more "wwrld?"s

[Texan]

what would revleft say to someone who tries to lump all Marxists together as being a hivemind or as "supporting" mass murder?

this is one of the most common strawman attacks I face. I usually try to point out that there are differences between marxism, stalinism, maoism, trotskyism, etc...


then I face another common strawman--that "marxism has to keep changing, and therefore it's not really an ideology"

cheers,

t

[The Idler]

North Korea calls itself democratic, doesn't mean it is.

[The Jay]

The best thing to do would be to criticize mass murder and explain why you don't think that such things are good in connection with your politics.

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Sorry, but I can't think of a single Marxist state which hasn't degenerated into some repressive, quasi-fascist trainwreck, whatever the initial sympathies of their founders. Stalin and Mao didn't wade in there hoping to become the new Hitlers of the world.

[G4b3n]

Study the history for yourself, find the most object sources you can. When someone mentions "mass murder" ask them to be very specific as to what they are talking about. Also, don't forget to mention the mass murder carried out by imperialist regimes that still continues into the modern day. Personally, as far as so called worker's states go, I don't find too many as being worthy of defending.

[Art Vandelay]

then I face another common strawman--that "marxism has to keep changing, and therefore it's not really an ideology"

That's not a strawman, its a factual statement. Marxism isn't an ideology, but a science.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Anyone who complains about mass murders in the history of Communism probably isn't aware of the history of Capitalism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State#Humanitarian_disaster

Gulags are terrible of course, but so is chopping off the hands of innocent people because they didn't bring you enough rubber.

Another point is that the economy under Maoist and Stalinist regimes remained Capitalist at heart, but most won't find that convincing as it's quite subtle and it takes some time and patience to explain why that is the case.