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Last I heard the atrocities on each side were roughly equal. The Republican cope was that their atrocities were "the spontaneous and chaotic expression of the anguish of the masses", and that this somehow makes them less morally objectionable.
Yeah. Keep in mind that I'm nit saying he's particularly loved (though he certainly has his fanboys), but the kind of person that lets Franco live rent-free in their heads is a particular type of Polite Company Participator that we're all well familiar with.
You're making the leftists look pretty immature. These kind of conversations are completely normal, even if they're controversial, and if someone won't join or will leave in a huff over people taking a no-no position, they'd do more to stifle the conversation with their presence than to enrich it.
Also, we actually had a few Lenin, Stalin, and Mao fans over the years. We even had a guy who thought that if you think they're worse than Hitler you must be a Nazi. I don't recall any liberal handwringing over what the trads will think about this.
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