"don't blame the state officials that direct the propaganda and line their pockets with the spoils of war, blame the conscripted teenagers"
I think you're inferring too much here. The message seems to be more "Don't pity bad people in bad situations".
True evil is the not the one pulling the trigger, but the one forcing him to do so. The masters of war, so to say.
True evil is the not the one pulling the trigger
Yeah, let's not excuse and romantisize mobniks, they do enough evil themselves.
Nah there’s like 10 people who downvote every post here on sight. I doubt it has anything to do with with my specific post. But maybe that’s just my wishful thinking.
I think, it's just completely backwards. So many rich people got rich off of immoral behaviour, yet brand themselves as philanthropists. Those people have real-world impact on me. I really don't care about some starving guy in a foreign country. His impact on the world is practically non-existent.
Yes. I guess at best it's technically the truth because the masters of war tend to sit safely miles from the front lines plotting death and destruction; the don't literally "march" on earth.
There is no fighting in the war room.
I know that modern day communism is basically a support group for middle class guilt, but it’s always interesting to see that in practice. Like, who do you think will be killing and dying on behalf of those rich people? It’s not going to be a billionaire pushing you out of a helicopter or breaking your strike. I think you should care a little bit about the starving people who will be on the other end of your barrels, if only in the service of your professed beliefs.
Please don't pigeonhole me as a communist. I hold these opinions out of personal conviction.
I think, the differentiating factor here is that I don't give a fuck about myself. If you kill me, who cares? I'm not gonna. I'm not saying, I wouldn't flinch, if you put a barrel to my head. I'm just saying that I don't consider it a particularly evil act to kill me in particular.
To take a contemporary example, I consider it much more evil to pump tons and tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, killing thousands of people, animals etc..
It's not as direct as holding a gun to someone's head, so you could argue that their intention isn't as evil, but the effect is much worse.
And ultimately, yeah, in my world view, it's never the poor who are particularly relevant in their evilness, because their lack of money severely limits their ability to be awful.
I genuinely want to hear you out here but I just need to make sure I understand you, are you saying you don't think we're acknowledging that the bourgeoise hires armies of reactionary proletarians?
If commies would "genuinely want to hear", they wouldn't be commies. Commies are the inherent evil in this world and must be eradicated, as by definition they don't listen to reason.
Care to explain if there's any reasoning, logical or otherwise, behind your dumbass generalisation? What "definition" are you working with here?
I could go on for a long while about this if you like but the short version is that they’ve been convinced that destroying US hegemony in any respect is a net world positive and a step towards true communism. If the slave king Fallowind were to rise up in Missouri and lobotomize every man woman and child, there would still be voices of approval. Hyperbole aside, check lemmygrad after any atrocity that negatively impacts the US to see what I mean.
But that... is so obviously the wrong way to think about communism... wtf is wrong with these people? Imperialism is okay if it bothers the worst imperialist?
Their community is relatively small and thus easily influenced towards relevant novel ideas, so many suspect Russia/China boosted divisive trains of thought. Radicalized communists are geopolitical positives. I just think tankies are loonies.
Cards on the table, I'm something of a communist myself (anarchist leanings), but this train of thought doesn't make sense to me. I believe you, but I'm shocked such people exist.
I thoight tankie was just a pejorative for ML types, who I'm not necessarily opposed to, unless they try to say Stalin did nothing wrong. The USSR was a noble project, but Stalin was emblematic of the revisionist nonsense they ended up with. It's sad that some people don't see that.
You would be surprised how few radicals it takes to boost the crazy voices and produce a faux consensus. Always double-check information and assume people are liars on the internet or you may eventually find something convincing. Especially me, I’m probably a liar. Statistically.
Yeah, that's the thing - it's somewhat of a leftist tradition to read everything with a critical lens, lest it be biased or misinformation. "Ruthless criticism of all that exists", in Marx's own words. Criticism AND self criticism are core components of Marxism.
Baffling posers, those tankies.
When evil marches on earth, it pays the least possible wage for everyone who works for it.
Man I have never seen a character being so developed in such few lines.
As a Russian, yes, this is the definition of evil.
The random pressured into serving evil is not necessarily evil themselves. The evil person in this story is the one who ordered all of that to happen.
He's the one who gives his body as a weapon of the war...
Most people will do terrible things if pushed hard enough. I'm lucky that I haven't been pushed - I'm not confident that I would have enough strength to resist. Nonetheless moral agency cannot be abnegated.
Actually well said. The elderly on all sides are sending our young boys out there to kill and commit other acts for which they will experience trauma they rest of their lives.
