cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/8181688
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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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What even is this indeed. I was talking about the influence of the Comintern, through which the Soviet Union set the agenda of socialist parties all over Europe.
The Comintern ended in '43, but there's a broken part of the European left that never stopped sucking up to Russia. These days they're thankfully just a bunch of weirdos that nobody really gives a shit about, but back in the 30s this stuff mattered.
Your point being the USSR was influential because it was.. what evil?
Doesn’t it make sense they were influential because they were like the only socialist state at the time? And they actually did support many, if not most, anti-colonial and leftist movements all over the world. Like, if you were a leftist in Africa, and needed help fighting against colonialism and stuff, there was only the USSR around to help you. And they did help, a lot.
They had the largest increase in quality of life in history prior to China, they pioneered space exploration and computation. They had the most advanced laws to protect minorities, to guarantee equality for women etc. Their universities were free for people on the 2nd AND 3rd world to attend.
How exactly were they so terrible? And please, don’t list things every country did exactly the same or worse.
Or do you think all the good they did is completely nullified by the bad?
Would it be best for humans to stop trying to do good, never try to learn from the bad, and just give up?
I recommend reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia!
It's a great read and gives a lot of insights into the dynamics I'm describing. The infighting between leftist fractions gets pretty technical, but Orwell does a great job with it.
Orwell is a piece of shit traitor who worked for the UK government to fight communists. AND he was a racist piece of shit. I will never read any books by him, thanks.
I refuse to read explicit anti-communists who worked for fascists states outing communists and disrupting their parties.
Chef's kiss
@novibe @sab
Orwell fought in Spain against Franco. You have some odd definitions of "Anti_Communist."
He hated Stalin? So did everyone who could read and write.
Orwell is pretty much universally hated by authoritarians on both sides of the political spectrum.
He's a personal hero of mine for many reasons, but that's certainly one of them.
@sab @db0 @boredtortoise @novibe
Imagine hating Stalin with his massacres of real Communists, and being called an Anti-Communist? 😂
To be fair, Orwell writes in Homage to Catalonia that even though he fought alongside Communists, he was there to fight against fascism, not for communism. I think it makes sense that the communists are not all that eager to praise him; that they are too ignorant to read him is their loss.
No matter how you put it, Stalin was certainly a more effective anti-Communist!
@sab @db0 @boredtortoise @novibe
Actually he completely supported those he fought with. The "Poum" were Trotskyists, and could call themselves Communists.
Orwell had no problem with them, and there's Nothing in "Homage to Catalonia which attacks their ideals.
True, I always read him as at least sympathetic to the original communist struggle, no matter how much he despised Stalinism and authoritarianism.
It does, however, make sense that people who in all likelihood consider themselves Stalinists wouldn't be the biggest fans of Orwell. What doesn't make sense is that these morons still exist at all, but that's a different issue entirely.
@sab @db0 @boredtortoise @novibe
I have an astonishing book at home released by the Soviet Union while Stalin was head of the Communist Party.
It's a verbatim summary of some of the purge trials, and the lawyers for the defendants might as well have been the prosecutors.
In fact it reads like fiction, except that it's a real book. Beyond belief that Anyone could support this mass murderer.
Sure, but then don’t read anything about what he did right after that!
@[email protected]
I blocked this fanatic, who pretends to know things...