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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   947 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for January 8, 2025

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

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there was little acknowledgement about the kinds of things communism did right

Ought there to have been?

a demonization of Russia as the land of evil-totalitarianism equivalent to Nazi Germany

Is that characterisation unfair?

Yes. Communism actually provided most people with decent lives and didn't rely on looting the treasuries of other countries to do so.

Communism actually provided most people with decent lives

No. A lot of people managed to live decent lives under communism, but not because of it but despite it. A lot of people - millions of them - did not survive it though, and that was definitely without doubt because of it.

So does capitalism. One difference is that communism in Czechoslovakia came about due to a Soviet supported coup followed by a military invasion 20 years later to crush a popular uprising.

Right, I'm not saying the Czech regime was good or just. I'm just saying the comparisons of the Soviet Union (or even the Czech puppet government) to the Nazis is not a fair comparison. And that's what it felt like Kundera was doing in this book.

I'm just saying the comparisons of the Soviet Union (or even the Czech puppet government) to the Nazis is not a fair comparison

Why not? Both murdered millions of people in service of their ideology which was supposed to make the world better but actually led to absolutely unprecedented horrible suffering and mass deaths. Both dehumanized large groups of people and invented mechanistic means of mass murder. Both started aggressive wars and conquered and subjugated neighboring countries. Both adopted totalitarian ideology that had no place for freedom of thought or discussion. I think there's a lot of fair comparison there. And yes, both had joyous parades on special occasion (try not to go there or not be joyous, and you'll find out what happens to you). Strangely, most people do not appreciate that joy too much.

The death toll in the Holodomor was in the same ballpark (i.e. seven figures) to the death toll in the Holocaust. Compare how many political prisoners were imprisoned in concentration camps vs. gulags (over a million people died in the latter). As expected in dictatorships of all kinds there was the usual suppression of the free press, assassination of political opponents, military expansionism and so on.

Comparisons between X and Nazi Germany are a dime a dozen, but I think that the comparison is much more warranted in the case of the Soviet Union than in most cases it's trotted out.

I feel like a few citations are needed.

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