Unbelievable
Today I learned that some idiot leftists (Americans, I might add, not Russians, though Russians are loathe to admit the Holodomor too) are denying the reality of the Holodomor. This was Stalin’s genocide of Ukrainians, and it stands as a testament to the inevitable brutality of communism and also the utter, unbelievable stupidity of forced collectivism. The collective farms (which had been wrested away from their proper owners by force) quite simply failed. When they couldn’t meet Stalin’s excessive quotas, he tripled the quotas and blocked any shipments of food into the area. Stalin’s troops under his orders took what food there was and left the people to die. That’s communism for you: a breadline with no bread at the end or a gulag. Make no mistake: those of you thinking “our communism will be different” (or socialism or Marxism) are not only wrong, but deluded narcissists who, peevish because you yourselves have nothing want to make sure everyone else suffers too. Get a job.
(this is a photo of my friend Tove’s home town during the Holodomor)
It’s difficult to educate leftists because they have zero grasp of history and don’t want to learn. Learning would damage their ideology and for leftists it’s ideology über alles. Regardless, here are a few videos that discuss the Holodomor. Educate yourselves. Genocide denial is a particularly gross thing in the plethora of grossness that forms the leftist worldview.
Conspiracy of Silence: Covering up the Holodomor here.
The Insanity of Holodomor Denial here.
A basic History of the Worst Man-Made Famine here
I also recommend the books “Bloodlands” by T. Snyder, “Red Famine” by Anna Applebaum (who also wrote one of the first serious in-depth historical examinations of the Soviet Gulag system), and just for general history, “The Gates of Europe: A History of the Ukraine” by Sergei Plokhy.
I’m not sure why this isn’t taught in school, but early 20th century history seems to be given seriously short shrift. I’ve guest taught two college classes where I would estimate at least half the class did not know what the Holocaust was let alone the Holodomor. Historical education is crucial. If we don’t know where we’ve been, good and bad, we’re going to keep making the same mistakes. History is crucial and it’s not being properly taught.
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Posted on April 9, 2024, in Uncategorized and tagged genocide, genocide denial, history, holocaust, Holodomor, know your history, leftists are dangerous morons, politics, read god damn it, Russia, Ukraine. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
Gangleri's Grove 
I remember my mom telling me what it was like during Holodomor, she said that farmers would go out into the field and not return, they would die out there in the field from going hungry for so long. Soviet soldiers would seek out the families that hid grain beneath the floor boards to feed themselves and take all, killing the families. They purposely made the quotas high enough so that there would not be enough grain to plant for the next season, ensuring famine the next year and move all of the grain out of Ukraine.
There is something truly evil in taking away from people that which they have earned by the sweat of their brow and by the calluses of their hands, land in which they toiled and fed their families with. A lot of people live in the cities now, and are much less in touch with what it means to survive by the toil of your hands and its direct contact with the earth. You plant, you watch it grow, you nurture it, and it grows and by the fall, you have bread, you have vegetables, you have fruit, you have herbs that keep your family healthy and well. The communists wanted to break that connection, because under communism, you are not allowed to own anything. What they wanted to was the equivalent of you going to college, spending days working on a paper, and then, the night before you finally submit it, having someone steal it and hand it in as theirs, earning all of the credit and doing none of the work.
Farm work is hard work, merciless work. This work and its rewards binds you to the land, you get rooted into it and it roots into you in return. Communism believes you do not have the right to the fruits of your labor. People who know they do not have the right to their labor have no attachment to it. Why grow something if someone can take it from you and you have no right to it? Why take care of a property when it’s not yours, when you are a temporary resident? Everyone has their own opinions on this, but I have seen the results of this way of life. Dilapidated buildings because those who live there feel no sense of ownership over them. Eventually the Soviets passed a law on collective farms: they took away the passports of everyone who lived on the farms because everyone who was able to, left the farms to live in the cities. People on collective farms would only be paid in ration of what they produced, they received no cash pay and did not own their work or the land. You were not allowed to travel across USSR without a passport, so it forced everyone to stay on the farm, binding you to the farm like serfs were during the tsarist era. The exception was enlisting into the military. This made all able bodied people from the collective farms join the military, and after their service was over they came to live in the cities. In a few generations, only old women were left on the farms, and all the collective farms died a natural generational death.
People would rather die in many wars USSR fought then toil a soil that was not their own. And yet, people still think this would be something that would work! Insane! No one wants their labor stolen from them. No one.
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The problem here is not any particular theory of government or social structure, it’s that there are always evil, power-hungry people who want to control everyone else and be on the top of the pile regardless of other people’s suffering (or sometimes, the suffering is an added bonus to them). They will use any way they can to get there, and communism gave them a route to that end just as surely as feudalism did long ago and unfettered capitalism is doing now.
It’s true, some people are extremely naive and idealistic and think that somehow you could still force people to share everything, and take it to extremes without causing this kind of disaster – unfortunately, human nature is such that it seems even the loftiest ideas will quickly become twisted, and often those who were once oppressed will become the oppressors the minute they can. I certainly wouldn’t put that past some of the rhetoric-spouting “leftists” who make the most noise these days.
But saying “get a job” ignores the reality that many people in our country have two or three jobs and still struggle to buy their bread, or afford medicine or a roof over their heads. We may have the ideal of private property here, but it’s completely out of reach for a large number of people no matter how hard they work. And that kind of despair drives people to imagining a different way to be. You’re absolutely right that we need to heed the lessons of history and see how these ideas were used against people in the worst ways, because it could easily happen again. But the current systems are not working either, and it’s not “peevish” to be angry that one slaves away while only enriching a few corporate overlords, any more than it was peevish to be angry about farming the land and not being allowed to eat the food one grew. There are already people here and now in this country dying because they are being, essentially, robbed of their labor. It’s only getting worse.
No system of government is, ultimately, the culprit in any of these situations, nor is it the solution. Sadly I’m not sure there is a solution at all, human nature being what it is, unless we could somehow get a universal injection of compassion. We just keep repeating the same patterns over and over under different names.
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I think you are very naive about communism. it didn’t give anyone a route toward ending oppression, though I’m sure in 1917 it looked like something new and potentially helpful. Point to me the communist country that actually hasn’t ended in atrocities? I’ll take capitalism any time.
and yes, my ‘get a job’ comment was sarcastic and probably unwarranted. I know many people work multiple jobs to make ends meet as inflation goes ever higher (my grocery bills have tripled even though I’m not ordering anything different, likewise my heating). Yet, we’re all going to vote the same and delude ourselves with thinking that democrats (or republicans for that matter) are functional. In NYC, crime – at least theft – has practically been sanctioned and bail reform just means that more criminals are back on the street asap. yet the bulk of NYers are still going to vote democrat. You talk about people being robbed of their labor? yes, they are. still no excuse for denying genocide. especially when this — and I’ve only seen it from the left – is occurring to bolster their rah rah communism rhetoric. Robbed of their labor is also, ironically, pretty much the definition of communism.
I think there is a great moral hunger in this generation, but it’s being misused. I don’t think there’s particularly good work ethic.
I don’t know if there’s a solution. I think modernity is obscene. I think better education (not being indoctrinated into either right or left think) would be helpful. I think we should bring back civics as mandatory throughout elementary and high school. I would even argue for two years mandatory military and/or civil service after high school. There’s not a single American politician today though that I would support, nor the corporations backing them.
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You know, for a group of people that claim that they want reparations because of genocide and other atrocities, these people really like siding with people that commit atrocities. It’s fascinating.
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It’s a huge lesson in being careful in how one allows one’s moral hunger to do good be coopted.
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I wrote a long reply to your reply but WordPress simply refuses to let me submit it for some reason. Maybe it’s a sign that it was a mistake for me to break my normal rule against discussing this kind of thing in any way. Suffice to say, I don’t think we are too far apart in many of our core beliefs, I just think that putting the blame on one particular system is an error, as capitalism has shown itself to be just as morally bankrupt. Really, in the end, people suck, especially en masse, and I think the only workable social structure is a tribal one, where all are accountable directly to each other.
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I agree: in the end, I do think the only workable structure is a tribal one. I would add a sacral leader to that tribe, but I agree: tribal life is interconnected and while there are problems, there is also a direct accountability.
and yeah. people really do suck.
I will not, however yield on my opinion that communism is a brutal, dehumanizing, degenerate system, much more so than capitalism (which is also problematic but allows for personal excellence and exceptionalism in a way that communism doesn’t). It appalls me to see so on the left throwing themselves thoughtlessly into marxism, socialism, communism. They have zero grasp of history. One day they might just get the communist ”utopia” they are so angling for and then find they’re the first up against the wall.
I’d also like to see a society focused on cultivating excellence in the arts, crafts, the mechanical arts, everything. excellence. We are so far from that it boggles the mind.
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Your comment makes me think about a documentary series with Ruth Goodman ” The Edwardian Farm” I think it was called. She and her colleagues live and work for a year in a village set up for educational purposes to run like it would have done in the Edwardian period. One thing that struck me and powerfully was the interconnection and interdependence of every industry. The baker was next to the brewer because the leftover yeast of the brewer went right to the baker. One knew one’s apothecary, crafts — necessary crafts your chandler, Cartwright, wheelwright, etc. were on display with men and women working side by side. the industry was communal in that it was deeply interconnected. Industrialization fucked all of this up of course and young people started moving to the city to work in factories. this destroyed that village economy. it really showed the damage industrialization caused and I don’t think that’s technology, I think it’s attitude, an attitude that rips people away from their land and townships and treats them as disposable labor.
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I saw that – actually, I saw the whole series of them, there’s Victorian Farm, Tudor Farm, etc. – and I wholeheartedly agree with this. They also celebrated together (like seasonal festivals), and could assist each other in times of crisis.
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Have you seen their four part series on the Victorian Apothecary? it’s really fantastic.
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The cynic in me says we have people who are convinced Sandy Hook, or Uvalde didn’t happen. Who deny the Holocaust, who say 9-11 was a hoax, who are convinced the earth is flat…
I’m not surprised anymore, just disappointed.
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