Support for Communism

[tonywiltshire]

The ruling Communist party in the old USSR were responsible for the death and imprisonment of more people that any other political organisation in history, why is it not unacceptable to support Communism?

[tonywiltshire]

Try again:The ruling Communist party in the old USSR were responsible for the death and imprisonment of more people that any other political organisation in history, why is it not unacceptable to support Communism?

[Old_Geezer]

Because there is a difference between an ideology and the implementation of a form of it in one particular country. But surely that is obvious ?

[craft1948]

I thought Mao killed more...............

[Old_Geezer]

Maybe there is a wiki somewhere with a league table.

[tonywiltshire]

o_g: It is not obvious.
Your argument is flawed, to support Fascism is not acceptable.

Mao may have tried but failed.

[jno]

Communism seems to be gradually making China the richest and most powerful country in the world. So perhaps there's something to it, even if you don't like some of its practitioners?

[jake-the-peg]

Thats as dumb as saying the current banking collapse was the fault of capitalism we should abandon that.

It's a simple failure of logic

The USSR were Communists - the USSR did bad things therefore all Communistse bad.

Fred West was a man - Fred West Murdered people - therefore all people are murderers

[Buenchico]

Communism (or, more accurately, a communist leadership) has greatly improved health provision in Cuba and freed workers who were effectively slaves within Tibet. That doesn't make communism 'right' or 'wrong'; it simply acts as a balance to the statement in your question.

No political system is perfect. Communism falls down because people don't like accepting greater responsibilities, and more stressful jobs, without greater rewards. Democracy falls down because it falsely assumes that those who cast their votes actually understand economic principles and political realities.

[jomifl]

Buenchico ..some Tibetans would disagree with you. Changing slavemasters does not make you any the less a slave.

[jomifl]

Strange how complete opposites like communism and fascism are indistinguishable in practice.

[jno]

I doubt there's that much similarity between, say, living on a commune in communist China and running a business in fascist Italy. Also, communism was internationally-minded (workers of the world unite and all that), and fascist regimes tend to be strongly nationalist.

[starone]

It's a good idea, but unfortunately in practise it does not work.
Was Jesus a Communist? After all, he told his followers to sell all their goods and give to the poor. Would that not make the poor rich and the givers poor? Makes my mind boggle sometimes trying to understand it all.

[ichkeria]

The question is flaed in two senses:
Firstly, as stated, communism takes various forms, some more successful than others.
Secondly, for some people communism IS unacceptable, so the premise is wrong anyway.
As for the Soviet Union and communism, it started out as an internationalist ideal and pretty much ended up as a Russian empire. It adopted the mentality of its dominant - Russian - ethnicity.
Russians are a slave nation - they were slaves before communism, slaves during it and they're still slaves now.

[Old_Geezer]

Fascism may or may not be acceptable. But surely only the 'thought police' would tell you what you have to support ? Or are differences of opinion and debate unacceptable too ? I see no flaw.

[ichkeria]

The question is flawed because it seems to assume that no one finds communism unacceptable. Plainly many do, some of them possibly for the reasons given.
On the other hand, the suggestion is also that communism should be banned because of the Soviet Union's interptetation of it. That would also be rather unfair, even were it feasible, given many of the crimes committed , if not the majority, were during the reign of terror of a dictator who could just as easily pass for fascist as communist.

[heathfield]

I'm reminded of the quote, "Democracy is a rotten form of government, but everything else is worse".

[jomifl]

Jno..Slave labour camps, oppression of ethnic minorities, execution of intellectuals, book burning, annexation of neighbouring countries, a ruling oligarchy, imprisonment without trial, sequestering of private property.. extreme versions of fascism and communism have or had these things in common.

[Andyvon]

It does seem strange.

Mao Tse Tung (sorry if the spelling is wrong) was the greatest murderer of all time - he killed 36 million people between 1949-1965. Stalin killed 30 million and Communism has killed 100 million people since World War 2. The US government killed many millions of Indians by exterminating the bison, distributing smallpox-infected blankets and sending people on the March of Tears. Why therefore, isn't China vilified in the same way at the Third Reich who killed significantly fewer people? Why not the USA for genocide?

I think one reason is that the victor claims the spoils. Cina dominates the world now - so no mention of Chairman Mao eh? The US lauds itself as the paradigm of Freedom and democracy (!) so the Indian genocide is forgotten. During WW2 the Allies decided to include the USSR in their number and they actually portrayed the Soviet Union as a free democracy! (the British popultion were encouraged to refer to Stalin as kindly old 'Uncle Joe'!)

Communism has been grudgingly accepted as they were a prominant player in the world until recently and they Allies befriended the USSR during the war (between 1945-1950 the UK even sent several million Soviet PoWs back to the USSR knowing they were being marched off the troopships and shot on the docks!)