That’s a good point. I haven’t seen hard evidence for those stories, so I resign myself to not knowing for sure whether or to what extent it is true. In other instances where there is actually clear evidence of self described communists committing atrocities (eg Pol Pot) I do accept it as the truth.
Thanks for elaborating on your point, I see where you are coming from.
The Pol Pot case gets wildly exaggerated in terms of the sheer magnitude, and I think there are even cases where western bombardment gets pinned on the Khmer Rouge, but it's absolutely true that the type of murder people talk about (e.g. killing some Cambodians basically just for being too "western") took place and that a very large number of people died. I seriously believe that Pol Pot was, on a scale relative to the power and population of the country he controlled, potentially a more destructive leader than Hitler, yet even the terrible things he did are not enough for anticommunists, who are so desensitized from pumping the numbers like they do in all cases, and therefore saw fit to pump the numbers for him has well.
I apologize for going on a tangent that makes me look like even more of a crank but, as you might be able to tell from the previous topic, I'm a bit anal-retentive about technical correctness (ironic, given what else I am arguing). Anyway, thank you for hearing me out on the propaganda topic, you helped me work through some thoughts I had.
That’s a good point. I haven’t seen hard evidence for those stories, so I resign myself to not knowing for sure whether or to what extent it is true. In other instances where there is actually clear evidence of self described communists committing atrocities (eg Pol Pot) I do accept it as the truth.
Thanks for elaborating on your point, I see where you are coming from.
The Pol Pot case gets wildly exaggerated in terms of the sheer magnitude, and I think there are even cases where western bombardment gets pinned on the Khmer Rouge, but it's absolutely true that the type of murder people talk about (e.g. killing some Cambodians basically just for being too "western") took place and that a very large number of people died. I seriously believe that Pol Pot was, on a scale relative to the power and population of the country he controlled, potentially a more destructive leader than Hitler, yet even the terrible things he did are not enough for anticommunists, who are so desensitized from pumping the numbers like they do in all cases, and therefore saw fit to pump the numbers for him has well.
I apologize for going on a tangent that makes me look like even more of a crank but, as you might be able to tell from the previous topic, I'm a bit anal-retentive about technical correctness (ironic, given what else I am arguing). Anyway, thank you for hearing me out on the propaganda topic, you helped me work through some thoughts I had.