Many people on lemmy.ml deeply respect and admire authoritarian governments and organizations.

Iran, China, North Korea, Soviet Union…

The West has many flaws. But our flaws are nothing compared to these guys.

Iran hangs homosexuals. Iran shot 30,000 people in less than than 2 weeks. The Soviet Union had to build a fucking Iron wall to prevent people from escaping. The Soviets lied about the Chernobyl nuclear explosion. China censors the internet. China wants to eliminate Islam. North Korea is a totalitarian hellscape. Watching anime is a crime.

Why is lemmy.ml so fascinated with authoritarians?

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      I despise genocide, what the hell is that pivot? The USSR never committed genocide, this is backed up by modern historical analysis. Are you calling killing Nazis “genocide?”

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          3 days ago

          No, it was not. Once discovered that a famine was occuring, the soviets did what they could to prevent and alleviate it once it had started. The idea of an intentional famine is simply fringe among contemporary historians, same with claims of white genocide in South Africa. For example, serious bourgeois academic sources tend to say it was a failure of planning, rather than intentional and genocide. For instance, Mark Tauger wrote:

          [data] indicate that the famine was real, the result of a failure of economic policy, of the ‘revolution from above,’ rather than of a ‘successful’ nationality policy against Ukrainians or other ethnic groups.

          Tauger believes it was a failure of economic policy, not an intentional attack on ethnic Ukrainians. The 1930s famine was a combination of drought, flooding, and mismanagement. Further, the Kulaks, wealthy bourgeois farmers, magnified matters by killing their own crops in the midst of a famine rather than letting the Red Army collectivize them. The Politburo was also kept in the dark about how bad the famine was getting:

          From: Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. Fond 3, Record Series 40, File 80, Page 58.

          Excerpt from the protocol number of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist party (Bolsheviks) “Regarding Measures to Prevent Failure to Sow in Ukraine, March 16th, 1932.

          The Political Bureau believes that shortage of seed grain in Ukraine is many times worse than what was described in comrade Kosior’s telegram; therefore, the Political Bureau recommends the Central Committee of the Communist party of Ukraine to take all measures within its reach to prevent the threat of failing to sow [field crops] in Ukraine.

          Signed: Secretary of the Central Committee – J. STALIN

          Letter to Joseph Stalin from Stanislaw Kosior, 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine regarding the course and the perspectives of the sowing campaign in Ukraine, April 26th, 1932.

          There are also isolated cases of starvation, and even whole villages [starving]; however, this is only the result of bungling on the local level, deviations [from the party line], especially in regard of kolkhozes. All rumours about “famine” in Ukraine must be unconditionally rejected. The crucial help that was provided for Ukraine will give us the opportunity to eradicate all such outbreaks [of starvation].

          Letter from Joseph Stalin to Stanislaw Kosior, 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, April 26th, 1932.

          Comrade Kosior!

          You must read attached summaries. Judging by this information, it looks like the Soviet authority has ceased to exist in some areas of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Can this be true? Is the situation in villages in Ukraine this bad? Where are the operatives of the OGPU [Joint Main Political Directorate], what are they doing?

          Could you verify this information and inform the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist party about taken measures.

          Sincerely, J. Stalin

          Muggeridge and Jones reported on the famine. Völkischer Beobachter reported on it as intentional, and then spread the story around further. Why would the soviets try to starve their own people? It was because of the soviets and collectivization of agriculture that famine was ended, and that’s why outside of wartime the 1930s famine was the final famine in those regions, with life expectancies doubling.

          Overall, trying to hold on to red scare historiography does absolutely nothing to help the cause of socialism. The soviet archives have provided a wealth of knowledge largely affirming the communist narrative, and debunking liberal and fascist narratives about existing socialism. If you consider yourself a leftist of any sort, then you’ll inevitably run into people using the red scare against you too, so perpetuating their mythos just shoots your own movement in the foot.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              11
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              3 days ago

              If I have spoken about something before, then there’s no advantage to rewriting the same information, is there? Do you dispute any of the evidence I brought? Do you have any of your own? It seems like you’re using the fact that this topic has been discussed before as proof of not needing to look at existing evidence, which is blatantly wrong. The fact that communists tend to agree on something is not evidence of it being “false,” no matter how much you frame agreement as “talking points.”

              Either way, I am curious how long it will take you to become a Marxist, given you seem more curious about theory than most anti-communists.

              • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                6
                ·
                3 days ago

                Been a Marxist a while now buddy. I’ve read most of the foundational texts, much to the detriment of my academic work. The genocidal character doesn’t take away from the rapid technological advancements that came from the collectivisation, but facts are facts.

                The evidence is there and has been presented by many historians. Most historians agree that the Holodomor was a genocide, but i know all too well the character of your response to this evidence.

                Here’s a good literature review by Olga Andriewsky that corroborates the genocide view

                • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  7
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 days ago

                  I know you consider yourself a Marxist, but when you push ideas like “opposing slur usage is idealist,” you completely betray any comprehension of what you’ve read. I’m curious what you consider to be “most of the foundational texts,” but either way, simple input does not make one an actual Marxist. That’s why theory and practice have to be unified. I don’t know if you’ve moved beyond that particular position, but it’s just an example.

                  The famine was not a genocide. This theory is pushed by liberals and by fascists, but as I already showed, there was no targeting of Ukrainians or any ethnicity, and archival evidence from opening the soviet archives proved definitively that the soviets did all they could to alleviate famine. You haven’t actually addressed my claims. Facts are facts.

                  • GrammarPolice@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    5
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    3 days ago

                    There’s nothing wrong with opposing slur usage. You’re misrepresenting my argument. A white guy singing a rap song and mentioning the ‘n-word’ wouldn’t—and shouldn’t—give me or anyone much pause, as opposed to a random white guy (or even a black person for that matter) using the word insultingly on an airplane. Interpretijg the two scenarios as the same is metaphysical and anti-dialectical.

                    Other than the politzer book and blackshirts and reds, I’ve read the manifesto, socialism utopian and scientific, dialectical and historical materialism, critique of the gotha pogramme, foundations of leninism, what is to be done?, imperialism the highest stage, right of nations to self determination, reform or revolution, and so many other pamphlets/articles by Lenin i can’t recount.

                    This theory is pushed by liberals and by fascists

                    Because liberals and fascists push the theory doesn’t mean it is not true.

                    the soviets did all they could to alleviate famine.

                    This is actually not true. The article i linked shows that the Soviets refused Ukrainian communist party requests for famine relief, and purged those same leaders as being counter-revolutionary.

            • Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              3 days ago

              If your argument can be dismantled by copying and pasting that’s entirely your own fault