I believe in socialism, but I feel Stalin shouldn’t be idolised due to things like the Gulag.

I would like more people to become socialist, but I feel not condemning Stalin doesn’t help the cause.

I’ve tried to have a constructieve conversation about this, but I basically get angry comments calling me stupid for believing he did atrocious things.

That’s not how you win someone over.

I struggle to believe the Gulag etc. Never happened, and if it happened I firmly believe Stalin should be condemned.

  • AnonomousWolf@lemm.eeOPEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Thanks, this is the kind of response I was looking for. I’ll look into what you said further.

    With the image that Stalin has in the west, I think it alienates people when he’s not condemned. I can’t think of a singe leader that we should praise (Mandela maybe?) if anything we should praise ideas not people.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      0·
      11 days ago

      If you don’t directly challenge false, bourgeois narratives, then they are used as ammo against related subjects. “Stalin was a butcher of 100 million,” if accepted, means the Soviet Union was a horrible failure as well. This means Socialism was a horrible failure in the Soviet Union. This cascading power of bourgeois narratives presents real radicalization.

      Take another example. Stalin synthesized Marxism-Leninism. As a Marxist-Leninist, there is no avoiding Stalin when talking with liberals. Despite my belief that Marxism-Leninism is correct, I cannot avoid the topic of grappling with Stalin’s existence.

      As Marx said, “The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.”