Glenn Reynolds -- law professor, Instapundit -- is generally characterized as a linking blog as opposed to a commentary blog, since the vast majority of his posts are, well, links with little commentary. But every now and then something raises his ire. The most recent victim is communism, in light of research into the horrific state-sponsored torture, cruelty, and murder undertaken by the Maoist government in China in the mid-20th century. The number of people who were tortured or killed is just beyond comprehension. Reynolds concludes, "Communists are as bad as Nazis, and their defenders and apologists are as bad as Nazis’ defenders, but far more common. When you meet them, show them no respect. They’re evil, stupid, and dishonest." A commenter takes issue with him, Reynolds is unpersuaded, and several other commenters weigh in as well. It's worth the read.
Update (18 Dec): More commentary from Classical Values. And you might want to read this quote that I posted several months ago.
Friday, December 17, 2010
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4 comments:
Is it germane to the argument that Mao and Stalin were both communists, both ruthless dictators, and both hated each other's guts?
Sigh... I would wish there would at least be some discrimination between the various communist ideologies. The current Cypriot government is communist, too, after all, and has not yet committed such crimes.
I would personally say that a person is indeed morally corrupt if defending the Stalinist and Maoist treatment of political, intellectual and religious dissidents, but I think that this issue is separate from economic policy.
"Communists are as bad as Nazis, and their defenders and apologists are as bad as Nazis’ defenders, but far more common. "
The reason, to me, is quite simple if you are referring to Mao's defenders. We westerners still don't think much of non-westerners, at least not enough to hold them to our standards. It's all too easy for people from America and Europe to look past the atrocities committed by revolutionary leaders from Asia and Latin America and admire them, because we didn't expect much better from them. Several years ago, Vladimir Putin made a similar comment at a news conference along the lines of "It seems The West has a double standard for people who look like them."
And don't get me started about admiring people from the past. We admire people like Alexander the Great, but were he alive today he would have been tried for crimes against humanity.
"We westerners still don't think much of non-westerners, at least not enough to hold them to our standards."
Yeah. Bush called that "the soft racism of low expectations."
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