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Goodguy
7m ago
Maybe, but that isn't a good argument in the context of trying to write a critique of communism because by that standard, all American Revolution deaths are the fault of the revolutionaries, and so on. Which might be a valid argument, but my point is that it sheds no light on communism versus other political beliefs. All political movements that start revolutions can be blamed for all of the resulting deaths, by this standard, so it is not something that distinguishes communism from other ideologies.
Bartender_Venator
7m ago
Is there any great work that would be improved by the addition of choice, by the addition of alternate possibilities? Would Plato’s account of the trial and death of Socrates be better if there were a possibility of Socrates simply... not dying? If Callicles’s warning to Socrates, that his devotion to the “effeminate” subject of philosophy would be his downfall, might not come to pass? If Socrates might be able to eloquently defend himself at trial and avoid conviction? If he might escape from prison before his execution?
Maybe I'm missing this in another comment, but that actually is how Plato's account goes. He wrote a dialogue called the Crito, wherein a wealthy friend visits Socrates in prison with an escape plan, and Socrates explains why he chooses not to escape.
jacksonjules
7m ago
It was quite the statement to throw out there, but it's true. If black people's natural inclination was towards monogamy, you would see monogamy be the dominant mode of relationship in African countries. Or if you want to argue colonialism is responsible for Africa's current state, there would be large reservoirs of archeological evidence showing monogamy in pre-modern African societies. But we don't see that.
I would argue where my statement was misleading is that monogamy isn't natural for any race. But still, there are degrees: it's easier for whites and Asians than it is for black people.
epohon
9m ago
It will be worth knowing only to civilizations five millennia in the future, if there are those, of course.
Russian civil war deaths were about 10 million and I think at most you could probably only ascribe about third of those to direct or indirect killing of civilians by communists.
I think it's quite reasonable to ascribe all civil war deaths to the Bolsheviks because they did consciously started it.
and there is good reason to believe it given for example the Holodomor
1.5 million of Russians and similar amount of Kazakhs, not counting many other smaller ethnicities also died in the collectivization caused famine. Turning this international communist caused tragedy in the "genocide" against specifically Ukrainians in the eyes of the public is the great achievement of Ukrainian nationalists.
epohon
11m ago
It is not a good goal, but it is an egoistic goal, and I'm quite fine with being egoistic at an exclusion of everything else. I'm just timing the peak intolerability of the world.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
11m ago
My impression is that they don't have enough mana to pull off anything like that this year.
epohon
15m ago
Judging by four years ago, the hysteria will ramp up steeply right about now. He is an obvious rallying point.
They also promised to terminate Russian involvement in the ongoing world war and sue for a separate peace. Which, I guess, was more important of a factor than this.
That was certainly an important factor in the popularity of the Bolshevik regime after 1914, and perhaps as you suggest a more important factor -- but the question being addressed here (as indicated by the first sentence of the paragraph you quoted) is not why the 1917 Revolution was successful, but why the murderous despotism of the emerging Communist regime was not more widely foreseen from within Russia (or, for that matter, from within the United States and Western Europe), even before Russian involvement World War I.
Bartender_Venator
32m ago
I've seen a bunch of Uzbeks doing "We're from Uzbekistan, of course we [X]", and it's quite sweet, they're generally wholesome and outward-looking people who aren't really connected to meme culture so it comes off as earnest instead of cringe.
mildly_benis
38m ago
I found the voice so grating I closed one of the demos on an impulse. Turns out I categorically do not want someone else's mechanism to talk to me in such a bubbly, ingratiating, worryingly palatable manner unprompted.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
42m ago
I think what you’re observing is better explained by the libertarian wing receding from its high-water mark during Obama’s presidency.
I don't see how that's an explanation rather than a restatement of the original observation.
Botond173
43m ago
First, the Bolshevik revolutionaries didn't say they were merciless and malevolent; quite the opposite! Who could be against their stated agenda of fighting tyranny no matter what class of the people it affects? or self-determination for oppressed peoples?
They also promised to terminate Russian involvement in the ongoing world war and sue for a separate peace. Which, I guess, was more important of a factor than this.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
46m ago
Is that your video? If so I'll watch it. Otherwise could you give me a quick summary?
I'm not quite sure what "egoistical" means, but aiming to minimize your suffering in a way that does not in fact minimize your suffering seems like a pretty good example of a self-defeating strategy.
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