I believe in socialism, but I feel Stalin shouldn't be idolised due to things like the Gulag.
I would like more people to become socialist, but I feel not condemning Stalin doesn't help the cause.
I've tried to have a constructieve conversation about this, but I basically get angry comments calling me stupid for believing he did atrocious things.
That's not how you win someone over.
I struggle to believe the Gulag etc. Never happened, and if it happened I firmly believe Stalin should be condemned.
Nice thought experiment, but in most cases we have the declassified documents from the CIA and other such organizations who originated the accusations showing that in their internal communications and records that were not public facing that they knowingly and intentionally lied to the public as part of their campaign of information warfare.
The inherent problem is that skepticism is an inexhaustible well. If the only principle guiding your analysis is skepticism, you will inevitably end up stuck in a perpetual and ultimately unproductive cycle doing little more than tilting at windmills.
This is why theory is important to study. You need to have a framework for understanding the world to build off of if you want to have any analysis that's more insightful than "what if we imagine that he had bad thoughts? Pretty scary, huh?"
What if we imagine a purple elephant? What if we imagine flying sharks? Makes you think, doesn't it??
I'm not using speculation reaching for impossible scenarios.
I'm questioning the degree of freedom that anybody could have taken advantage of if they wanted to. The fact that this happened or not is irrelevant.
Given that, I also make another separate point about how greed can have many faces, even outside Capitalism.
Combining those two I question the amount of self reflection Stalin subjected himself and his role to through his life.
I'm not suggesting that what you're speculating is impossible.
I'm suggesting your analysis is facile and uninteresting
That's only fair.