He’s a sophist. When you back him into a corner with proper sources his last line of defense is to call “propaganda”

Why do you ragebait?

Leave me alone bro

Stfu. USSR and China weren’t communist

Alright pal. This discussion is going in the usual discussion, which is nowhere. I don’t know why I came back to this platform

Back when we last discussed slurs, you had said that opposing their usage itself was idealist

That was not my argument. Revisit the thread

Although i haven’t read The tax in kind, I’ve read other literature about the NEP. I’ve also studied a fair bit on the history and politics of the USSR from the October revolution till Lenin’s death. I decided to postpone reading Capital until I finish university—even then, I’ll probably still delay further because it is very difficult.

Had famine been the goal, no aid would have been given at all, or perhaps token aid.

Ukraine was still a net exporter of grain despite the aid. They also had to meet quotas else they wouldn’t receive aid.

Additionally, if there WAS aid, why were there still peasants attempting to flee Ukraine? The CC directives ordered all departures from Ukraine to be prevented further corroborating the genocide point.

Even if we give the USSR all the benefit of the doubt, there were still calls within the party warning how dangerous forced collectivisation would be. War communism proved you couldn’t forcibly collectivise grain without major consequences. Bukharin, all too fervent in his warnings about the famine, was purged. He would later be proven correct. I’ll never understand die-hard Stalin defenders.

Fuck off dude

There’s nothing wrong with opposing slur usage. You’re misrepresenting my argument. A white guy singing a rap song and mentioning the ‘n-word’ wouldn’t—and shouldn’t—give me or anyone much pause, as opposed to a random white guy (or even a black person for that matter) using the word insultingly on an airplane. Interpretijg the two scenarios as the same is metaphysical and anti-dialectical.

Other than the politzer book and blackshirts and reds, I’ve read the manifesto, socialism utopian and scientific, dialectical and historical materialism, critique of the gotha pogramme, foundations of leninism, what is to be done?, imperialism the highest stage, right of nations to self determination, reform or revolution, and so many other pamphlets/articles by Lenin i can’t recount.

This theory is pushed by liberals and by fascists

Because liberals and fascists push the theory doesn’t mean it is not true.

the soviets did all they could to alleviate famine.

This is actually not true. The article i linked shows that the Soviets refused Ukrainian communist party requests for famine relief, and purged those same leaders as being counter-revolutionary.

Been a Marxist a while now buddy. I’ve read most of the foundational texts, much to the detriment of my academic work. The genocidal character doesn’t take away from the rapid technological advancements that came from the collectivisation, but facts are facts.

The evidence is there and has been presented by many historians. Most historians agree that the Holodomor was a genocide, but i know all too well the character of your response to this evidence.

Here’s a good literature review by Olga Andriewsky that corroborates the genocide view

Nice copy paste of r/communism talking points you got there

The Holodomor was a genocide

A semi would be used to break up two independent clauses. A colon is used when introducing the conclusion to a previous statement. In this case, a semi wouldn’t be used because the first sentence makes no sense without the second

Agreed. Should be a colon

How tf was he inspired by Trotsky? He fucking had the guy killed!

You’re blaming the wrong person. The blame isn’t on Mamdani for doing what he’s doing—or rather not doing everything he should be—the blame is on the system for impending his progress.

Now there’s an argument to be made against him participating in that system at all instead of trying to usurp it totally.

Attack Israel not jews

Your paragraph about fascism reads like a regurgitated book quote. Fascism is a specific ideology created by Benito Mussolini. What you’re describing seems to be an umbrella concept that simply includes fascism. Pick a different term.

About the Belt and Road, what you described is just multipolarity and global south countries diversifying, not the US on its last legs. What would look like the death cry for the US Empire is: the dollar no longer being the backbone of global finance, US tech companies no longer leading the global stock market, and NATO becoming redundant. None of those things are happening yet.

Fair enough then. Though I’m not sure most tankies generally disagree on that point as Lenin himself promotes the idea to some extent. Then again, tankies generally don’t follow most of Lenin’s logic.

Ethnonationalism usually rises in fascism, but isn’t definitional to it.

Then we’re not talking about the same fascism. One can only wonder why you use the term fascism as Mussolini who invented the term includes ethnonationalism.

You can disagree with that if you wish, but that’s where I think we are at right now.

It’s not about the time period. It’s about countries visibly shifting away from the US camp. That isn’t happening yet

Any of those is a dead end, if you don’t couple it with separate leftist organising.