Whether or not it’s strictly illegal to, for example, blacklist people from their professions for being suspected members of the Communist Party, at some point

Whether or not it’s strictly illegal to, for example, blacklist people from their professions for being suspected members of the Communist Party, at some point we agreed it was a bad thing to do so. I guess the question now is, was there a general principle behind that, or are we just cool with Stalinism now?