Which we should see as an excellent radicalization and growth opportunity!
It can be exhausting explaining ourselves again and again, always met with the same accusations and assumptions born from the mythos spun by our enemies.
However, we must remember these people are people, and many people change their minds given enough information, delivered with firm respect. For every belligerent person who appears like they wouldn't change their mind for anything, there are 10 people quietly lurking who are more on-the-fence. Even those who regurgitate insults and contempt may change their mind when the stars align!
These people are not our enemies, they are victims to the greatest campaign of dishonesty in human history! It is our duty to draw out the poison and deliver the medicine!
I know many comrades here have very difficult lives and do not have the patience or energy to deal with such people. Please do not exhaust yourself interacting with liberals, and allow comrades with more energy to deal with them.
Radicalizing online is not the end-all be-all, but at this point in the psychological war for those within the Anglosphere, every victory is invaluable!!!
Seriously tho what's the difference between a Soviet gulag and a Western prison? Any society that still has crime requires correctional facilities, the USSR is no different. Why do libs insist on Soviet ones being called gulags? If you want to criticize their prison system just call it that. I know it's a Russian word but we're speaking English here which already has a word for prisons, and to me the Soviet system really does not seem different or unique enough to warrant its own word as a proper noun. (I-it's not just to make the Soviet system seem more evil by distancing it from their own Western prison systems right? I-it's not that right?)
Often gulag is used for working prison, including those outside the Soviet Union. And very serious crimes in the Soviet Union would have prison time, not gulag time.
TIL that it's referring to that. Wait so basically US private prisons are gulags?
Yup.
Is this what the Golden Gulag is about?
Tbh I think chain gangs, whether they are public or private, are gulag-like
Chain gangs are not like gulags, chain gangs are an American invention and they most resemble American prisons. Gulags were far more humane on average than American prisons, especially considering the circumstances surrounding each country and who they considered criminals.
The popular depiction of the soviet gulag existed for a relatively short time within the USSR's history whereas at least US prisons haven't changed since the 1800s?
Because GULAG is a Russian acronym (Chief Administration of Corrective Labour Camps). They were literally called gulags. They are corrective labor camps, not storage containers for human. Granted, most US prisons are labor camps as well.
Gulag = scary Russian acronym
Prisons = too normal in the most incarcerated state in the world
Just like how that add the word “camp” when they talk about evil north korean prisons (that are probably no worse than western ones).
i dont think they were called gulags tho. gulag was the name of the central administrative body, but the prisoners didnt call the camps gulags. just camps. or prison.
it'd be like calling US prisons BOPs.
I don't know enough about that to opine. An interesting question, though, to be sure. Maybe we can find original Russian texts from the time and search for the acronym in Cyrillic? I've never done anything like that before
Gulags were used to try and rehabilitate dangerous people back into society, which is in theory what American prisons do too. But in practice American prisons are where the poor are tortured, raped, beaten, branded with second-class citizenry and commited to a lifetime of hellish punishment, especially for crimes of poverty.
You forgot enslaved. America outlawed slavery except as punishment for crime, so how do you get your slaves back? arrest them all for nonsense!
From my understanding, the application of the word "gulag" to a prison is to indicate there is strenuous forced labor in harsh conditions in a distant location free from public scrutiny. The implication is that people die from being overworked or due to exposure and the government is able to cover up these deaths because of the remoteness of these facilities. Likely, this implication is meant to harken back to the labor camps of Nazi Germany.
This is irrespective of whether or not Soviet labor camps should be characterized this way or whether US prisons are inherently more humane. If anything, I highly advocate for referring to US prisons by a more pejorative name to indicate their cruel nature. I would use the term "gulag", but I think what makes US prisons cruel is different from a labor camp and deserves a different name.
Private prisons is a pretty good term IMO. Private, as in the purpose of them is not to rehabilitate, but to generate profit for the bourgeoisie under the guise of rehabilitation. The inmates are private property.