Discussion of Stalinism

[Caius]

I could do for a lot of countries… No countries or systems have not black side.

You are right...

but capitalism makes you have certain freedom that you don't have with communism. Yes, there were US concentration camps during WWII, there was paranoia also, but there was not statal terrorism, there was not massive manipulation of media and numers, there was not collective poverty. That is Stalinism.

[Caius]

Sorry for double posting, but I had to write this.

I was remembering at the songs I heard in my infancy and heard this song, called Russians. I was so young to understand the meaning, and so young to understand another languaje! But I understood it.

Both stances were right and wrong at the same time. "There isn't monopoly on common sense, on either side of the political fence". One gave you freedom. Other gave you supervivence. Two nations fought one against the other. They fought with propaganda, and "side wars". They said that the other was the evil. One said that the other was a tyrant, and the other side said that their enemies are greedy, and the state "helped you".

With the capitalists, a lot of countries suffered the "fear of effect domino". Military coups were funded by the US in a desperate attempt to stop the belief that said that "if there is a communist country, the others will soon be communists too.". In the name of that belief, at least 5 coups were funded to install coups to eliminate "an internal enemy". Some countries didn't have a coup, but yet they had security agencies to eliminate the internal enemy.

With the communists, a lot of people were beneficiated by the system, but there was an important operative to keep the country safe of counter-revolutionary processes that could make the USSR shake. Those counterrevolutionary people were called "enemies of the party/the people", and they sent them to concentration camps to "reform them". Then, the entirely manipulation of media and censorship made the USSR people "believe in them". If you were killed by the political purge, you dissapeared. Over. You were a noperson, talking in a 1984 style.

This is, for me, the worse point of Stalinism, and Soviet Communism in general.
Communism is an utopy, based in a kind of system where the state can be the only rich, having a planificated economy, employing everyone, concentrating the industries, regulating commerce by stablishing prices, creating new cities, paying those workers a minimal wage, because the economy is not that powerful.
The system, as a glance, its perfect. There is not poverty, everyone has a job and contributes to the economy. What it was not taken into account, like Vuk said, is that communism is not human. It is normal to some people to express their disconformity, or to say no to certain decitions. Those people were denying that the System was perfect. The real thing is that there were few people who wanted to do what the party wanted. In other words, the system is not perfect, but those who tried to impose it were trying to make it work. With other events, this led to failure.

[Brenus]

“I agree with that, but there's really little comparison with the scale and scope of Stalin's tyranny. Looking at your list for the US, we weren't doing it all at the same time.” It is because you compare a democracy with a dictatorship…

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Right, that's the point - Stalinism is grounded in totalitarianism. A democratic republic is going to beat the pants off it in freedoms, human and civil rights, and economic prosperity. Stalinism isn't communism - or at least not a friendly idealistic version.