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I could only stomach the first 10 pages, and quit. But that little peak certainly made me think of socialism. 10 pages is enough to link the guy to socialism?
by b-man 17y ago
I could only stomach the first 10 pages, and quit. But that little peak certainly made me think of socialism.
10 pages is enough to link the guy to socialism? really?
The rhetoric about helping the little guy is just what monsters like Lenin and Mao find it easiest to use to hoodwink the masses.
Monsters use any rhetoric they think will fit at their historic moment. This is just a red shirted example of Godwin's law.
- CWuestefeld 17y ago10 pages is enough to link the guy to socialism? really? Maybe not to start a conversation. But when chiming in to support someone else's claim, and with the clear caveat, then yes, I think it's perfectly OK. Monsters use any rhetoric they think will fit at their historic moment. Show me a monster since the advent of socialism that did not use it as its justification. The only one I can think of is Pinochet in Chile (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973#Casualties http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_coup_of_1973#Casualties ), and even that needs a very loose definition of monster. Certainly the chart-toppers like Lenin, Mao, Stalin, Kim, Pol Pot, Hitler preached socialism. (I'll grant that they generally didn't understand the concept very well, but the point is that it's what they advocated to their partisans and people as the ultimate solution)
- b-man 17y agoSpecifically one from my own country, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artur_da_Costa_e_Silva http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artur_da_Costa_e_Silva Argentina's story is a bit more brutal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Argentina_(1966%E2%80%931973) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Argentina_(1966%E2%8... All over South America during the 60~80 there were numerous 'capitalist' brutal dictatorships. And then there's more, such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suharto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi Never forget, what makes you a monster is not that you killed millions, but that you were willing to do it in order to maintain your power.
- CWuestefeld 17y agoI'm not finding counts of deaths, nor listings of atrocities, for these. I think you're stretching the "monster" thing here; they're not in the same league as Lenin and Mao. what makes you a monster is not that you killed millions, but that you were willing to do it in order to maintain your power But if you believed that doing so was somehow right (again, the "greatest good" nonsense or something), then it's OK? That's nuts.
- b-man 17y agoI'm not finding counts of deaths, nor listings of atrocities, for these. Argument from ignorance. They were in the same league from the point of view of their victims. But if you believed that doing so was somehow right (again, the "greatest good" nonsense or something), then it's OK? I never said that. From available evidence, not one of the people you mentioned did their atrocities for the ``greatest good'', and it would not matter if that was the case, because the willingness to commit atrocities is the monstrous thing.