• sab@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    What even is this indeed. I was talking about the influence of the Comintern, through which the Soviet Union set the agenda of socialist parties all over Europe.

    The Comintern ended in '43, but there’s a broken part of the European left that never stopped sucking up to Russia. These days they’re thankfully just a bunch of weirdos that nobody really gives a shit about, but back in the 30s this stuff mattered.

    • novibe@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Your point being the USSR was influential because it was… what evil?

      Doesn’t it make sense they were influential because they were like the only socialist state at the time? And they actually did support many, if not most, anti-colonial and leftist movements all over the world. Like, if you were a leftist in Africa, and needed help fighting against colonialism and stuff, there was only the USSR around to help you. And they did help, a lot.

      They had the largest increase in quality in history prior to China, they pioneered space exploration and computation. They had the most advanced laws to protect minorities, to guarantee equality for women etc. Their universities were free for people on the 2nd AND 3rd world to attend.

      How exactly were they so terrible? And please, don’t list things every country did exactly the same or worse.

      Or do you think all the good they did is completely nullified by the bad?

      Would it be best for humans to stop trying to do good, never try to learn from the bad, and just give up?

      • sab@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I recommend reading Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia!

        It’s a great read and gives a lot of insights into the dynamics I’m describing. The infighting between leftist fractions gets pretty technical, but Orwell does a great job with it.

        • novibe@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Orwell is a piece of shit traitor who worked for the UK government to fight communists. AND he was a racist piece of shit. I will never read any books by him, thanks.

          I refuse to read explicit anti-communists who worked for fascists states outing communists and disrupting their parties.

            • sab@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Orwell is pretty much universally hated by authoritarians on both sides of the political spectrum.

              He’s a personal hero of mine for many reasons, but that’s certainly one of them.

                • sab@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  To be fair, Orwell writes in Homage to Catalonia that even though he fought alongside Communists, he was there to fight against fascism, not for communism. I think it makes sense that the communists are not all that eager to praise him; that they are too ignorant to read him is their loss.

                  No matter how you put it, Stalin was certainly a more effective anti-Communist!

            • novibe@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Sure, but then don’t read anything about what he did right after that!