An Estonian anti-Communist (who was just banned) wrote the following, which I will answer below:
Ah, I see, evidently I was mistaken. I’d thought of more of a ”democratic socialist” type here but what we have here is in fact fully-blown good ol’ Stalinist here. Holodomor? ”Never occurred. Fascist fabrication-” Katyn massacre? ”Nazi crime” Winter War? ”Nay, Finns attacked the USSR themselves”.
The list can go on and on.
But consider this following questions. If communism is so good, then why do people vote commies out of office immediately when given the chance to (while logically they should do everything within their means to ensure the socialist ”paradise” endures – if it is really the paradise you claim it to be).
Why do people who have actually lived under communism – like me – mostly hate these regimes? I don’t know a SINGLE person in my country who’d claim life in the USSR was better than now. Why is that? Are we all fools why you in your comfortable California apartment know the truth about good communism?
Why do communist countries have to keep their citizens like prison inmates from not fleeing the socialist paradise? Why does Castro need to prevent his citizens from emigrating while no-one wants to immigrate to Cuba (according to your logic at least Latin Americans should). Why was Berlin Wall erected – in order to prevent poor West German workers from escaping from the capitalist hell into the East German paradise?
Why is capitalist South Korea a highly developed country with low crime rates while people in socialist North Korea eat grass and tree bark https://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/starving-north-koreans-forced-survive-diet-grass-and-tree-bark-2010-07-14? Why does the Korean peninsula at night look like that: Capitalist fabrication I guess? Why, why why?
Rejoinders:
I’d thought of more of a ”democratic socialist” type here but what we have here is in fact fully-blown good ol’ Stalinist here.
Not really, even the slightest hint of social democracy here in the US, and I could die happy, believe me.
Holodomor? ”Never occurred. Fascist fabrication-’
Right, the “Holodomor” which means “terror famine” simply never even happened, and it is indeed a fascist fabrication, but the West also got in on it too, so it is a lie perpetrated by both the fascists and their buddies in the West like the Americans.
There was a famine, but there was no terror famine or deliberate famine. It was a famine that just happened not by anyone deliberately causing it. These things happened. In one year, the harvest simply collapsed by 50% and many people died of starvation related problems, mostly illness. But there was no intentional starvation, so the Holodomor is just a lie made up by the Estonians’ best friends, the Ukrainian Banderist Nazis.
Katyn massacre? ”Nazi crime” Winter War? ”Nay, Finns attacked the USSR themselves”.
No, Katyn was done by the Soviets and it was pretty bad – 45,000 Poles dead. But your Nazi heroes killed 10 million Poles, so you do the math.
In the Winter War, Stalin attacked Finland, yes. Pretty ugly.
WW2 was very ugly on all sides. Even we Americans behaved horrifically. But it hard for me to figure that Mr. Stalin acted so much worse than Mr. Hitler. It is simply not true. How easily Americans forget! Remember all those warm articles praising “Uncle Joe?” Stalin won the war for we Americans and saved countless American lives, but some people never learn I guess.
If communism is so good, then why do people vote commies out of office immediately when given the chance to.
No Communists in history have ever been voted out of power to my knowledge. Leftists frequently win elections. Many have won elections in Latin America recently. Hugo Chavez Bolivarians have won more elections than I can even count. The Sandinistas and FMLN recently won in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The Left has been winning in Ecuador for a long time now. Same with Bolivia – the Left keeps winning. The Left under the Kirchners has been winning in Argentina too for a long time. Lugo won in Paraguay until a US fascist coup threw him out. A Leftist won in Honduras until another US fascist coup threw him out. Leftist Aristide won 92% of the vote in Haiti.
Eurocommunists won in Italy forever. Eurocom types won for decades in Bengal and Kerala in India. A guy who is basically a Communist has been winning for 20 years in Belarus. Communists have been elected for decades in Moldova.
While logically they should do everything within their means to ensure the socialist ”paradise” endures – if it is really the paradise you claim it to be.
I never said Commie countries were paradises, socialist or otherwise. That classic Communist model has many problems, as should be obvious to anyone with eyes.
Why do people who have actually lived under communism – like me – mostly hate these regimes?
They don’t. Recent surveys in Eastern Europe found that majorities in most countries said that life was better under Communism than it is now.
I don’t know a SINGLE person in my country who’d claim life in the USSR was better than now. Why is that?
Different countries. The Baltic states hated Communism, however in the rest of Eastern Europe, majorities continue to say Communism was better than what replaced it.
Why do communist countries have to keep their citizens like prison inmates from not fleeing the socialist paradise?
Brain drain.
Why does Castro need to prevent his citizens from emigrating while no-one wants to immigrate to Cuba (according to your logic at least Latin Americans should).
Cubans are not prevented from leaving the country. There is an Orderly Departure Program for those who wish to leave. You have to go stand and in line, and oh yes, you do need to purchase that Visa thing. The idiots on boats drowning are fools who don’t want to wait in line, can’t afford a Visa or whatever. The Hell with them. I say they get what they deserve.
Cubans only come to the US. They never go to the Latin American capitalist paradises because most of them suck. They come to the US to make money and not for any other reason.
The Eastern half of Cuba is now full of Jamaican and Haitian immigrants who arrived in Cuba illegally. The Cubans are letting them stay there and almost all of them want to stay. If you go talk to them, 100% of them will tell you that Cuba is way better than Jamaica or Haiti.
Why was Berlin Wall erected – in order to prevent poor West German workers from escaping from the capitalist hell into the East German paradise?
Brain drain. They let them leave for a long time but the brain drain got to be too much. And in contrast to your views about no one immigrating to a Commie country, after 1945, a very large number of West German Leftists took off and moved to East Germany. A German friend told me that many of her relatives did just that.
Why is capitalist South Korea a highly developed country with low crime rates while people in socialist North Korea eat grass and tree bark.
Most people on the Left want nothing to do with North Korea, where the economy collapsed. Here is what happened. Overnight, the price of oil went up by 10X. So that would be like the gas you buy at the pump going from $3.90 to $39/gallon. What do you think the US economy would look like if gas went to $40/gallon overnight?
I do not mind the South Korean model, but I think they need a lot more socialism. The South Korean model of capitalism has not worked well in the rest of the world. Such models tend to fail in the 3rd World. Further, the state plays an extremely heavy role in South Korean capitalism (really more like “state capitalism”) that I am not really sure that that is laissez faire free market capitalism at all.
