Ahhh... Before they were ruthless autocrats. Still a whole life of murder ahead of them. To be young! Not ashamed to admit though, young Uncle Joe was a good looking dude. Not even gonna front.
I don't understand the whataboutism some eastern European countries and Russia use to defend this stuff. As Americans we know our government has made mistakes. Horrible ones. But we acknowledge them. I don't think who has moral authority is really, honestly, in question.
Communism is best practiced in the comfort of your own bedroom, with a loved one. National levels? Let God deal with it.
Well I'd never met or heard of Professor Grover Furr of Montclair State University, ranked #169 out of 312 in the U.S. News national rankings. His specialty as professor of medieval English hardly qualifies him as an expert on Soviet Russia, and the professors of political science and history who do specialize in that area disagree with him. First Secretary Khrushchev detailed the crimes of Stalin at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR in 1956, and the western experts seem to agree that he killed at least 20 million people--7 million kulaks during forced collectivization, 1.2 million in the purges, and 12 million in the gulags.(Heidenrich, 2001) At the high end, Rummel estimates nearly 62 million. The differences result over how to count indirect fatalities as opposed to direct or deliberate ones, and what we mean by "crimes" (as the saying goes, "if treason prospers, none dare call it treason"; same goes for crime). According to historian Norman Naimark the Soviet liquidation of the kulaks, the subsequent famine among Ukrainian peasants, and the 1937 order for the mass execution and exile of “socially harmful elements” as “enemies of the people” were genocides. I imagine that somewhere out there in a university far far away, some professor of horticulture or landscape architecture might be convinced that Hitler was a misunderstood Zionist, that the earth is flat, or that they're Napoleon. Professor John Mash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, thought aliens from outer space were after him. I tend to ignore such people as "eccentrics", especially if they're talking outside their field and have no evidence to back up their claims. I doubt that they're typical of academia.
It's hard to deny the mass killings of the Soviet Union. But it's still astonishing how downplayed the atrocities of the Bolsheviks and other communist leaderships really are. But the fact that a majority of millennial would rather live in a communist or socialist society, rather than a mixed market or a free market economy is very telling. I point my finger of blame at fringe radicals in academia.
Is that a fact? Did somebody take a poll? l know that a YouGov survey found that 43 percent of respondents under age 30 viewed socialism favorably, compared to 32 percent thinking favorably of capitalism. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found that 44 percent of millennials questioned said they preferred socialism over capitalism. Seven percent preferred communism. But 7% is far from a majority, and 44% isn't a majority either. Why More and More Millennials Favor Socialism and Communism over Capitalism This Is Why Millennials Favor Socialism | HuffPost If true, I doubt that the fringe radicals in academia are responsible, since only a relatively small band of groupies take them seriously. I think the real culprits are the unbridled capitalists, whose gross pursuit of profit at all costs may turn off young idealists. Maybe they wonder why gazillionaires are able to get such generous tax benefits from a society that begrudges the poor health care and the benefits people in other industrial democracies enjoy. Maybe you're thinking of those who favor Bernie as a presidential candidate. I think they're drawn by his sincerity, in contrast to the cant of other politicians. And because they're concerned about the gross inequities in our society and the stupidity of trickle down economics. But Bernie isn't really a socialist. He's a confused social democrat, and in terms of specific programs, he seems to be mainly an advocate for protectionism (like Trump), overturning Citizens United v. FEC, and free college tuition. I don't find him all that frightening, because it's doubtful he could get much past the two parties, unless the Socialists are able to field their own party, in which case we'll know the Apocalypse is at hand. Why do so many millennial man children succumb to the siren calls of Pied Pipers like Milo, Gavin, and Jordan who tell them their inability to find employment and steady romantic relationships is the result of the immigrants, the Muslims, the feminists and/or the Post Modernist Neo-Marxists who allegedly control Academia? A culture of victimhood, I'll tell you!
Do you have a source for this? Most left leaning millenials I know, myself included (if you're one to classify people born 1984 as a millenial) favor mixed economies. I've never even met someone who favors communism and suspect they're very much a fringe group
A Harvard University poll in 2016 found that 51 percent of 18-to-29 year-olds in the U.S. said they opposed capitalism; only 42 percent favored it. Bloomberg - Are you a robot? Not quite the same thing as favoring communism or socialism (as opposed to social democracy) but close.
I applaud Okiefreak s effort but really, I don't see any point in such an in depth and serious reaction to 6-eyed's posts on this subject anymore. I don't think he's serious, although he may seriously believe he's still being 'thought provoking'. Just for captain Obvious sake: It's obviously not a fact.