this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/26512687

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[–] [email protected] 127 points 2 months ago (11 children)

So this was paid for and published by Commintern, The Communist International, also known as the Third International which operated from 1919 to 1943. This was published in the 1930s while Joseph Stalin was in charge.

The fact that some people would post this unironically when the person who sent this message was notorious for the iron-fucking-curtain is beyond stupid.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

It’s 2025 today. The messsge is the same but with a different context.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Maybe instead of leaning on the message of fascists you could express your concerns in some other way. One that doesn't degrade yourself in the process. Like making your own comics with your own words.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The communists werent fascist, they were communist.

I didn't think I'd need to say that but here we are.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

The 1930s USSR was squarely under the rule of Joseph Stalin, a brutal dictator. It was a time of mass starvation and persecution.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Authoritarian is not fascism. It is a component, but communism and fascism are not even close to synonymous.

There was one famine from mismanagement, and Stalin wasn't a great guy but this shit is really overblown.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (4 children)

The USSR was a fascism because it was a central dictatorship with violent tendencies. The actual definition of the term.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (9 children)

That's not the definition of the term, by any ones analysis. The simplest, original definition is that fascism is state and corporate power combined. Like the US has been for half a century.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

yunxiaoli, you've been made a complete fool of.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Authoritarian is the word you're looking for, not fascist.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I'm surprised the comments seem to be defending authoritarianism like it's any more acceptable than fascism. "Stalin may have had millions of people killed and fueled the negative reputation of communism world wide for nearly a century, but at least he wasn't a fascist.". I don't seem to understand why democratic social ownership is considered a worse alternative than letting a centralized tyrannical government harm people unchecked.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Yes. And communist, fascist, and dictator mean 3 very different things. I used to think they were synonymous, too, but they’re not.

Communist and fascist are polar opposites. Authoritarian is the extremes of both sides. A dictator can exist at any point in the spectrum, and isn’t unique to any side.

It really does help if we can agree what words mean.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe you sound like a fascist telling me what to say or think and you should eat shit.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Whose definition of fascism are you using? Eco, Griffin? Which elements of fascism did the Soviet state exhibit?

Of Eco’s traits, I only see disagreement being treason. Nothing else particularly matches the goals or praxis of the Soviets. I’m not pro Stalin, but he wasn’t a “fascist.”

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for the context. The desperation about current (fascist) extreme-right politics really makes some people swing so hard towards the left they just end up with another flavour of fascism.

(I know the horseshoe theory is garbage, please don't @ me about it)

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago

The best propaganda is the truth. The capitalist press was and is actively lying to you, and when they do tell a truth that goes against capital interests they get punished for it.

That the Soviets were doing the same thing is just another example of why only anarchists are cool and smart 😎

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

On the other hand, could you also argue that dismissing something out of hand because the person who made it worked for a publication that aligned itself with a philosophy that was being used by a country that was being led by a bad man, well, kind of stupid too?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

No.

This is malfeasance etched into paper. The intent was by people who wished us harm.

Imagine if you started quoting a leader of the KKK because even though hes a hateful violent asshole maybe some cherrypicked quotes seemed innocent. Do you think you would be well recieved?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Brother, capitalists are using the power that capitalism gave them to destroy the planet, public institutions, and democracy around the global and you are still repeating the pro-capitalist / anti-communist Nazi lies from 80 years ago???

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The USSR was nonstop greed and corruption, sabre-rattling with Nuclear Weapons until it imploded and gave way to its current capitalist form, fuck off.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Now Russia is nonstop greed and corruption, sabre-rattling with Nuclear Weapons under capitalism, so completely different!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Indeed, their words were empty if not for their malice.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (4 children)

But that isn't the same thing at all. These are not Stalin's words.

If you buy into the McCarthyism "Red Scare" nonsense, then fine, but remember that the only lives McCarthy ruined were those of Americans, and with one possible exception*, all of whom were innocent of any actual wrongdoing.

*Alger Hiss maintained his innocence to his death, and the evidence against him is dubious at best.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Man's freedom is lacking if somebody else controls what he needs, for need may result in man's enslavement of man.

— Muammar Gaddafi

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But tell us how you feel about Tesla owners......

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Tesla was a great company that, as Musk's direct involvement grows, gets worse and worse by the moment. The Cybertruck is basically his version of "The Homer" - a car designed by someone who knows nothing about cars.

I have nothing against Tesla owners - people are allowed to like what they like :)

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

OP is a tankie, and an exceptionally uneducated one at that.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah lemmy.ml is leaking again

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This counterrevolutionary talk will get you sent to gulag.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And revolutionary talk will get you sent to prison to be slave labor for a private prison industry.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (6 children)

The Cheka will send you to the gulag for any talk they please.

Can you tell me an example of someone in the USA being imprisoned for revolutionary talk alone?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

[Response copied and pasted from a crosspost that copied and pasted the comment this is in response to]

My current opinion is, a message can be good or bad regardless of the source. That can have exception when there's hidden implication of support for evil deeds (ex. all lives matter). In this case, I can recognize the truth in this message that still resonates today and don't see the implication of support for the entirety of Stalin's actions. Also, bringing up the iron curtain is actual pretty ironic, given that was about isolationism and this comic is (at least on the surface) anti-isolationist.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

My current opinion is, don't align yourself with dictators and you won't get called out for promoting authoritarian hellscapes.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

Lol that's actually a bad opinion. You absolutely will get called out for promoting authoritarian hellscapes by supporting neo-liberal politicians who are not dictators. You may not agree with the call out, but it will still happen.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Reminds me of this quoted exchange I read in Stalin's biography recently. Situation is Stalin being increasingly irritated with Molotov, his long-time comrade and lashing out at a meeting, in 1941 (before the war)

Stalin did not con­ceal his dis­ap­proval of Mo­lotov. He very im­pa­tiently listened to Mo­lotov’s rather pro­lix re­sponses to com­ments from mem­bers of the Bur­eau.… It seemed as if Stalin was at­tack­ing Mo­lotov as an ad­versary and that he was do­ing so from a po­s­i­tion of strength.… Mo­lotov’s breath­ing began to quicken, and at times he would let out a deep sigh. He fid­geted on his stool and mur­mured some­thing to him­self. By the end he could take it no longer:

“Easier said than done,” Mo­lotov pro­nounced in a low but cut­ting voice. Stalin picked up [Mo­lotov’s] words.

“It has long been well-known,” said Stalin, “that the per­son who is afraid of cri­ti­cism is a cow­ard.”

Mo­lotov winced, but kept quiet—the other mem­bers of the Polit­buro sat si­lently, bury­ing their noses in the pa­pers.… At this meet­ing I was again con­vinced of the power and great­ness of Stalin. Stalin’s com­pan­ions feared him like the devil. They would agree with him on prac­tic­ally any­thing

I'm willing to bet everyone in that meeting almost drowned in the irony but also deathly afraid to say anything

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ad hominem attack - "this term refers to a rhetorical strategy where the speaker attacks the character, motive, or some other attribute of the person making an argument rather than the substance of the argument itself"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Don't you know that Hitler was against the ad hominem, I can't take serious advice from someone who sides with Hitler

/godwin

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not only are you completely wrong about what fascism is, you are arguing that since the Comintern, an international committee, published a political cartoon, that Stalin personally made and published it single-handedly. This is stupid, there is no way that Stalin could personally run around and do everything the government did in the Soviet Union. That would be a practically superhuman feat.

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