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Other => Politics & Society => Topic started by: Bitware on December 06, 2012, 10:50:43 PM



Title: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Bitware on December 06, 2012, 10:50:43 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PdajUraK0LM


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Lethn on December 07, 2012, 03:27:38 PM
Have I told you how much I hate and despise people like this?


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 03:38:15 PM
http://eoimages2.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79796/korea_vir_2012268_1.jpg

Even without the border markers, it would be abundantly clear where North Korea sits on that peninsula... Approximately the same land mass, roughly half the population, and less than a tenth of the illumination.

Goooo Communism!


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: fornit on December 07, 2012, 03:42:08 PM
please, more videos refuting moronic worldviews.... it so totally proves ancap is awesome - in your binary world anyway.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: ElectricMucus on December 07, 2012, 03:47:22 PM
please, more videos refuting moronic worldviews.... it so totally proves ancap is awesome - in your binary world anyway.
Totally.

Like how the USA are 100% pure capitalism.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 03:53:06 PM
please, more videos refuting moronic worldviews....

I'm glad you've finally come to understand that communism is moronic.

It's a step in the right direction, at least.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: ElectricMucus on December 07, 2012, 04:00:26 PM
It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: cunicula on December 07, 2012, 04:01:12 PM
http://eoimages2.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79796/korea_vir_2012268_1.jpg

Even without the border markers, it would be abundantly clear where North Korea sits on that peninsula... Approximately the same land mass, roughly half the population, and less than a tenth of the illumination.

Goooo Communism!
http://www.newscientist.com/data/images/ns/cms/dn21352/dn21352-3_500.jpg
http://www.newscientist.com/articleimages/dn21352/1-satellites-help-track-pirate-loot-in-somalia.html

Goooo AnCap!


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: cunicula on December 07, 2012, 04:02:52 PM
It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)

Amen!


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 04:09:25 PM
Goooo AnCap!

If Somalia were AnCap, you'd have a point. But it's not, now is it?

Away from the cities (where state influence was the worst, and where violence is now the worst), Somalia is primarily Anarcho-communist. Oops! You just proved my point.

It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)
Amen!

Thanks, I've been itching to use one of these...

Your logical fallacy is... (http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground)


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Richy_T on December 07, 2012, 04:11:36 PM

Even without the border markers, it would be abundantly clear where North Korea sits on that peninsula...

I disagree. Without the border markers, it could quite easily be a number of fishing boats on a large body of water.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 04:17:38 PM

Even without the border markers, it would be abundantly clear where North Korea sits on that peninsula...

I disagree. Without the border markers, it could quite easily be a number of fishing boats on a large body of water.

The higher resolution image (http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/79000/79765/dnb_land_ocean_ice.2012.13500x13500.D1.jpg) (warning: HUGE) shows the landmass plenty clearly, and even some of those fishing boats off the coast (which do, in fact, comprise most of NK's nighttime illumination).


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: cunicula on December 07, 2012, 04:34:22 PM
Goooo AnCap!

If Somalia were AnCap, you'd have a point. But it's not, now is it?

Away from the cities (where state influence was the worst, and where violence is now the worst), Somalia is primarily Anarcho-communist. Oops! You just proved my point.


Check out this research: http://www.peterleeson.com/Better_Off_Stateless.pdf (http://www.peterleeson.com/Better_Off_Stateless.pdf)

LOL! I think you should write your asshat libertarian friend with the news that Somalia is AnCom. His paper will need to be rewritten with fresh fabricated data.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: fornit on December 07, 2012, 04:36:03 PM
please, more videos refuting moronic worldviews....

I'm glad you've finally come to understand that communism is moronic.

It's a step in the right direction, at least.

i understand denying stalins atrocities is moronic.
the main flaw of communism however is that it tries to achieve its goals through oppression, while you claim that its goals ARE oppression.
and i still beg to differ. taxes for example are not oppression, as long as they do not threaten property existential for living or are being used as a excuse for other, arbitrarily applied measures like intimidation, harassment or inspections/surveillance.
my main criticism of ancap is completely unrelated btw, mainly that there is no meaningful transition from existing forms of government, it is inherently unstable and if ever achieved is entirely barbaric in its treatment of those that cannot fend for themselves.
as long as you dont address those issues, proving any other type of government unjust or inefficient is somewhat pointless.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: cunicula on December 07, 2012, 04:44:16 PM
Goooo AnCap!

If Somalia were AnCap, you'd have a point. But it's not, now is it?

Away from the cities (where state influence was the worst, and where violence is now the worst), Somalia is primarily Anarcho-communist. Oops! You just proved my point.

It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)
Amen!

Thanks, I've been itching to use one of these...

Your logical fallacy is... (http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground)

Um no. Fundamentalism is when you refuse to entertain the hypothesis that your beliefs are false. It is pretty obvious when people do this. It usually manifests itself through circular reasoning and logical leaps.

e.g. AnCap has never been tried and the state is evil, ??? therefore AnCap is the best possible system of organization

Intelligent people maintain multiple sets of contradictory beliefs simultaneously. I am a multicore processor. You are a pentium 4. You are a prisoner of your own fundamentalist architecture.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 05:12:16 PM
Goooo AnCap!

If Somalia were AnCap, you'd have a point. But it's not, now is it?

Away from the cities (where state influence was the worst, and where violence is now the worst), Somalia is primarily Anarcho-communist. Oops! You just proved my point.


Check out this research: http://www.peterleeson.com/Better_Off_Stateless.pdf (http://www.peterleeson.com/Better_Off_Stateless.pdf)

LOL! I think you should write your asshat libertarian friend with the news that Somalia is AnCom. His paper will need to be rewritten with fresh fabricated data.


LoL indeed... Nowhere in that paper does he mention "capitalism," nor "AnCap." He uses the terms "statelessness" and "anarchy" several times, though.

So... your point was?

Intelligent people maintain multiple sets of contradictory beliefs simultaneously.

No, insane people do that. Orwell even coined a term for it: Doublethink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink).
Quote
The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just as long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary. Even in using the word doublethink it is necessary to exercise doublethink. For by using the word one admits that one is tampering with reality; by a fresh act of doublethink one erases this knowledge; and so on indefinitely, with the lie always one leap ahead of the truth.

and i still beg to differ. taxes for example are not oppression, as long as they do not threaten property existential for living or are being used as a excuse for other, arbitrarily applied measures like intimidation, harassment or inspections/surveillance.
So, it's cool, then, if I come and steal some of your money, as long as I don't take so much that you can't survive without it, and I'm using it to help my Grandma afford her surgery?

my main criticism of ancap is completely unrelated btw, mainly that there is no meaningful transition from existing forms of government, it is inherently unstable and if ever achieved is entirely barbaric in its treatment of those that cannot fend for themselves.
The transition is simple, there's even a method to do so against State resistance: Agorism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agorism), though with the help of the State, the transition can be much more smooth. They need only give up their monopolies.
As to it's inherent instability, That's just plain false. Unless you can point to proof of that?
And it's treatment of those who cannot fend for themselves is entirely dependent upon the people who make up the society. If the welfare of those who can't fend for themselves is valued, then charities that take care of them will thrive.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: cunicula on December 07, 2012, 05:29:44 PM
Intelligent people maintain multiple sets of contradictory beliefs simultaneously.

No, insane people do that. Orwell even coined a term for it: Doublethink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink).

This is the same Orwell who wrote the quote in my signature line you know. He was an intelligent person. He understood subtlety and was not a fundamentalist.

i.e. He himself participated in doublethink and he would not have been ashamed to admit it.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 05:33:24 PM
Intelligent people maintain multiple sets of contradictory beliefs simultaneously.

No, insane people do that. Orwell even coined a term for it: Doublethink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink).

This is the same Orwell who wrote the quote in my signature line you know. He was an intelligent person.
Indeed.
Quote
In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else. - George Orwell

Non-aggression principle: Thou Shalt not use force, the threat of force, or fraud against another person or their property.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: cunicula on December 07, 2012, 05:43:02 PM
Intelligent people maintain multiple sets of contradictory beliefs simultaneously.

No, insane people do that. Orwell even coined a term for it: Doublethink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink).

This is the same Orwell who wrote the quote in my signature line you know. He was an intelligent person.
Indeed.
Quote
In a Society in which there is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else. - George Orwell

Non-aggression principle: Thou Shalt not use force, the threat of force, or fraud against another person or their property.

Behold the fruits of fundamentalism! You have lost the power to interpret text without greatly distorting it. If I had not picked a libertarian author, you would have offered a very different interpretation. What a sad state you are in. Not able to think independently any more. 

Let's look at the context. It is from his essay on Gulliver's Travels.
http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_vs._Literature:_An_Examination_of_Gulliver's_Travels/0.html (http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_vs._Literature:_An_Examination_of_Gulliver's_Travels/0.html)

Quote
Gulliver's master is somewhat unwilling to obey, but
the "exhortation" (a Houyhnhnm, we are told, is never COMPELLED to do
anything, he is merely "exhorted" or "advised") cannot be disregarded.
This illustrates very well the totalitarian tendency which is explicit in
the anarchist or pacifist vision of Society. In a Society in which there
is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is
public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to
conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of
law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual
can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly
governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make
him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else. The
Houyhnhnms, we are told, were unanimous on almost all subjects. The only
question they ever DISCUSSED was how to deal with the Yahoos. Otherwise
there was no room for disagreement among them, because the truth is
always either self-evident, or else it is undis-coverable and
unimportant. They had apparently no word for "opinion" in their language,
and in their conversations there was no "difference of sentiments". They
had reached, in fact, the highest stage of totalitarian organization, the
stage when conformity has become so general that there is no need for a
police force.

Now what is your misinterpretation?


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Richy_T on December 07, 2012, 05:46:09 PM
is entirely barbaric in its treatment of those that cannot fend for themselves.


I'm no ancap supporter but it's actually neutral in its treatment of such people. The premise is that it's not the job of government to take care of such things (or indeed anything I guess). It is the individuals who are capable of helping such people who are either "barbaric" (actually a subjective judgment) or not.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 05:54:52 PM
Let's look at the context. It is from his essay on Gulliver's Travels.
http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_vs._Literature:_An_Examination_of_Gulliver's_Travels/0.html (http://www.george-orwell.org/Politics_vs._Literature:_An_Examination_of_Gulliver's_Travels/0.html)

Quote
Gulliver's master is somewhat unwilling to obey, but
the "exhortation" (a Houyhnhnm, we are told, is never COMPELLED to do
anything, he is merely "exhorted" or "advised") cannot be disregarded.
This illustrates very well the totalitarian tendency which is explicit in
the anarchist or pacifist vision of Society. In a Society in which there
is no law, and in theory no compulsion, the only arbiter of behaviour is
public opinion. But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to
conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of
law. When human beings are governed by "thou shalt not", the individual
can practise a certain amount of eccentricity: when they are supposedly
governed by "love" or "reason", he is under continuous pressure to make
him behave and think in exactly the same way as everyone else. The
Houyhnhnms, we are told, were unanimous on almost all subjects. The only
question they ever DISCUSSED was how to deal with the Yahoos. Otherwise
there was no room for disagreement among them, because the truth is
always either self-evident, or else it is undis-coverable and
unimportant. They had apparently no word for "opinion" in their language,
and in their conversations there was no "difference of sentiments". They
had reached, in fact, the highest stage of totalitarian organization, the
stage when conformity has become so general that there is no need for a
police force.

Now what is your misinterpretation?

That he, like yourself, had a flawed conception of Anarchy. Anarchy is, at it's core, a celebration of nonconformity. The only thing that is inviolate - the only "law" - is the non-aggression principle, which as I said, states unequivocally that it is not permitted to initiate the use force, the threat of force, or fraud against another person or their property. All else is permitted.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Anon136 on December 07, 2012, 06:07:07 PM
If I had not picked a libertarian author

orwell was a socialist


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 06:17:43 PM
If I had not picked a libertarian author

orwell was a socialist

Democratic Socialism: for when one fallacy just isn't enough!

Cunicula is like a Borat-style parody of statism. At this point, I just use him as a convenient source of bullshit to debunk.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rudd-O on December 07, 2012, 06:39:38 PM

Even without the border markers, it would be abundantly clear where North Korea sits on that peninsula...

I disagree. Without the border markers, it could quite easily be a number of fishing boats on a large body of water.

I loled.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rudd-O on December 07, 2012, 06:41:23 PM
See, it's "barbaric" when you resist giving your stuff to causes that cunticula wants, but it's not at all barbaric when armed men take you to a cage for resisting, or shoot you if you attempt to defend yourself from them.

Statism survives on upside-down ethics.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: ElectricMucus on December 07, 2012, 10:49:34 PM
It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)
Amen!

Thanks, I've been itching to use one of these...

Your logical fallacy is... (http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground)

I didn't offer a compromize, I stated a fact.
Fundamentalism is a distinct process and there is not middle ground between differnt kinds of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism always leads to tyranny and it is fueld by ignorance not by rigorousity.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 10:53:27 PM
It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)
Amen!

Thanks, I've been itching to use one of these...

Your logical fallacy is... (http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground)

I didn't offer a compromize, I stated a fact.
Fundamentalism is a distinct process and there is not middle ground between differnt kinds of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism always leads to tyranny and it is fueld by ignorance not by rigorousity.

Then your comment is significantly off-topic. I took it to mean that either of the two extremes presented here was a poor choice, and that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. But I agree, that fundamentalism, fueled by ignorance does indeed always lead to tyranny.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rassah on December 07, 2012, 10:59:27 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PdajUraK0LM

This idiot should tell this to my great grandparents, who had the privilege of having armed men break into their house, line them against the wall, and execute them right in front of my 10 year old grandfather, then have all their property and house confiscated, just because they were Counts.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: ElectricMucus on December 07, 2012, 11:02:26 PM
It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)
Amen!

Thanks, I've been itching to use one of these...

Your logical fallacy is... (http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground)

I didn't offer a compromize, I stated a fact.
Fundamentalism is a distinct process and there is not middle ground between differnt kinds of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism always leads to tyranny and it is fueld by ignorance not by rigorousity.

Then your comment is significantly off-topic. I took it to mean that either of the two extremes presented here was a poor choice, and that the answer lies somewhere in the middle. But I agree, that fundamentalism, fueled by ignorance does indeed always lead to tyranny.

Off the topic of your own posts perhaps ;)

But in response to OP and the guy in the video I think it's spot on.
My point: The failure of Communist regimes are not because the people who run them are socialists but because they are fundamentalists.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rudd-O on December 07, 2012, 11:05:45 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PdajUraK0LM

This idiot should tell this to my great grandparents, who had the privilege of having armed men break into their house, line them against the wall, and execute them right in front of my 10 year old grandfather, then have all their property and house confiscated, just because they were Counts.

Yah.  It's sad that idiots like that rarely get the chance to face what they've been clamoring for (and then mutter "oh, god, what have I done").  If they did, Darwin's theories would have taken care of these idiots a loooong time ago.

Of course there are other idiots who think that with a "softer, gentler communism" (sometimes they even name it "socialism", as if shit tasted different because one named it steak) the problem of having to threaten or use violence across the board would be solved.  Behehehe.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 11:12:43 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PdajUraK0LM

This idiot should tell this to my great grandparents, who had the privilege of having armed men break into their house, line them against the wall, and execute them right in front of my 10 year old grandfather, then have all their property and house confiscated, just because they were Counts.

Ah! A fellow relative of a deposed royal line! I don't get to run into many of those. The US are the ones who kicked my family out of power: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Kamehameha

But anyway, back on-topic...

My point: The failure of Communist regimes are not because the people who run them are socialists but because they are fundamentalists.

No, I'm pretty sure Communism being a shitty way to run anything larger than a farm has something to do with it.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: ElectricMucus on December 07, 2012, 11:18:29 PM
My point: The failure of Communist regimes are not because the people who run them are socialists but because they are fundamentalists.

No, I'm pretty sure Communism being a shitty way to run anything larger than a farm has something to do with it.

How about many small farms for example?


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 07, 2012, 11:50:05 PM
My point: The failure of Communist regimes are not because the people who run them are socialists but because they are fundamentalists.

No, I'm pretty sure Communism being a shitty way to run anything larger than a farm has something to do with it.

How about many small farms for example?

Individually, yeah. Collectively, doubtful. Central planning would start to set in, and we know how disastrous that ends up being. Might work, might not. Probably dependent on the number of farms, and the personalities of the farmers.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 08, 2012, 01:10:44 AM
[AnCap,] if ever achieved is entirely barbaric in its treatment of those that cannot fend for themselves.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/146411/Penn.jpg

Well said, Penn.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rudd-O on December 08, 2012, 01:59:31 AM
Penn is the shit.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Bitware on December 08, 2012, 08:51:24 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PdajUraK0LM

This idiot should tell this to my great grandparents, who had the privilege of having armed men break into their house, line them against the wall, and execute them right in front of my 10 year old grandfather, then have all their property and house confiscated, just because they were Counts.

What happened to your family was a crime, but it had nothing to do with police criminality, misconduct, nor breach of the trust of the public who employs them.

Police react, and they have no legal responsibility to do anything other than react. In America, the Supreme Court has upheld that law enforcement has no obligation to protect the citizens not in their custody.

When those we have trusted break that trust, and harm us, we must band together to fight them, because they are no better than those people who murdered your family.

I am very sorry for your loss.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: herzmeister on December 08, 2012, 12:15:14 PM
I can't believe that this level of discussion (in the video) is still going on. All those false dichotomies and in-the-box thinking.

It's not about communism vs capitalism, it's about authority vs freedom.

Stalin killed people, Pinochet killed people.

Socialism is not bad, as long as it's voluntary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_spain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH43YHaUGyQ

Speaking of Orwell, this is what he had to say about it:

Quote
I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life—snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.—had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master.

[...]

This was in late December 1936, less than seven months ago as I write, and yet it is a period that has already receded into enormous distance. Later events have obliterated it much more completely than they have obliterated 1935, or 1905, for that matter. I had come to Spain with some notion of writing newspaper articles, but I had joined the militia almost immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags and with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Senor' or 'Don' or even 'Ústed'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos días'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for...so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine."

One man's utopia is another man's dystopia. Just let people self-organize in any way they want, I say.



Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Balthazar on December 08, 2012, 12:19:34 PM
About Stalin we can say a lot of good and bad both. But he was the one who took the country with the plow and left it with a nuclear bomb and well-developed industry. He was genious manager.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Jimmy Chang(y) on December 08, 2012, 12:49:15 PM



It's fundamentalism that's moronic, independently of the flavor  ::)
Amen!

Thanks, I've been itching to use one of these...

Your logical fallacy is... (http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/middle-ground)

Fail.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rudd-O on December 08, 2012, 06:44:31 PM
People praising democidal mass murderers.

Sociopaths, everywhere.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Lethn on December 08, 2012, 06:58:56 PM
They aren't smart enough to be Sociopaths.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: myrkul on December 08, 2012, 07:06:24 PM
They aren't smart enough to be Sociopaths.

Sociopaths can be stupid, too. Stupid sociopaths peddle their poison on internet forums or in classrooms, rather than becoming the world leaders they really wish they could be.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rudd-O on December 08, 2012, 07:23:31 PM
They aren't smart enough to be Sociopaths.

Sociopaths can be stupid, too. Stupid sociopaths peddle their poison on internet forums or in classrooms, rather than becoming the world leaders they really wish they could be.

exactly.


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Rassah on December 08, 2012, 09:54:25 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PdajUraK0LM

This idiot should tell this to my great grandparents, who had the privilege of having armed men break into their house, line them against the wall, and execute them right in front of my 10 year old grandfather, then have all their property and house confiscated, just because they were Counts.

What happened to your family was a crime, but it had nothing to do with police criminality, misconduct, nor breach of the trust of the public who employs them.
Police react, and they have no legal responsibility to do anything other than react. In America, the Supreme Court has upheld that law enforcement has no obligation to protect the citizens not in their custody.

It wasn't police, it was the special forces tasked with exterminating enemies of state. Back then it was somewhat common to see a black car drive up to an apartment building in the middle of the night, bring out someone with a bag over their head, and never see or hear from a neighbor again. But I was mainly blaming Stalin for that, in response to the video.

I am very sorry for your loss.

Don't be. It was way before I, or even my parents, were born, and though my ancestors lots their wealth, we still survived, and me not knowing any other life, it didn't really affect me at all. (Actually, a lot of our wealth was lost a bit before this, when one of my great*x grandfathers gambled and whored most of it away. It may have saved us a bit, since it made my family a smaller target, and not everyone was wiped out.)


Title: Re: Apparently Stalin was good guy who killed no one...
Post by: Bitware on December 09, 2012, 02:49:20 AM
It wasn't police, it was the special forces tasked with exterminating enemies of state.

It was the state, whether it was law enforcement or secret police or national intelligencia.

I am glad you are relatively unaffected by the injustices your ancestors have faced at the hands of their oppressors.