Stalin, the ussr, and the Hammer and Sickle

Why was history so nice to them? Stalin murdered tens of millions of his own people (I’ve seen estimates from 20–100 million people, compared with Hitler’s max of 11). The guy killed 8 million Ukrainians in one fucking year.

Plus he was sociopathic and paranoid. Now I’m not saying he was worse than Hitler—but I don’t think he was better either. I don’t think the two should really be compared. They killed different people for different reasons, so talking about who’s worse is a waste of time.

Yet, if somebody has a picture of Stalin on their wall, that is not seen as horrible. In fact, many Russians still consider the guy to be a hero. Imagine if Germans still considered Hitler a hero.

Moving onto the hammer-and-sickle. I view it exactly in the same light as a swastika. Why? Well, as the Nazis clung to the swastika, the Soviets clung to the hammer-and-sickle. Also, the hammer-and-sickle is a symbol that initially represented a very cool image (labour rising up), in the same way that the swastika is an ancient symbol representing change and impermanence. However, the hammer-and-sickle no longer means that, and now represents the ussr (as the swastika represents the Nazi party).

Trying to say the hammer-and-sickle represents the basic ideals of communism/socialism/revolution/etc. is like trying to say that the swastika represents a non-impoverished Germany, or that it is normal to die of the common cold. Perhaps you would be right if it were 85 years ago, but you are most certainly wrong now.

There are at least a few other images that represent revolution and proletariat uprising, just as there are many representing impermanence and change. Use those. If you are wearing a hammer-and-sickle because it is trendy, you are like the people who wear Che Guevara shirts when all they know about the man they got from watching the Motorcycle Diaries. In other words, if you are cool with being an idiot, whatever be my guest.

Back to Stalin, I think I have a good guess now I think about it. Stalin won. Hitler lost. Remember fairy tails? Good always wins and evil always loses. I guess we have these instincts that tell us that because Stalin was a winner, he must have been good, or at least not as bad as Hitler (the loser).

Well I have two words for you: Grow up, asshole.