• Tervell [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I just skipped around the episode and got to Alice saying Stalin was a terrible communist, and that tankies told her to read Stalin's theory which she totally did, and came to the conclusion that he wasn't a "theoretical communist", so uh... cool.

      • fed [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I mean Lenin did want to remove Stalin from his General Secretary position

        • Tervell [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Was that a settled question? Just taking a glance at the wikipedia page:

          Historian Stephen Kotkin argued that the evidence for Lenin's authorship of the Testament is weak and suggested that the Testament could have been created by Krupskaya.[5] However, the Testament has been accepted as genuine by most other mainstream historians ... Kotkin's argument was specifically rejected by Richard Pipes

          On Kotkin's page:

          Kotkin pointed out that the purported dictations were not logged in the customary manner by Lenin's secretariat at the time they were supposedly given; that they were typed, with no shorthand or stenographic originals in the archives, and that Lenin did not initial them;[21][22] that by the alleged dates of the dictations, Lenin had lost much of his power of speech following a series of small strokes on December 15-16, 1922, raising questions about his ability to dictate anything as detailed and intelligible as the Testament[23][24] and that the dictation given in December 1922 is suspiciously responsive to debates that took place at the 12th Party Congress in April 1923.[25]"

          Kotkin's isn't Grover Furr, he seems to otherwise be critical of communism, so I dunno.

          Besides, Lenin wasn't King of Russia, he doesn't get to just decide who's allowed to succeed him or not. I'm not too familiar with how the Soviet government was organized internally, but I assume organs like the Central Committee and the Politburo would have played a role in questions like this.

          • Vncredleader
            ·
            3 years ago

            I mean Kotkin not being Furr is a plus in his favor. I'd say Lenin certainly considered it and probably would have done so if not for his stroke, but that it doesn't mean much since the citation is iffy and Lenin certainly didn't remove Stalin from power before he died. He 100% could have wanted to, but well if wishes were horses

            • Tervell [he/him]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Yeah, that's why I mentioned it, if it was something by Furr it'd be more easily dismissed, but Kotkin seems to be a respected historian in western circles.

    • Satanic_Mills [comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The TF crew's use of Soviet aesthetics is exactly that. It's safe because it's dead and gone. They've always been terrible on AES.

      • Tervell [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        One of the Kill James Bond episodes had them proclaiming their support for Cuba (and maybe Venezuela, I don't remember), but maybe that's just the Abby-Alice-Devon combo in particular being cool. It's why I was surprised by Alice dropping this, I'd have expected it more from Liam or the guest.

        • Satanic_Mills [comrade/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Cuba and Venezuela are non-threatening.

          It's like the leftists who proclaim support for Vietnam and denounce China despite Vietnam being arguably more revisionist.

          • Tervell [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Yeah, fair enough. This also reminds me of Zizek, he was on a Chapo episode a while back shilling his new book, and simultaneously praising Luis Arce and shitting on China and Venezuela, two countries which Bolivia under MAS is pretty friendly with.

          • bbnh69420 [she/her, they/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            Same thing with loudly supporting East Germany; yeah it sounds edgy and cool bc of all the narratives about it being a Stasi police state, but it doesn't hit the same as, say, upholding the DPRK or China which are being similarly propagandized, but in the modern day

            • Satanic_Mills [comrade/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              Not listened to KJB, but good on Devon.

              Was mostly thinking of TF where any mention of China automatically gets 'state capitalism' slotted in afterwards and was explicitly called reactionary in a recent episode.

                • Satanic_Mills [comrade/them]
                  ·
                  3 years ago

                  TF is still a. very funny and b. very good at analysing (for someone finance illiterate like me) the nature of the economy in the west and why and how it produces the morbidities we are seeing.

                  They're just still western leftists.

      • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I see. I’ve only listened to wtyp and they’ve said some stuff that seemed supportive of mao so I kinda hoped they were better on it. Oh well.