the opposition 'communists' in their propaganda, while PiS is also being perceived as communists by the opposition.
And then we have a more formal meaning...

@petealexharris @randahl For instance if we try to apply attributes closer to what Marx preached, then Poland still upkeeps and operates several social programmes which survived 1989, when the soviet-era totalitarian government relinquished its grip on power.
We have tuition free higher education, universal healthcare, paid sick & maternity/paternity leave, cash-paid child subsidies, nation-wide right to strike, etc., which nobody questions except far-right convervatives and fascists. And then

@petealexharris @randahl we have more social programmes which but itself are not communist, but if we applied US GOP standards for when do they use 'communist/communism' as a slur, then the entire Poland would fall into a 'communist country' category.
What is interesting is that PiS government was/is in close embrace and idea exchange with those very same US GOP extremists, yet neither side at any point raised the issue of existence and popularity of polish social programmes. And the likes ...

@petealexharris @randahl with whom PiS collaborates are Alliance Defending Freedom, Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, etc. This raises another question if the whole ordeal of US ultra-conservatives being against socialism and communism is fake, and the only reason they are against it is because POC and minorities benefit from them in the US. I like to believe that US right side is very much longing to have similar level of social security net protection as we do, ...

@petealexharris @randahl they just would want it exclusively for white conservative christians.