I have a friend who is by all accounts very socialist but was absolutely horrified when I claimed that the USSR was not “bad” and that many of the deaths it is blamed for have a much more complicated reason. They also called me a tankie, much to my despair as it really displayed to me how many brainworms they have. They also were fairly close to calling me a genocide denier 💀

This person is a freshman in college and I’d like to try and help them unlearn these ideas. They are queer and Canadian,and they also thought Vaush was great if that’s helpful at all. Does anyone have any accessible resources to help them unlearn what they’ve been taught about the USSR?

  • immuredanchorite [he/him, any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    they also thought Vaush was great

    sounds like they won’t be willing to read anything you give them. probably a lost cause unless they wanted to understand where you were coming from instead of calling you a “tankie” … which at this point is just an anti-communist slur, and has no relation to its historical development. Sounds like your friend is an anticommunist “leftist” … you could try Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti, but I doubt your friend wants to learn. Might be best just to stand your ground and let them come to you at some point if they want to understand reality vs. the bourgeois narrative of history

    • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I doubt your friend wants to learn

      This is really what it comes down to: you have to be willing to question your brainworms to remove them, and most people aren't.

      My idea for this is either:

      1. Start extremely small. If they talk about gommunism no food and breadlines, ask them when exactly this happened and then, if appropriate, show them the CIA document that says citizens of the U.S. and USSR ate about the same amount of calories in the 80s. If they talk about how Cuba is a commie dictatorship, ask them if it is today and then, if appropriate, show them a short article on Cuban elections. Don't focus on then being wrong -- they'll always have more talking points or can dismiss whatever you show them -- focus on how they are being sold a narrative, not actual history/events. They aren't ignorant, they're being lied to. This might get them to reassess more and more of their worldview. Or,
      2. Start them on media criticism through Citations Needed or Manufacturing Consent (I'd recommend that over Inventing Reality because it's substantially the same but has a recognizable author). This stuff is far enough from a realistic look at AES states that they won't outright reject it, and if they take to it it'll teach them to stop taking corporate media at face value. That's a huge first step when it comes to reassessing views on different countries.
      • Blorbis83 [he/him,use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They actually went for the big red Holodomor button, not even the little stuff people like to start off with yk?

        But as a strategy I think just disproving the smallest myths might work? Since then I can set up the narrative that it was honestly a fairly normal country to live in and it wasn’t a hell scape, which I think is a good place to start? I’ll give Citations Needed a listen first tbh since I’ve never listened to it sadly- that way I can I give it to someone else as a genuine listener rather than just a thing to throw at them! Thanks for the advice comrade :)

        • GnastyGnuts [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Are they the sort that might be swayed by, say, the fact that even anti-communist historian Robert Conquest revised his opinion on the "Holodomor" after the release of the Soviet Archives and since then no longer believes it was a deliberate attack on Ukraine?

          EDIT:

          https://jewishcurrents.org/the-double-genocide-theory

          https://spme.org/spme-research/analysis/clemens-heni-the-prague-declaration-antisemitism-with-a-democratic-face/7822/

          https://www.villagevoice.com/2020/11/21/in-search-of-a-soviet-holocaust/

          • Blorbis83 [he/him,use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Absolutely will look into In Search of a Soviet Holocaust! Thanks for the recommendation comrade!

        • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          They actually went for the big red Holodomor button, not even the little stuff

          Unfortunately, Holomodor shit is basically in the mainstream historical narrative now (at least in the imperial core). Look at all the European countries issuing condemnations of it. Unless someone reads about the period in a university-level history class they're going to be susceptible to it.