optimistically prison reform and eventually abolishment would be the best course of action altogether. There’s really no shades of grey in stating that the penal system as we’ve known it through out history has been and currently is a barbaric institution of vindictive cruelty by man against their fellow man. That said, i’ll return to the comparison you’re making and emphasize again you’re making a false equivocation between the two. It would be more accurate to compare the former Soviet penal system to the American penal system than it would be to compare the former Soviet penal system to the former Nazi German genocide camps. There were no Soviet Auschwitz Concentration Camp, no Soviet Birkenau Concentration Camp, no Soviet Sisak Concentration Camp, no Soviet Salaspils Concentration Camp, no Soviet Vyritsa Children’s Concentration Camp, etcetera and so forth down the list of monstrous acts perpetrated by the nazi regimn. That is what I mean by saying you’re perpetuating the double genocide theory an thusly perpetuating holocaust denialism. When you make a throwaway sentence such as ‘Afaik Stalin is resoposible for more deaths than Hitler. Hitler had concentration camps, Stalin had gulags. Neither was much better than the other.’ you do the footwork of the neo-nazis on their behalf while you yourself may think and believe otherwise. I think you’re an intelligent and a kind person. I just want to ask you to think twice before making such throw-away comments in our increasingly reactionary rightist world that we’re unfortunately existing in.
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illi@lemm.ee 3 weeks agothe fact that equivocating the worst excesses that occured under the Soviet Union as being anything remotely near the monstrous crimes against humanity perpetrated by the German Nazi regimn is to commit and engage in Holocaust denialism
Now let’s be clear. I was talking death counts. And I do believe that the Nazis were worse. I saw Auschwitz and Birkenau camps and those are sights that I will never forget. I get chills just remembering it. So please do be cautions who you call holocaust denier.
But we are still comparing two evils here. One is greater, one is lesser. But “lesser” evil doesn’t necessarily mean the evil was small.
Alaskaball@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
illi@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
There seemsnto be a misunderstanding. What I tried to say wasn’t “Hitler is not bad, because Stalin was also bad”. What I tried to say is Hitler was bad and so was Stalin. Each in their own way. Amd neither of them should be glorified.
Alaskaball@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
You’re still engaging in false equivocation that ultimately lessens the crimes of the fascists. Let’s try putting it in a different manner: Hitler was bad and so was FDR. Each in their own way. And neither of them should be glorified.
A completely ridiculous statement yet both countries engaged in targeted ethnic campaigns that unjustly interred sections of their populations in concentration camps. Sure FDR helped defeat nazi Germany and free people from nazi concentration camps akin to Auschwitz and Birkenau, but glorifying him undermines his own crimes against humanity.
Hitler and FDR both had concentration camps. Hitler and Churchill both stole food and caused mass famines among the ethnic peoples they occupied. Hitler and Mościcki both benefited from the Munich betrayal and partitioned Czechoslovakia amongst the vultures of Central europe. So on and so forth a list of completely ridiculous statements that falsely equivocate the actions of fascists with that of capitalist countries thus ultimately lessening the magnitude of the crimes they perpetuated.
This is exactly what it comes off as whenever someone engages in false equivocation of the crimes of the fascists.
Quoting Thomas Mann,
To place Russian communism on the same moral level with Nazi fascism, because both are totalitarian, is, at best, superficial, in the worse case it is fascism. He who insists on this equality may be a democrat; in truth and in his heart, he is already a fascist, and will surely fight fascism with insincerity and appearance, but with complete hatred only communism.
Kieselguhr@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
But “lesser” evil doesn’t necessarily mean the evil was small.
You are right, the USA and the UK werethe lesser evil compared to the Nazis, but we should never forget their crimes against humanity, just as we should never forget the flaws of the Soviets, still, the USSr was the lesser evil in the cold war.
Glad we are clear on that, not sure why you brought up Nazi apologist talking points before like:
Neither [Nazi Germany or the USSR] was much better than the other.
It’s important that you visit memorials erected to in the memory of the Victims of Communism, sometimes there are hundreds of names there. I once checked a near one, and decided to google some of the names of the people the evil russkies took to the Gulags. It’s so weird how often they were Axis soldiers accused of heinous war crimes! But Axis soldiers could never! Must have been fabricated!
illi@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
It’s important that you visit memorials erected to in the memory of the Victims of Communism, sometimes there are hundreds of names there
We don’t have such monuments over here. But I know for a fact that communist regime in my country inprisoned or persecuted also members of the nazi resistance movement as well as soldiers fighting the nazis abroad. I have no issues with actual nazis getting punished for what they did.
Kieselguhr@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
Afaik Stalin is resoposible for more deaths than Hitler
I have no issues with actual nazis getting punished for what they did.
The point was this: the Victims of Communism numbers people throw around in debates are highly inflated since it contains unborn children and Nazi war criminals as well.
AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
You’re repeating nazi propaganda deliberately created to be holocaust denial so honestly fuck how you feel about yourself. If someone has a robust and well supported reason to call you a holocaust denier why the fuck would you respond with a hollow ‘how dare you’
illi@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
You will note I never denied nazi crimes in any of my comments. I just don’t deny communist crimes either.
AntiOutsideAktion@hexbear.net 3 weeks ago
Fucking moron. YoU WiLl nOtE I didn’t accuse you of denying nazi crimes. I accused you of repeating nazi propaganda and committing blood libel.