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?
Given how easily this person resorted to namecalling I wouldn't necessarily go with the "patient explaining" approach because it communicates that the way they're treating you is okay. I would call that out and tell them thay I'm gonna restrict my willingness to talk to them until they find a better way to handle their ignorance when talking to me. I would also not consider them a comrade - their knee-jerk response to historical fact in support of AES was to melt down and start namecalling. No comrade of mine acts that way. That's a liberal that wants a leftist aesthetic (not surprising they're a :funny-clown-hammer: fan) and you should treat them as such.
Anyways, if they eventually apologize or respect the fact that you know shit they don't, I'll also say that Blackshirts and Reds is the one to go with for "baby's first anti-anticommunist book".
Yeah, you’re right, they aren’t a comrade, but they are at least someone I generally consider a friend and so while it’s probably a lost cause, I’d like to put the work in to educate them. I will probably start with discussing the fact that they were concerned I was a tankie, and, as someone in here said, ask them what that means to them and how it’s any different from old Red Scare propaganda.