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I find myself rooting for him like I rooted for Darth Vader.
by peteretep 9y ago
I find myself rooting for him like I rooted for Darth Vader.
- arkona 9y agoIt's hard not to root for someone everyone is trying to discredit and paint as a vilain. He must be doing something right if so many people are against him.
- thirtyseven 9y agoWhat is your rationale for this? Was Stalin doing something right because so many people were against him?
- shub 9y agoI dunno how much Stalin did right, but he sure did a lot of stuff well. You don't obtain and maintain control over all of Russia by being an idiot.
- idlewords 9y agoDid you wake up this morning thinking you'd be defending Stalin in a nerd fight? Or was it a happy surprise ending to your day?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- zdkl 9y agoYou can make the same point about germany's return to stability in the 30's (goodwin point yay), but I'm not sure you'd want to. Careful what you wish for, in terms of government efficiency
- shub 9y agoI wouldn't say that, actually. Germany's recovery was primarily fueled by massive deficit spending on rearmament and social programs. Keep the people pacified, bootstrap from the tiny military allowed by Versailles up to something world-class, then take over Europe and Asia. Not sustainable at all, and I think it's really debatable whether Hitler deserves any of the credit anyway. His role was more or less to turn on the money tap and tell the Prussians to tool up, which they did very happily and effectively because they were Prussians.
- zdkl 9y ago> His role was more or less to turn on the money tap... Which in a country with absolutely savage inflation isn't as easy as you make it sound. I suggest you educate yourself before being dismissive like this.
- rtpg 9y agoHe was doing the right things to hold power, not the right things for society.
- AsyncAwait 9y agoThat is way too simplistic, he did a lot of terrible stuff, but also some good, it is no question that he pulled Russia from 'backwardness' in terms of literacy for example.
- tptacek 9y agoYou mean for those Soviets who survived him?
- AsyncAwait 9y agoThat's why I said that he did a lot of terrible stuff. I absolutely do not excuse the awful stuff he ordered. That does not mean we should now shut all sense of nuance.
- shub 9y agoWell, yeah. Stalin was a monster. He was just good at being a monster.
- lallysingh 9y agoDon't feed the trolls.
- sctb 9y agoYes, please don't. And especially please don't feed them Stalin—this is a counter troll and makes things quickly worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- louithethrid 9y agoIts a natural reaction to all those PC Blockwardens, patrolling every inch of society, telling one how to walk, how to speak and what behaviours are okay. Yelling at people who try new things, throwing hissy fits when they are ignored- because what they care about most is not protecting some class of citizens from the normal insult that is life, but that everybody better listen to them. If you have the choice between one far away Stalin who might even improve your life against another loud entrenched special interest group (taxi drivers) , and a thousand little Stalins just around the corner - who want to Tugendterror everyone for - basically fun - i know what i would want.
- PhasmaFelis 9y ago> He must be doing something right if so many people are against him. How's that work?
- arkona 9y agoStep 1) Kalanick creates a successful company that disrupts the taxi industry Step 2) thousands of people are now losing money and get upset at Kalanick Step 3) millions are spent lobbying governments, suing Uber, publishing anti-Uber news, shilling against Uber on social media etc Step 4) everyone hates Uber and Kalanick
- kakarot 9y agoBy your definition, Hitler was doing right.
- JSONwebtoken 9y agoTravis is Darth Vader and Benchmark is Palpatine a.k.a "the Senate"
- jusaduder 9y agoWhy doesn't much of hackernews blame Kalanick personally, as they do the CEOs of Equifax or Wells Fargo,for the bullshit that his company has done?