made of bees posted:

NEver heard of this Beria guy but apparently Stalin introduced him to FDR as 'our Himmler' and that kinda says a lot.

Genocide Tendency posted:

Just a reminder. If Stalin thought the dude had issues... Well.. He was probably the embodiment of pure evil.

DOCTOR ZIMBARDO posted:

“A reformed Eurocommunist post-Marxist New Leftist Frankfurt School professor and social democrat was teaching a class on Nikita Khrushchev, known revisionist.
"Before the class begins, you must get on your knees and worship Leon Trotsky as the most class conscious revolutionary of all time and accept the Fourth International as the only legitimate representative of the interests of the workers of the world!"

At this moment a brave, revolutionary, unreformed Stalinst NKVD veteran who had an appreciation for socialist realist art and read a chapter of Capital every night before going to sleep stood up and waved the red flag.

"If Trotsky was so great, why wasn’t the revolution permanent?"

The arrogant professor smirked quite bourgeoisly and smugly replied, “Because the Soviet Union was a deformed workers state, you idiot gerontocrat!”

"Wrong. Comrade Stalin purged Russia of the kulaks and all enemies of the workers. If your theory of revolution was correct, we would have achieved communism by now."

The professor was visibly shaken, and dropped his chalk and copy of A People’s History of the United States. He stormed out of the room crying social-fascist crocodile tears. There is no doubt that at this point our professor, Noam Chomsky, wished he had adopted the policies of the Third Period and become more than an infantile leftist bourgeois stooge. He wished so much that he had not betrayed the revolution, but he himself had sold it out!

The students applauded and all sang the State Anthem of the USSR and accepted Socialism in One Country as the best path forward for proletarian cause. The professor lost his tenure and was taken out back and shot the next day.

The student’s name?


Lavrentiy Beria”

Torka posted:

A veteran of the United States Marine Corps was attending classes at a college. Dude had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some egghead professor starts badmouthing God and talking about evolution, and the marine has a flashback, runs up and punches him in the face, shouting "Not on my watch, haji!"

The Marine was expelled from college and sentenced to 4 years in prison for assault and battery, as well as fined $50,000 in a civil suit served by the professor. He served 2 years and got probation and now he works at the car wash.

ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:

Marxism involves the concept of "historical inevitability" which is seriously Not A Real Thing. So yeah, it's dead.

Nelson Mandingo posted:

Yeah it's this. There is no such thing as the "Iron laws of history" and the socialist revolution never happened in Germany.

Socialist politics won't really take off again unless it's brand is rehabilitated, after what the USSR did to it's image.

Sergg posted:

Market socialism seems to be working just fine in Scandinavia.

icantfindaname posted:

As any Marxist will be quick to point out, that's not actually socialism. Businesses aren't collectively owned

Nelson Mandingo posted:

Yeah it's this. There is no such thing as the "Iron laws of history" and the socialist revolution never happened in Germany.

Socialist politics won't really take off again unless it's brand is rehabilitated, after what the USSR did to it's image.

Sergg posted:

Social corporatism seems to be working just fine in Scandinavia.

ReV VAdAUL posted:

I've had a look at a few more of these true stories of military veterans attacking educators and there's something I don't understand. The military is one of the most Marxist organisations in America, the Government provides soldiers with free housings, free food, free medical care, free education and a bunch of other stuff but they're attacking professors for promoting what they've benefited from. Are the soldiers angry that they no longer have access to the benefits or Marxism or are the educators from a different denomination of Marxism?

Sheng-ji Yang posted:

ReV VAdAUL posted:

I've had a look at a few more of these true stories of military veterans attacking educators and there's something I don't understand. The military is one of the most Marxist organisations in America, the Government provides soldiers with free housings, free food, free medical care, free education and a bunch of other stuff but they're attacking professors for promoting what they've benefited from. Are the soldiers angry that they no longer have access to the benefits or Marxism or are the educators from a different denomination of Marxism?

Effectronica posted:

Meanwhile, the West Point debate team won nationally two years ago by repeating the point that global capitalism was too destructive to be anything but the first priority, but heh, officers.

Ardennes posted:

The vast majority of US officers are Republicans though, and debate teams in the US really aren't about arguments you believe anyway, basically you talk the fasted and most muffled that you can so the other side has no idea what you are saying. I have no idea why anyone thought it was worthwhile, I guess the idea is to train auctioneers or something?

Effectronica posted:

No, individual colleges adopt different tactics and political positions they make their arguments from. Michigan State and Dartmouth are conservative powerhouses, while West Point is a fairly radical debate team. More importantly, Republican identification is something that has more to do with the Republicans taking the lead in being "pro-soldier" and the national Democratic response being to follow rather than stake out an oppositional position.

Ardennes posted:

The debate culture I have exposure to is that you are simply assigned a side that you debate for, and then mumble as quickly as possible.

Yeah most officers I have known, even smart ones, were really right-wing and if the Democrats actually became anti-war/intervention I don't see them getting much love from US officers either. It is pretty usual for a officers in a professional military to become pretty reactionary when the military and its expansion is tied to their identity and career. They aren't the friend of working people though.

Arglebargle III posted:

Marxism is dead I ate some it's pretty good well I hope it's dead anyway, thanks.

Effectronica posted:

And actually, I'm talking about how the "pro-soldier" part of the Republican platform is something Democrats (on the national level) have copied while being somewhat more anti-war, instead of staking out a unique and opposing position. The overriding right-wing beliefs are hardly inevitable, considering Smedley Butler, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kerry, Ulysses Grant, William Sherman, etc. and this is without counting right-wing generals who opposed MacArthur's attempts to invade China like Omar Bradley or the use of military force in Vietnam like Matthew Ridgway.

Effectronica posted:

And actually, I'm talking about how the "pro-soldier" part of the Republican platform is something Democrats (on the national level) have copied while being somewhat more anti-war, instead of staking out a unique and opposing position. The overriding right-wing beliefs are hardly inevitable, considering Smedley Butler, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kerry, Ulysses Grant, William Sherman, etc. and this is without counting right-wing generals who opposed MacArthur's attempts to invade China like Omar Bradley or the use of military force in Vietnam like Matthew Ridgway.

ReV VAdAUL posted:

It is noteworthy all those examples pre-date the military becoming an all volunteer force.

Ardennes posted:

Well the Democrats are a center-right party, they aren't going to go for actual demilitarization and it is political suicide not to "support the Troops." Also, those examples are what at best 40 years ago if not longer? Historically, US officer corp was more politically diverse at one time but yeah that is history.

Effectronica posted:

All of them were volunteers, dude, even Kerry, and Grant and Sherman entered before conscription was enacted.

ReV VAdAUL posted:

It may be a coincidence but the shift further right among military leadership and lack of any public opposition to war or war crimes among the leadership does track with the end of conscription.

Also, while the lower ranks of the military are more diverse than the top ranks all the polling I've seen shows the military to poll much more Republican than the national average. This also leaves aside issues such as infiltration of the Air Force by fundamentalist Christians.

Triple A posted:

lol @ anyone taking Marx seriously in 21st century

Triple A posted:

lol @ anyone taking Marx seriously in 21st century

asdf32 posted:

Well generally if you find yourself overly concerned with what one guy said/did/wrote a century+ ago you have some sort of problem.

asdf32 posted:

Well generally if you find yourself overly concerned with what one guy said/did/wrote a century+ ago you have some sort of problem.

ded posted:

Looks good to me

Aliquid posted:

if i was rich i probably would think marxism is a joke too

Triple A posted:

lol @ anyone taking Marx seriously in 21st century