The Soviet Union avoided a civil war with those purges. The US did not avoid a civil war. Perhaps purges are a greater good? Purging some officials to save millions of people from a war sounds like a good trade to me.

It is a good trade, but (large parts of) the purges were still a mistake. They weren't carried out as they should have been, and a huge number of innocent people were purged and/or killed. As others have pointed out in this thread, Stalin himself agreed with this.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 49 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm well aware of the excesses I'm just not inclined to give anything but a passing hand-wavy criticism about them when the alternative was lebensraum.

Trolley problem: Stalin's purges exactly as they were vs Hitler's extermination of every ethnic and religious minority in Europe alongside everyone that wasn't cishetero and the entire disabled population

I choose the purges every single time. Zero hesitation. Anyone that does not is a nazi, along with anyone that claims these two are remotely comparable.

If faced with the same scenario would I hope it's approached better today? Yeah sure. But I'd still do it again exactly as it was in order to defeat fascism.

[–] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 40 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I agree with you, but as communists, that's not the choice we're presented with going forwards.

If faced with the same scenario would I hope it's approached better today? Yeah sure.

This is what I mean. The past cannot be changed, but we can learn from it.

But I'd still do it again exactly as it was in order to defeat fascism.

No two situations are the same, and with the benefit of hindsight the Soviet Union has given us, I think we'll be able to tackle the problem better next time.

The liberal in the OP screenshot is just doing nazi apologia, you are correct.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The only context in which this conversation ever happens is a liberal doing nazi apologia and showing that they are more opposed to communists than they are to nazis. They'll claim we're as bad as nazis while simultaneously refusing to ever visit China, Cuba etc. The very claim is either a denial of nazis being genocidal monsters or a belief that we are.

I refuse to entertain that they're speaking in good faith.

[–] LeninWeave@hexbear.net 20 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

The only context in which this conversation ever happens is a liberal doing nazi apologia and showing that they are more opposed to communists than they are to nazis.

We can and should (and communists, including Stalin himself when Yezhov was prosecuted, have) also be having this conversation amongst ourselves. Many were prosecuted and killed who were, according to the party itself, not guilty. This means that mistakes were made which can be learned from.

I refuse to entertain that they're speaking in good faith.

You're right, they're not.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

We should have actually done it more carefully. We should unironically learn from how capitalists did Red Scare and McCarthyism, because they managed to do it much more efficiently.