I liked the thrust of Charles' post about communism - you almost never see the mainstream attitudes towards communism challenged, even though they are largely unsubstantiated. So it was refreshing in that sense.
But it disturbs me when people like Stalin are praised in the process. After all, what are we after? Stalin may have flattened the income distribution, but his record on social justice is atrocious. Who cares if you have income equality if you live in fear?
You don't have to praise communist thugs, or make broad claims that communism was a "great succes," to point out that communism did some beneficial things and had real accomplishments. The alternative gets too ideological for my comfort.
Brett
>First of all, many of the "manufactured facts" about the crimes of Soviet
>history were manufactured by Communists. It was, after all, Anastas Mikoyan
>who used to tell the story that Zinoviev and Kamenev judged Stalin's
>seizure of power to be a fascist coup. Anti-communist ideologues have never
>had any *need* to manufacture facts. Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping,
>Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, Enver Hoxha, and company have "manufactured"
>plenty by themselves.