3 ms·

Xi Jinping is trying pretty hard.

by skrebbel 8y ago

_Codemonkeyism 8y ago
Stalin is 10M deads in the lead.
- ben_w 8y ago
  I thought most of those deaths were indirectly, resulting from agricultural and economic policies and forced relocations and only a relatively (10%) small number of executions? If you include economic causes, you might need to include the excess mortality of systematically impoverished communities in western nations — and I don’t just mean “PoC in the USA”, as I can point to a UK study claiming the government’s austerity policies since 2010 have caused 120,000 excess deaths: https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/health-and-social-care-spending-cuts-linked-to-120000-excess-deaths-in-england/ https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/health-and-social-care-... Also, if those deaths were related to economic policies, you probably have to weigh them by population size. Obviously that’s still a million executions more than most; I am not defending him, this is just about making it an apples-to-apples comparison.
  - estsauver 8y ago
    There's some evidence it was not accidental: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor#Genocide_question https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor#Genocide_question
  - _Codemonkeyism 8y ago
    It looks like something of ~7M from the famines, ~2M from Gulags, ~1M from executions, uncertain number from torture. Numbers from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_mortality_in_the_Soviet_Union_under_Joseph_Stalin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_mortality_in_the_Soviet... I'd say if famines are the cheapest way, many dictators with a genocide mind set would do that if possible.
rcMgD2BwE72F 8y ago
Our politicians are more than happy to let the Chinese beta test authoritarian technology on their citizenry before we can deploy the same in what remains of Western democracies. We criticize them just a little, by principle, but as soon as the tech proves effective at controlling population, we adopt the tech "because it works". "But at what?", one may ask...

Xi Jinping is trying pretty hard.

_Codemonkeyism 8y ago

Stalin is 10M deads in the lead.

ben_w 8y ago
I thought most of those deaths were indirectly, resulting from agricultural and economic policies and forced relocations and only a relatively (10%) small number of executions? If you include economic causes, you might need to include the excess mortality of systematically impoverished communities in western nations — and I don’t just mean “PoC in the USA”, as I can point to a UK study claiming the government’s austerity policies since 2010 have caused 120,000 excess deaths: https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/health-and-social-care-spending-cuts-linked-to-120000-excess-deaths-in-england/ https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/health-and-social-care-... Also, if those deaths were related to economic policies, you probably have to weigh them by population size. Obviously that’s still a million executions more than most; I am not defending him, this is just about making it an apples-to-apples comparison.
- estsauver 8y ago
  There's some evidence it was not accidental: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor#Genocide_question https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor#Genocide_question
- _Codemonkeyism 8y ago
  It looks like something of ~7M from the famines, ~2M from Gulags, ~1M from executions, uncertain number from torture. Numbers from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_mortality_in_the_Soviet_Union_under_Joseph_Stalin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excess_mortality_in_the_Soviet... I'd say if famines are the cheapest way, many dictators with a genocide mind set would do that if possible.

rcMgD2BwE72F 8y ago

Our politicians are more than happy to let the Chinese beta test authoritarian technology on their citizenry before we can deploy the same in what remains of Western democracies. We criticize them just a little, by principle, but as soon as the tech proves effective at controlling population, we adopt the tech "because it works". "But at what?", one may ask...