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[Comment under "This "Periodic Table of Dictators, Despots, and the Despised" rates Stalin's "evil" as a "9/10" - more than all 94 others on the table except Hitler"]

@Onlyinmizzou

you can't be simultaneously pro-secret police and pro-democracy. as a socialist, it is unacceptable to be anti-democracy.

nonsense. the point of proletarian dictatorship is that it's dictatorship for the capitalists, democracy for the workers. what you are talking here, is liberalism, is nonsense, is bourgeois equality. i will quote lenin at length to back this up.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1919/nov/06.htm

The second anniversary of the Soviet power is a fitting occasion for us to review what has, in general, been accomplished during this period, and to probe into the significance and aims of the revolution which we accomplished.
The bourgeoisie and its supporters accuse us of violating democracy. We maintain that the Soviet revolution has given an unprecedented stimulus to the development of democracy both in depth and breadth, of democracy, moreover, distinctly for the toiling masses, who had been oppressed under capitalism; consequently, of democracy for the vast majority of the people, of socialist democracy (for the toilers) as distinguished from bourgeois democracy (for the exploiters, the capitalists, the rich).
Who is right?
To probe deeply into this question and to understand it well will mean studying the experience of these two years and being better prepared to further follow up this experience.
The position of women furnishes a particularly graphic elucidation of the difference between bourgeois and socialist democracy, it furnishes a particularly graphic answer to the question posed.
In no bourgeois republic (i.e., where there is private ownership of the land, factories, works, shares, etc.), be it even the most democratic republic, nowhere in the world, not even in the most advanced country, have women gained a position of complete equality. And this, notwithstanding the fact that more than one and a quarter centuries have elapsed since the Great French (bourgeois-democratic) Revolution.
In words, bourgeois democracy promises equality and liberty. In fact, not a single bourgeois republic, not even the most advanced one, has given the feminine half of the human race either full legal equality with men or freedom from the guardianship and oppression of men.
Bourgeois democracy is democracy of pompous phrases, solemn words, exuberant promises and the high-sounding slogans of freedom and equality. But, in fact, it screens the non-freedom and inferiority of women, the non-freedom and inferiority of the toilers and exploited.
Soviet, or socialist, democracy sweeps aside the pompous, bullying, words, declares ruthless war on the hypocrisy of the "democrats", the landlords, capitalists or well-fed peasants who are making money by selling their surplus bread to hungry workers at profiteering prices.
Down with this contemptible fraud! There cannot be, nor is there nor will there ever be "equality" between the oppressed and the oppressors, between the exploited and the exploiters. There cannot be, nor is there nor will there ever be real "freedom" as long as there is no freedom for women from the privileges which the law grants to men, as long as there is no freedom for the workers from the yoke of capital, and no freedom for the toiling peasants from the yoke of the capitalists, landlords and merchants.
Let the liars and hypocrites, the dull-witted and blind, the bourgeois and their supporters hoodwink the people with talk about freedom in general, about equality in general, about democracy in general.
We say to the workers and peasants: Tear the masks from the faces of these liars, open the eyes of these blind ones. Ask them:
“Equality between what sex and what other sex?
“Between what nation and what other nation?
“Between what class and what other class?
“Freedom from what yoke, or from the yoke of what class? Freedom for what class?”
Whoever speaks of politics, of democracy, of liberty, of equality, of socialism, and does not at the same time ask these questions, does not put them in the foreground, does not fight against concealing, hushing up and glossing over these questions, is one of the worst enemies of the toilers, is a wolf in sheep's clothing, is a bitter opponent of the workers and peasants, is a servant of the landlords, tsars, capitalists.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/dec/23.htm

But why not reach this goal without the dictatorship of one class? Why not switch directly to "pure" democracy? So ask the hypocritical friends of the bourgeoisie for the naive petty-bourgeois and philistines gulled by them.
And we reply: Because in any capitalist society the powerful tell lies to either the bourgeoisie or the proletariat, while the small proprietors, inevitably, remain wavering, helpless, stupid dreamers of "pure", i.e., nonclass or above class, democracy. Because from a society in which one class opposes another there is no way out other than through the dictatorship of the oppressed class. Because the proletariat alone is capable of defeating the bourgeoisie, of overthrowing them, being the sole class which capitalism has united and "schooled", and which is capable of drawing to its side the wavering mass of the working population with a petty-bourgeois way of life, of drawing them to its side or at least "neutralizing" them. Because only mealy-mouthed petty-bourgeois and philistines can dream — deceiving thereby both themselves and the workers — of overthrowing capitalist oppression without a long and difficult process of suppressing the resistance of the exploiters. In Germany and Austria this resistance is not yet very pronounced because expropriation of the expropriators has not yet begun. But once expropriation begins the resistance will be fierce and desperate. In concealing this from themselves and from the workers, the Scheidemanns and Kautskys, the Austerlitzes and Renners betray the interests of the proletariat, switching at the most decisive moment from the class struggle and overthrow of the yoke of the bourgeoisie to getting the proletariat to come to terms with the bourgeoisie, achieving "social peace" or reconciliation of exploited and exploiters.

in fact, you yourself make this point, so i do not understand why you say that you cannot be for secret police and for democracy now!

Every state that has ever existed has forcibly silenced its enemies. It is unavoidable. In the same way the the US silenced labor unions and socialists who sought to subvert the government in the early 20th century, socialist countries silenced western-backed counter-revolutionaries. Others can provide more detail into how specific socialist countries dealt with dissent, but I hope that at least shows you why this argument is dubious at best.

@Onlyinmizzou

but stalin's legacy was, in my opinion and in the opinion of many leftists, mostly counterproductive.

you would call the ending of the NEP and the building of a planned economy, the liberation of europe, unprecedented achievements in healthcare, education, literacy, space, farming, the supression of revisionists, counter revolutionaries, kulaks, etc etc - counterproductive?

it is not "great man theory" - it is looking at history as it actually was! the only liberalism here is to disregard stalin, to deny facts, to refuse to look into the actual situation! the USSR is like a machine - you cannot pick and choose which bits you want to praise, you must take it in it's entirety. you cannot simply call some crucial elements "bad, counterproductive".

infact i will ask directly - what do you think was "counterproductive"? what actions? what specifically

Fuck You

I can’t connect to anyone. I don’t know what to say to people even if I want to say something. I wish for most people to just disappear on the spot. We live in different realms. They say their stuff and I can’t even argue because I still can’t fully wrap my head around that they believe it. That all these people live in the world that allows them to think and talk that way. And feeling so right while doing it. So sane and balanced, well intended. So sure in their own importance and abilities even when they act modest and insecure, it shines through. In how they give advice, in how they assume the value of their intent, in how they think people should hear their opinions and conclusions because they have something to offer. In the fact that they dare to even search for meaning in things. In their self love, or pursuit for self love. In their selfies. In their jokes. I hate them. I hate them because they don’t even have the capacity to understand why I hate them. I can try to explain how disgusting they are but it won’t resonate when all those parts are what they are most proud off. So the problem is me, except I know i see things clearly. I know why I hate what I hate, and I stand by my hatred. I like my hatred. I have almost no real personality, I have no real tools to cope much with life, but I am glad I still feel disgust and hatred. If I didn’t, I would be someone truly horrible.

“Hate eats you up inside.” No, it doesn’t. It builds me up. At least it gives me momentary focus. Who cares whom I hate anyway. I’m generous with it. I don’t even interact with people though, how much do you need to be liked to be bothered by misogyny or misanthropy of someone like me?

Does it really need to be explained that there are levels from which we can observe things. On some level I hate you all. On some level you just annoy me. On some level I really don’t care. There are people I don’t hate, who say things I don’t find to be dumb. But I still can’t connect. I can’t have conversations, I can’t have or meet up to expectations. I hate the people I like as well then, on some level, cause they make me feel the worst. And I’m not even really close to anyone, that’s my act of altruism from a very profound level where I’m practically a hero. Every time I choose to stay away, I am a hero. Every time I tell you to go fuck yourself, I am a hero. Cause I let you go and I know exactly what you think about me, and it’s so easy for you to reach your conclusions and let it go. I am doing an act of kindness. When I tell you to go choke on a dick, I am giving you an easy out. And I like it. I like to say these things to people I don’t like. But it’s nothing. What makes you worthy of such dislike is how easily you then take this hatred trivially, but it’s not trivial. It’s not personal, for that you would have to be a person. It’s depressing, it’s disgusting, it’s completely overwhelming how sick you make me feel.

I’m not speaking from a moral high ground although my hatred is moral. I’m not speaking as a person, I’s much bigger than that. I don’t speak from self love, cause I could never begin to even think about taking that idiotic concept seriously, let alone see it as something to work on. How do you say such stupid words and don’t stop and get filled with disgust. Or at least find it funny. Something, anything but what you’re doing and thinking now.

No, I don’t love myself. If I hate myself, that’s also on some level. On some level I have very bad anxiety, I can’t speak, I can’t think and I can’t take it. I hate this situation. But it doesn’t matter. Contradictions are only an issue to idiots. There’s no hypocrisy. I don’t have to be anyone at all to hate you. Nothing needs to be deserved.

My hatred won’t harm you, it helps you. You will interpret in such way where it will fit right in with your beliefs and I am the example of what you don’t want to be like at all. And that’s how it will always be, you’ll talk on and on loving your voice, and I’ll say my shit and no one will hear anyone, cause if by any chance we do hear then we can just hate. If you could see how i see you, you would hate me too.

I know why I talk here. I just come here trying to find my thoughts and put them together so they leave my head. I don’t do it to exist or to tell others who I am. I don’t have solutions. That’s all it is, stupid random thoughts. But I have no doubt that my hatred is my morality. It is not wrong, and it is not bad, not for me or for anyone else.

Love is different, love is for individuals.

But I know I can’t connect with anyone. There is no solution, and the problem isn’t complex. It’s lack of ability. It’s so frustrating. You can’t imagine the frustration of it. When you want something so much but it doesn’t exist in others, and it doesn’t exist in you. You spent years working on some solution personified, or epiphany, and you spend years knowing there is none, but you still want to say to someone they are right, or that you agree, or that something they said reflected what you were thinking and it meant something to you. It is not something you experience often, and even though it won’t change anything, you think you can get something through that recognition, that something can be added onto you. But when you try to say it, it’s already dead. You can’t do anything with it, you can’t make it important without coping and turning things into your own little myths and legends. And then it’s disgusting. Before you know it it’s over.

But that’s not your life. You’re not alone, you all share the whole world where almost everything in it has the same meaning and you all relate. You’re so safe. Sometimes you find some things you can’t relate and you feel lonely until you eventually find someone you can relate even that to. You feel lonely so easily but you’re never really lonely. We are really lonely. We can’t relate anything, not even with each other. Our minds are empty. We don’t connect. We live in completely different worlds but while you’re all together in yours we are nowhere. It’s not a world, it’s just some empty place with nothing in it and we watch you. Your world is shit. Jealousy only goes so deep, it’s a distraction. Your world is a nightmare to watch but you are relatively content in it, and you’re not lonely in it. You ruin everything I could care about. I don’t want to be like you, and i don’t want to be where you are. And I don’t want to be where I am. But these two things are completely different and comparison is dumb.

I can’t do anything. I’m also just stuck. I can only hate everything to keep sane. When I say i wish everything was different, I don’t mean self improve, i don’t mean being like someone else, I don’t mean utopia, I mean everything.