Sunday, January 06, 2013

The Never Ending Struggle

I have noticed a disturbing trend of "liberal" bloggers to dismiss the crimes of communism as something we should get over now that the Cold War has come to an end. Of course none of these people would suggest that we get over the crimes of Naziism now that World War II is over. At the same time as they completely ignore the millions killed by Stalin they stress the fact that the communists supported the civil rights movement in the US and  other "progressive" causes and therefore communism was overall a good thing. This is morally retarded. It is the equivalent of praising Naziism for its role in opposing British colonialism in India and totally ignoring the Holocaust. It is also racist. Nobody would ever say we should get over the crimes of Naziism because they realize that it would be insensitive to the victims of the Holocaust. But, Stalin's victims were politically incorrect people like Volga Germans, Chechens, and Crimean Tatars so the American left has no problem dismissing their suffering in a patently offensive manner. There has been a lot of hard work by a lot of people to bring to light the history of communist crimes against humanity over the decades. However, when it comes to many "liberal" American academics it apparently has all been wasted. It is a never ending struggle to keep fighting against the perpetually reoccurring amnesia regarding the crimes of Stalin and other communist dictators.

13 comments:

Greg Potemkin said...

Very good post Otto, I'll have to read your random thoughts more often.

J. Otto Pohl said...

Thanks for stopping by Greg and thanks for the compliment.

Withywindle said...

Valeriano Weyler will never be forgotten.

LFC said...

Which U.S. liberals have minimized the crimes of Stalin?
I don't really know what you're talking about here. I think this is a figment of your imagination. Just like the nonexistent cult of personality around the late Rawls which you insist exists. That is nonsense, by the way. There is no such cult around Rawls. There is a group of former students and friends (I'm in neither category) who admire him. But that's not a cult of personality. It's all in your head.

J. Otto Pohl said...

LFC: Ann M. Little tenured at Colorado State University has written the following on her blog, Historiann on 3 January 2012.

"but, can't we be okay already with the historical connections between Communism and other mid-twentieth Progressive movements like Civil Rights and feminism? Like most people born in the 1960s, the Cold War shaped my childhood, but I outgrew it, just like my big hair, my Duran Duran albums, and other relics of the 1980s, thank goodness."

She does indeed reduce communism to a progressive movement supporting civil rights and feminism with no mention of Stalinist atrocities.

As far as the Rawls cult go look at Crooked Timber's posts on him. It is indeed cult like.

By the way if you wish to comment here you must give your full name and place of employment. I do not accept anonymous insults from people too cowardly to put their real names.

LFC said...

Using one's initials, which is what I do, is not the same thing as commenting anonymously.

Anonymous said...

Prof. Otto Polh is righ, I fear.

Quote:

"Dr. Grover Furr, an English professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, told students that dictator Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Russia regime never murdered millions of people, contra popular belief.

“I have yet to find one crime — yet to find one crime — that Stalin committed,” Furr said. “I know they all say he killed 20, 30, 40 million people — it is bulls–t . . . [Nazi propagandist] Goebbels said that the Big Lie is successful and this is the Big Lie: that the Communists — that Stalin killed millions of people and that socialism is no good.” The allusion to Nazi propaganda came after his interlocutor began to suggest that Furr was using Goebbels’ tactic.

Furr was supposed to represent the liberal position in a debate with a conservative and a libertarian hosted by the Young Americans for Liberty.
“The suggestion that Joseph Stalin, one of the most brutal mass murderers in history, didn’t commit any crimes is outrageous,” YAL executive director Jeff Frazee said in a statement. “This is what is being taught at a public university with taxpayer money!”"

http://washingtonexaminer.com/your-tax-dollars-at-work-prof-says-stalin-did-not-kill-millions-of-people-thats-the-big-lie/article/2513339

[video]

-- Dagney

J. Otto Pohl said...

Dagney:

Thanks for commenting. But, my surname is Pohl. Also I am just a mere lecturer not a professor yet. We have a British style system still with regards to ranks here in Ghana. So my formal title is still Dr. Pohl, not Professor Pohl.

Unknown said...

What Communism has to do with Civil Rights and feminism?It was declared dictatorship with very specific
understanding of the role of women in the society.

J. Otto Pohl said...

Tanja: Read the quotation from Dr. Little in my comment. She says that communism had "connections" with feminism and the Civil Rights movement. By this I take her to mean that there were some high profile feminists in the CPUSA. The USSR and CPUSA did condemn racism in the US. So that is where the Civil Rights angle comes in. But, as an argument for communism it is so stupid that only a US intellectual could make it.

Katechon said...

Dr. Pohl,

Sorry for messing up your name.
I'm a bit dislexic (and thus I make many typos), AND I was writing and copy/pasting the quote-and-URL from my iPhone -- and it can be messy sometimes.

My bad. I can't say it won't happen again, but I'll be careful. Just know it ain't intentional !!

Respectfully,

-- Dagney

Unknown said...

That probably why lot of american feminists try to avoid the mass rape of German women.

J. Otto Pohl said...

Tanja that and the general leftist view that all ethnic Germans deserved what ever they got as revenge for the crimes of Hitler.