I believe in socialism, but I feel Stalin shouldn’t be idolised due to things like the Gulag.

I would like more people to become socialist, but I feel not condemning Stalin doesn’t help the cause.

I’ve tried to have a constructieve conversation about this, but I basically get angry comments calling me stupid for believing he did atrocious things.

That’s not how you win someone over.

I struggle to believe the Gulag etc. Never happened, and if it happened I firmly believe Stalin should be condemned.

  • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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    3 months ago

    Wasn’t Stalin a communist dictator? We aren’t looking for communism or a dictatorship. Claiming otherwise is just misleading.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      Stalin was a Communist leader of the USSR. He was not a dictator according to the CIA. Moreover, the idea that Socialists do not seek Communism is a bit strange, the two most major camps of Socialism are Marxism and Anarchism, neither of which has “Socialism” as an end goal. Anarchists seek direct implementations of full horizontalism and decentralization out of the shell of the old, so to speak, while Marxists seek full public ownership and central planning, ie they wish to implement Communism.

      The idea of a stagnant, static, never-changing system is foreign to the overwhelming majority of Socialist ideologies, ergo it must continue to advance. This advancement in my opinion is of course going to be Communism.

      Finally, the hammer and sickle is the symbol of Marxism-Leninism and the Soviet Union, which is used as the symbol for this community. You yourself do not need to support them, but using the term we in doing so is silly.

      • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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        3 months ago

        Right, communism and socialism aren’t the same thing though, why are you conflating them? Regardless of sillyness.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          Socialism, in my opinion, inevitably leads towards Communism if maintained. What matters is which has supremacy, Capital, or Humanity. I am not conflating them, but pointing out that Socialism, in the eyes of Marxists, is simply pre-Communism.

          • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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            3 months ago

            That makes sense! Thank you! I suppose communism can be seen as extreme socialism, in a way.

            (I had to block some trolls before I found your comment, sorry for the slow response.)

    • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      That is cold war / anti-communist propaganda, which capitalists and the media that they own will never stop propagating, because capitalists are definitionally anti-communist.

      Declassified CIA report:

      Even in Stalin’s time there was collective leadership. The western idea of a dictator within the communist setup is exaggerated. Misunderstandings on that subject are caused by lack of comprehension of the real nature and organization of the Communist power structure. Stalin, although holding wide powers, was merely the captain of a team and it seems obvious that Khrushchev will be the new captain.

      Second Thought: We Need To Talk About “Authoritarianism”

      • Boomkop3@reddthat.com
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        3 months ago

        (Sorry for the stupid question, I only know what I’ve been taught in school.)

        If it wasn’t authoritarian or a dictatorship, why’d they build those absolutely giant statues? Just a democratic flex?

            • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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              3 months ago

              under Stalin’s rule

              You are still speaking from the cold war framing of Stalin being a dictator and not an elected official who tried to step down multiple times.

              Joseph Stalin was elected as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU in April 1922 during the 11th Congress of the Party. Between then and until his death, he asked to be relieved of his duties as General Secretary a total of four times — all of which were rejected.