cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/731575
It seems there are a lot of propaganda arising on certain lemmy instances parroting propaganda that lemmygrad and Communists support human rights violations, and equating Communists to the alt right.
This is an extremely ridiculous assertion, given the historical context of the left being the main force fighting Nazism and fascism. But I write this post as there are probably many people misled by all the dishonest propaganda out there, who may be accepting of reason before seeking to silence us.
Please link this post in other instances if they are parroting propaganda about Communists to justify demonizing us. Reasonable people will understand and oppose these motions.
What is NOT Communism? in short, communism is NOT:
- “when the government does stuff”
- “capitalism but everyone gets paid the same”
- an incursion on personal freedom, or forcing people to do what they don’t want (unless the thing they don’t want is not exploiting others and not wishing mass murder on ethnic groups, etc).
Then what is communism? in simple terms, it is the belief that the working class (i.e. the people, the masses) must own the means of production (factories, work places, etc) and control the direction of production in society, so that we produce for our own needs rather than to fulfill profits.
Why? we spend most of our lifetime working, so why should we cater it towards profits of a minority class of capitalists rather than our own and out community’s needs and wants? Why shouldn’t we be masters of our own destinies?
You may not agree with this, but this is not an excuse to silence us or lump us with genocidal ideologies
This thread is not meant to convince you with communism, but to demystify it and break the cold war era propaganda that some of you continue to parrot.
you support USSR? What about their human rights violations? (applies to Cuba, China, etc)
We do, but we do not support human rights violations as we believe there are tons of propaganda surrounding this. Equating this with Nazism is EXTREMELY DISINGENUOUS. The prevailing propaganda against the USSR is even acknowledged by NATO countries themselves. Nazism is an ideology founded on genocide, and this is easy to verify from Hitler’s writing himself.
Maybe in the end, we are wrong and despite the propaganda, there are human rights violations. But our support for the USSR comes from their achievements to better the human condition, and we hope to build on it. There are no human rights violation that inspires our ideology like it does for fascism or Nazism.
Disclaimer: I am just a random Communist. I have no authority over lemmygrad or connections to the admins, just to make sure I don’t upset the admins saying this.
The primary complaint about our existence is our support for China, the USSR, Cuba, and other evil authoritarian communist regimes. I think most liberals agree that the USSR under Stalin was the most evil country ever. Let’s examine the USSR more closely then, assuming that it did all the human rights violations and atrocities it was accused of.
Googling for “Stalin’s worst acts”, led me to this website with his 7 worst atrocities:
https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/joseph-stalin.htm
Now, assuming all this is true and unbiased, I would like to compare the list to the USA. I think it’s hypocritical to accuse us of supporting human rights violations, EVEN IF THESE WERE ALL TRUE. How is it wrong to support the USSR if the USA were to provably commit even worse human rights violations? I don’t see the liberals banning American “patriots” anytime soon.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716878/
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2023.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/05/the-buffalo-killers/482349/
https://thecirclenews.org/cover-story/u-s-treatment-of-indians-inspired-hitlers-hunger-policies/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare
https://www.vva310.org/vietnam-war-statistics
https://time.com/5953047/lgbtq-holocaust-stories/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
So here’s where we are. Of all of Stalin’s atrocities, I think I’ve shown that the US has done something equivalent but worse in the majority of cases. But it’s still acceptable to liberals to wave an American flag, but not a Soviet one? Why do you suppose this is? It gets even worse if you start questioning the veracity of these claims of course, but even if they were at face value, I would still support the Soviet state. They were the first Socialist state and should be respected for that alone. I don’t agree with everything that they did, and I don’t think anyone does. We don’t hate the American people for loving their country. Why should we be hated for loving the USSR?
https://ips-dc.org/the_cias_worst-kept_secret_newly_declassified_files_confirm_united_states_collaboration_with_nazis/
Great write up.
Thank you. I signed up here just to write that.
lol we banned you so you made an account on another instance and came back just to comment again? Find something better to do with your time.
That really should be an explicit rule across all instances, no making new accounts to dodge other instance’s bans
No, I don’t think anyone here hates the American people. We want to help them. They’re just as much victims of their government as the rest of the world.
Yes, I have strong misgivings about most of these claims. But why so quick to judge the Soviet Union based on one bad leader, while being so forgiving of people like Andrew Jackson? The USA still prints his picture on their currency!
“Bad”
Despite the very valid criticisms of Stalin, he was not a bad leader. A less problematic revolutionary than head of state? Sure. I challenge any liberal to name any historical political revolutionary turned head of state who wasn’t.
And even then, hugely lifting the life expectancy, literacy, housing and employment, rapidly industrializing an economy, spearheading the victory over global fascism, and overseeing the foundations for a nation of feudal peasantry to pioneer space travel within a lifetime are unprecedented achievements for humanity in general.
To be crystal clear, I am not saying that Stalin was “bad”. I’m saying that even if he was as bad as liberals say, he’s still not as “bad” as people that they put on their frickin currency.
Sorry, to be clear I was also just adding to your comment, not directly adressing you lol.
Comparatively American liberals have nothing to stand on considering their founders literally owned people, raped and tortured them, and wore their teeth. And like you said, they’re still on the currency (fitting place imo) and they even get their own robots at Disneyworld.
Ah, sorry. I’m used to people completely misconstruing my comments on Reddit. But yeah, I’m obviously very annoyed that they dare to lecture us about human rights when the founders of their darling country evidently thought that freedom meant the freedom to pay less taxes and own more people.
Let’s compare Stalin and George Washington. The former did all you mentioned and got a city named after him, but died poor and was quickly denounced by revisionists. The latter latter fought for the right to own slaves and expand colonialism continuing his legacy as the “village destroyer.” He got tons of streets, cites and landmarks dedicated to him. Even a state and the capital of the US. Even plenty of American “communists” uphold his legacy. Which one is the cult of personality?