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Nazism gave birth to methodical, mechanized genocide. Communism did not, that's the difference.
You know nothing. Communism has been involved every kind of genocide/ethnic cleansing that ever existed. Like I said, some of the most brutal regimes were communists.
Nazism gave birth to methodical, mechanized genocide. Communism did not, that's the difference.
The Soviet System gave birth to genocide against the soul of the nation as well as the individuals inside it. It's not an exaggeration to note that Soviet Russia treated most of their satellites and allies much better than their own citizens.
I don't think there are any other examples of a modern industrialized country killing, jailing and torturing as many of their OWN as modern Russia.
I think the basic numbers add-up to 20-25% of their population executed or put in the gulags by THEM.....
Imagine - that would be the equiv. of 80 million Americans being killed or put in work camps in Alaska....in a little more than one generation.
Our opinions about things like this are formed mostly from media, and the amount of attention paid in Western media to the evils of Communism is a tiny fraction of what has been devoted to the Nazis. This is down to the fact that many of the people running Hollywood and the major newspapers over the past few generations have, understandably, had a serious grudge against Hitler, but much more mixed feelings toward Marx, Lenin and Stalin.
I don't hate communism. Its just not a system for me. If people choose to live under communism, then good for them. I have relatives who voluntarily chose to move to Cuba from another island in the Caribbean after Castro took over. Folks forget that, even with the ills of communism, many of the poor who lived in those societies pre-communism taking hold don't have many problems with it. For all of the problems with Cuba's communist system, the poor have access to healthcare and housing, are literate and educated at levels much higher than under Bautista, and don't worry about whether they will have food to eat. Again, I'm not saying that Cuba's system is perfect or that it is for me personally (I would NEVER chose to live under such a system), but some people assume that everyone who lives under communism hates living under that system. But that's far from the case.
I lived on some of those neighboring islands in the Caribbean for decades & never heard of anyone wanting to got Cuba. Perhaps immediately after Castro took over & the results of Communism weren't known yet, a few did? Maybe?
If you've ever been to Cuba, many people are struggling to eat. There's often no food to be had in the govt stores. Often no electricity. The housing is horrible. As for education, what's the point of being a doctor or a lawyer, if everyone else in the country is too? My taxi driver was a doctor. My bell boy was a lawyer. It negates the value of education. Health care? Hard to enjoy quality health care, when there's no electricity & medical supplies.
Most are well aware though that their lot in life sucks under Communism. Worse yet, they know their kids' lives will suck too. There's no such thing as upward mobility. No such thing as a better life for you kids. No such thing a privacy. If the govt allows you to have a telephone, every call is monitored. Police trucks drive up and down the streets keeping an eye on people. Every block has a house with a govt informer living in it, who's job is to monitor everyone on that block & report their activities to the govt. People there are hostages. Like any hostage situation, people often get used to it.That said, there's a reason they're risking their lives to get to anywhere but Cuba.
The Soviet System gave birth to genocide against the soul of the nation as well as the individuals inside it. It's not an exaggeration to note that Soviet Russia treated most of their satellites and allies much better than their own citizens.
I don't think there are any other examples of a modern industrialized country killing, jailing and torturing as many of their OWN as modern Russia.
I think the basic numbers add-up to 20-25% of their population executed or put in the gulags by THEM.....
Imagine - that would be the equiv. of 80 million Americans being killed or put in work camps in Alaska....in a little more than one generation.
That's bad. Really bad.
China? Also Communist of course. One hundred million people killed by the Communists in Russia & China. Eight million by the Nazis.
I drive seniors around as one of my volunteer jobs....so the other day a really old guy was in the car telling me about how he used to go to Cuba regularly. I got the drift and asked "oh, so you spent time in the Casinos?". He answered in the affirmative and told me a bit.
Then he told me how horrible Castro was. He went on and said "After Castro came in "the blacks" got educated and into jobs and government positions".....and he said it in a negative way.
It's all past history but Cuba did cover 100% of their populace with health care at $250 per person per year. They developed medical procedures and trained pros that have innovated in the field.
Many of their "problems" were related to us cutting them off economically. It was really quite strange because we obviously do business with MANY countries that we don't approve of.
The old adage "thou doeth protest too much" often comes to mind...that is, why are people so scared of other economic or political systems? I mean, it's fine to study them and visit and learn and have opinions about them, but when we act as if they are public enemy #1, it's going a bit too far (in most cases)...
After all, the proof is in the pudding. If our system is the best and so great we'd have ZERO reason to worry about other systems, right?
It makes me think that those involved in various Fear and Red Scares (we see one happening now and it's going to be a BIG theme for the 2020 election) can't stand on the laurels of their own politics and system...rather they are telling people to FEAR THE OTHER and therefore they should be happy to work here for min. wage and no benefits....or something like that.
You hit the nail on the head. I think it was/is disgraceful that we cut countries off/made their people to suffer financially simply for the "sin" of choosing communism as their form of government. And I've long said that, if we can have ties with the likes of Saudi Arabia, we can have ties with Cuba.
Also, I'm floored and disgusted that the old guy said what he said about things, but can't say that I'm surprised. Pre-Castro, the wealthy (who were essentially limited to the educated/white) had a monopoly on all things good, while the poor (and, yes, there were poor whites, too) were disproportionately black or mixed race. The revolution threatened and harmed the wealthy overwhelmingly (and out of all of people who were financially impacted the most by Castro's coming to power that I know personally, they are all white Cuban-Americans). Again, I don't support everything that the Castro regime did (or that the current Cuban government does), but that doesn't change anything that I wrote before.
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