6 ms·

Mao is quite possibly the most murderous, irrational dictator of all time. The communists party of China has more blood on their hands than the German Nazi par

by douche 10y ago

Mao is quite possibly the most murderous, irrational dictator of all time. The communists party of China has more blood on their hands than the German Nazi party.

serge2k 10y ago
You counting the war deaths?
- ceejayoz 10y ago
  Probably. Wiki estimates WWII deaths at 50-80 million, and Mao's deaths at 40-70. Given Japan's role in WWII, it's pretty likely Mao has a higher raw death count than just the deaths caused by the Nazi side of the war.
  - serge2k 10y ago
    Wow.
- douche 10y ago
  When you subtract the casualties attributed to the Japanese out of the WW2 numbers, Mao appears to come out well ahead http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm
sverige 10y ago
Estimates of Stalin's body count range from 14 million to 70 million, so he's at least a close second. And Pol Pot might hold the record for rate of mass killing, wiping out over 2 million people in six weeks. Some people scoff when I ridicule them for saying "Communism has never been tried." No, the communists have never been tried - in a court of law.
- justratsinacoat 10y ago
  Honestly, the sort of True Believer who classifies Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, Pot's Cambodia, Castro's Cuba, etc, as all "true Scotsman" communism isn't worth talking to about communism anyway. Rare is the person who is willing to describe some randomly selected totalitarian dictatorship as a "capitalist" regime.
  - mc32 10y ago
    That's because capitalism isn't a form of government. It's an economic system. Communism is both a form of government and an economic system (although there is variance in the form of the economic aspect of it).
    - justratsinacoat 10y ago
      Hand-wavy conflation of communism-as-economic-system and communism-as-government to describe brutal totalitarian states that happen to have a communist economic system is exactly what I'm talking about. It's an easy thing to do, because >Communism is both a form of government and an economic system (although there is variance in the form of the economic aspect of it) My example of calling some randomly selected totalitarian dictatorship "capitalist" isn't interesting or informative because it's clearly referencing the economic system, rather than making the implicit claim that it's also the government form, as does describing the regime as "communist".
      - oldmanjay 10y ago
        What is it about communism that gets you so passionate?
        justratsinacoat 10y ago
        It's actually totalitarian dictatorships that get me passionate. Try reading my comments again. Or, just keep saying "communism" until it becomes what I was talking about -- it worked for the vast majority of Western culture.
    - 10y ago
- pastProlog 10y ago
  > Stalin's body count Most of these claims are from before WWII. The US and UK massively armed Stalin right after this period. > Pol Pot might hold the record for rate of mass killing, wiping out over 2 million people in six weeks After these claims (there was no census in Cambodia between 1963 and 1980, so how these numbers are arrived at is a mystery, but anyhow...) the US began arming Pol Pot in the 1980s, as was covered by the New York Times, ABC News etc. Also the US fought for them to keep the Cambodian seat in the UN, successfully. It's an odd dynamic. Americans accuse people of genocide when political winds blow one way, then they arm and back them when winds blow the other way, then they hold up their finger in indignation when winds blow the other way again. Which isn't even getting into the body count the pontificating, moralizing western capitalists have piled up worldwide...
  - kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
    Much like our current adventures in Syria where we play both sides.
    - lern_too_spel 10y ago
      There are more than two sides in Syria.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
puranjay 10y ago
The more I read about Mao (from the Four Pests campaign to making peasants create mini-furnaces in their backyards), I'm amazed how someone as incompetent could ever come to rule a country. I mean, Sacha Baron Cohen could play him in a parody and it would come across as more sensible than the real thing

by douche 10y ago

Mao is quite possibly the most murderous, irrational dictator of all time. The communists party of China has more blood on their hands than the German Nazi party.

serge2k 10y ago

You counting the war deaths?

ceejayoz 10y ago
Probably. Wiki estimates WWII deaths at 50-80 million, and Mao's deaths at 40-70. Given Japan's role in WWII, it's pretty likely Mao has a higher raw death count than just the deaths caused by the Nazi side of the war.
- serge2k 10y ago
  Wow.
douche 10y ago
When you subtract the casualties attributed to the Japanese out of the WW2 numbers, Mao appears to come out well ahead http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm

sverige 10y ago

Estimates of Stalin's body count range from 14 million to 70 million, so he's at least a close second. And Pol Pot might hold the record for rate of mass killing, wiping out over 2 million people in six weeks. Some people scoff when I ridicule them for saying "Communism has never been tried." No, the communists have never been tried - in a court of law.

justratsinacoat 10y ago
Honestly, the sort of True Believer who classifies Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, Pot's Cambodia, Castro's Cuba, etc, as all "true Scotsman" communism isn't worth talking to about communism anyway. Rare is the person who is willing to describe some randomly selected totalitarian dictatorship as a "capitalist" regime.
- mc32 10y ago
  That's because capitalism isn't a form of government. It's an economic system. Communism is both a form of government and an economic system (although there is variance in the form of the economic aspect of it).
  - justratsinacoat 10y ago
    Hand-wavy conflation of communism-as-economic-system and communism-as-government to describe brutal totalitarian states that happen to have a communist economic system is exactly what I'm talking about. It's an easy thing to do, because >Communism is both a form of government and an economic system (although there is variance in the form of the economic aspect of it) My example of calling some randomly selected totalitarian dictatorship "capitalist" isn't interesting or informative because it's clearly referencing the economic system, rather than making the implicit claim that it's also the government form, as does describing the regime as "communist".
    - oldmanjay 10y ago
      What is it about communism that gets you so passionate?
      - justratsinacoat 10y ago
        It's actually totalitarian dictatorships that get me passionate. Try reading my comments again. Or, just keep saying "communism" until it becomes what I was talking about -- it worked for the vast majority of Western culture.
  - 10y ago
pastProlog 10y ago
> Stalin's body count Most of these claims are from before WWII. The US and UK massively armed Stalin right after this period. > Pol Pot might hold the record for rate of mass killing, wiping out over 2 million people in six weeks After these claims (there was no census in Cambodia between 1963 and 1980, so how these numbers are arrived at is a mystery, but anyhow...) the US began arming Pol Pot in the 1980s, as was covered by the New York Times, ABC News etc. Also the US fought for them to keep the Cambodian seat in the UN, successfully. It's an odd dynamic. Americans accuse people of genocide when political winds blow one way, then they arm and back them when winds blow the other way, then they hold up their finger in indignation when winds blow the other way again. Which isn't even getting into the body count the pontificating, moralizing western capitalists have piled up worldwide...
- kevin_thibedeau 10y ago
  Much like our current adventures in Syria where we play both sides.
  - lern_too_spel 10y ago
    There are more than two sides in Syria.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

puranjay 10y ago

The more I read about Mao (from the Four Pests campaign to making peasants create mini-furnaces in their backyards), I'm amazed how someone as incompetent could ever come to rule a country. I mean, Sacha Baron Cohen could play him in a parody and it would come across as more sensible than the real thing