this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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Socialism

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I believe in socialism, but I feel Stalin shouldn't be idolised due to things like the Gulag.

I would like more people to become socialist, but I feel not condemning Stalin doesn't help the cause.

I've tried to have a constructieve conversation about this, but I basically get angry comments calling me stupid for believing he did atrocious things.

That's not how you win someone over.

I struggle to believe the Gulag etc. Never happened, and if it happened I firmly believe Stalin should be condemned.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

He is an ambiguous person. He certainly did a lot of good things, but there were mistakes and even from our point of view, quite cruel decisions. It is difficult to assess why he made certain decisions. There is a lot of unconfirmed information and ambiguous accusations around him, although, of course, there are bad decisions, maybe we don't know all the information, or maybe he was wrong. It was a difficult time back then. According to some reports, at the end of his life, even Lenin treated him ambiguously and was afraid of the concentration of power in one hand and even wrote a letter to the congress, but some doubt this, so it may not be true. To truly understand this, you need to be a historian and read a lot of original documents by yourself. But I don't think that we should consider him only a complete villain, as he is often exposed.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

he was s power hungry megalomaniac that felt no shame in killing anyone who crossed him

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Factually wrong, he was a excellent socialist.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

Shouldn't the dictatorship of the proletariat have been disbanded after the revolution was successful?

Why were the people not free to self organize into communes of their own design that best reflects their values?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

He killed loyal communists, many falsely accused of treason, and became the poster boy of the Red Scare, providing anti-communists with propaganda to equate socialism with totalitarianism. His oppressive policies, human rights abuses, and betrayal of socialist principles alienated global leftist movements and set back the progress of socialism by decades.

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