stalin

Mostly the latter rather than the former - Stalin had very much become 'Stalin' of show trials, forced mass collectivization, etc and these were known outside of the Soviet Union.

There's a pretty big moral space between advocating the overthrow of a government and the behavior of a Stalin or Pol Pot.

It's worth noting here that even Hitler and Stalin opted against deploying chemical weapons.

Josef Stalin once knocked over a bank, then gave all the loot to Lenin.

It's fascinating people think an interview between Stalin and Wells is a W-T-F.

Rather than peasants dying in the fields while Comrade Stalin reports another glorious success of the five-year plan, the peasants can simply go and buy themselves food.

This is the fundamentalist reply - the same reply proponents of socialism give when confronted with the horrors committed by Stalin and others during the 20th century.

I'd put this persecution more in the hands of Stalin and his cronies.

Because Stalin achieved growth rates that may have dwarfed China (controversial, but he may have achieved up to 500% Growth in 13 years based on some estimates).

Thomas Edison is the millenials version of Stalin for no other reason than him being a successful businessman while the cult-favorite failed at his own, just as evil/greedy/stupid/cheap business.

At the end of the day, you'll always have people on both sides - Stalin did nothing wrong and Stalin was literally worse than Hitler 90 million killed with his own hands, that sort of thing - and folks talking about NK operatives astroturfing in HN comments and everything else.

> you'll always have people on both sides - Stalin did nothing wrong and Stalin was literally worse than Hitler 90 million killed with his own hands You'll always find some people who say anything, but having people say them doesn't make those assertions any more factual.

It's very close to "just look at Stalin, how did that work out?"

Saying the Earth is flat or that Stalin did nothing wrong is false (without getting into debates about the meaning of "wrong"), even if people say it, no matter how many people say it.

As far as I can tell, the latter aren’t really “philosophy” at all, but more like pretentious brands of performance art that fancy themselves politically subversive, even as they cultivate deliberate obscurity and draw mostly on the insights of Hitler and Stalin apologists.

Specifically gems like, "Nazi soldiers as not only dishonorable, but downright evil" and "unless we are willing to defend the Soviet soldier, who dutifully executed the orders of Stalin, we cannot pardon the American soldier" show how little you understand about the realities of life under Fascist/Despotic rule.

Stalin hadn't become 'Stalin' yet, and Wells was on the English left.

Stalin and Hitler, for example, were dictators in favor of freedom of speech for views they liked only.

It's not like you could ever stroll in to Stalin's house and borrow his hat without asking.