5 ms·

Love the soft-pedaling of who precisely she was working on behalf of in 1936 Spain, a "pro-communist" govt. So she worked on freeing fascist aristocrats. Awes

Love the soft-pedaling of who precisely she was working on behalf of in 1936 Spain, a "pro-communist" govt. So she worked on freeing fascist aristocrats. Awesome.

RodericDay 10y ago
Yeah that was extremely underhanded. Really set the tone for the whole piece, for me.
- avn2109 10y ago
  I don't support breathless hagiography in any of its forms, but in fairness a lot of the article is just about how she was technically good at espionage, regardless of who she was spying for.
wtbob 10y ago
> So she worked on freeing fascist aristocrats. Better fascists than communists.
- Tepix 10y ago
  Why?
  - rat87 10y ago
    As someone who thinks of himself as liberal and is sympathetic to leftist ideals, because communists suck. It's hard to define fascism, what countries were fascist besides Fascist Germany,Italy, Spain? Other then Fascist/Nazi Germany (was Indonesia fascist when the military killed near a million "communists"?) I'm not sure any lived up to the horrors that occurred w/ several communist countries including USSR(Million+ killed in mass repression, tens of millions died in famine partially caused by malice), China (same maybe a few more deaths), Cambodia(2 million/20% dead), North Korea(decades of virtual slavery and repression), etc. Most of the communist countries mostly killed their own citizens and to some extent said it as being for their own good and to some extent believed that. "Communist" states that may or may not be near "communism" as a pure ideology have a very bad track record. Although I'm not sure how apparent this was in the 30s.
    - henriquemaia 10y ago
      > what countries were fascist besides Fascist Germany,Italy, Spain? Portugal [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_%28Portugal%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_%28Portugal%29
    - Senji 10y ago
      Also Venezuela
    - wtbob 10y ago
      > Although I'm not sure how apparent this was in the 30s. I think in the 30s one could have said, 'fascists have killed their thousands, but communists have killed their millions' (the Holodomor was '32-'33). Even Western fellow-travellers would had to have admitted hundreds of thousands of Russian bishops, priests, monks & nuns — 85,000 in 1937[1], during the Spanish Civil War. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_%281928%E2%80%931941%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_%...
danharaj 10y ago
Liberals are better than fascists are better than communists are better than anarchists. Such is the order of the world as it is imposed. tongue-in-cheek
- antocv 10y ago
  "Liberals" in the meaning above is purposefully left undefined. Liberal ideals and principles can and often are ignored, see Occupy Wallstreet/2008-Financial crisis, if it suites the existing power holders. In short, could modify from liberals to "power of oppression".
  - danharaj 10y ago
    For sure. The only difference between a fascist and a liberal despot is that the fascist is proud of their violence while the liberal dissimulates it and belittles and destroys those who point it out. The same is true for the state communists. Disagree with Stalin? Revisionist. Etc. Even in anarchism there are people who will use the ideology in a purely instrumental way to justify or hide their use of violence. Ideology is a smokescreen for power.

Love the soft-pedaling of who precisely she was working on behalf of in 1936 Spain, a "pro-communist" govt. So she worked on freeing fascist aristocrats. Awesome.

RodericDay 10y ago

Yeah that was extremely underhanded. Really set the tone for the whole piece, for me.

avn2109 10y ago
I don't support breathless hagiography in any of its forms, but in fairness a lot of the article is just about how she was technically good at espionage, regardless of who she was spying for.

wtbob 10y ago

> So she worked on freeing fascist aristocrats. Better fascists than communists.

Tepix 10y ago
Why?
- rat87 10y ago
  As someone who thinks of himself as liberal and is sympathetic to leftist ideals, because communists suck. It's hard to define fascism, what countries were fascist besides Fascist Germany,Italy, Spain? Other then Fascist/Nazi Germany (was Indonesia fascist when the military killed near a million "communists"?) I'm not sure any lived up to the horrors that occurred w/ several communist countries including USSR(Million+ killed in mass repression, tens of millions died in famine partially caused by malice), China (same maybe a few more deaths), Cambodia(2 million/20% dead), North Korea(decades of virtual slavery and repression), etc. Most of the communist countries mostly killed their own citizens and to some extent said it as being for their own good and to some extent believed that. "Communist" states that may or may not be near "communism" as a pure ideology have a very bad track record. Although I'm not sure how apparent this was in the 30s.
  - henriquemaia 10y ago
    > what countries were fascist besides Fascist Germany,Italy, Spain? Portugal [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_%28Portugal%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estado_Novo_%28Portugal%29
  - Senji 10y ago
    Also Venezuela
  - wtbob 10y ago
    > Although I'm not sure how apparent this was in the 30s. I think in the 30s one could have said, 'fascists have killed their thousands, but communists have killed their millions' (the Holodomor was '32-'33). Even Western fellow-travellers would had to have admitted hundreds of thousands of Russian bishops, priests, monks & nuns — 85,000 in 1937[1], during the Spanish Civil War. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_%281928%E2%80%931941%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_%...

danharaj 10y ago

Liberals are better than fascists are better than communists are better than anarchists. Such is the order of the world as it is imposed. tongue-in-cheek

antocv 10y ago
"Liberals" in the meaning above is purposefully left undefined. Liberal ideals and principles can and often are ignored, see Occupy Wallstreet/2008-Financial crisis, if it suites the existing power holders. In short, could modify from liberals to "power of oppression".
- danharaj 10y ago
  For sure. The only difference between a fascist and a liberal despot is that the fascist is proud of their violence while the liberal dissimulates it and belittles and destroys those who point it out. The same is true for the state communists. Disagree with Stalin? Revisionist. Etc. Even in anarchism there are people who will use the ideology in a purely instrumental way to justify or hide their use of violence. Ideology is a smokescreen for power.