Article discreditng the thesis that Mao "killed millions of people" in The Great Leap

[kandrathe]

While fascism as a whole is somewhat more complex in terms of racist ideology, the specific type of fascism in question when holocaust denial is the subject, is Nazism. I don't think there is any reasonable person, besides white supremists, Nazis, fascists of most stripes, the KKK or similar organizations (all of which are far from "reasonable"), that would deny both the Nazi regime and Nazism as an ideology is inherently racist. Almost all historical examples of fascism however have included some institutionalized form of racial or ethnic oppression, it just so happens that the Nazi's brand of it is the most prominent example. Because of this, and because of many of its underlying premises of masculinity, chauvinism, national superiority and xenophobic tendencies towards any threat (internal or external, perceived or real); it is extremely difficult if not impossible to be fascist without being a racist (being racist without being fascist though ...

I'd agree, in practice, the ideology attracts and absorbs the brutal bigots, therefore eventually devolves into a nationalitic bullyism.

I think the following article here breaks it down quite well. Marxist views of fascism are mentioned, though the article isn't written from that particular premise but it nevertheless is quite thorough in making its point:

http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analys...g-a-racist

From this article, the conclusion is the same as mine, "Therefore whilst racism and fascism are different from one another, in that racism has and still does occur without the development of fascism, the experience of fascism in power is that it is intrinsically linked to imperialism and racism. "

I'm in the camp of supporting all speech, even the right to be an idiot with hateful speech, or our quibbling about perceptions of truth. Because, policing of thoughts is a subjective exercise, and prone to be abused by thought police.

I am definitely not in this camp, and have had disagreements with other comrades on this issue. I firmly believe fascists, white nationalists and other racist groups should NOT be allowed free speech or any sort of platform to convey or perpetuate their disgusting ideas. Indeed, my views regarding fascists are quite authoritarian, and unapologetically so. But, for good reasons explained below.

In a world where ideas and free expression are thought to be dangerous, you get consequences like the Communist Control Act of 1954.

We need to be able to have conversations on immigration reform, or affirmative action without resorting to labeling our opponents as racists.

Too often, immigration reform is just a euphemism for "send all the beaners back to Mexico where they fucking belong", and being against affirmative action is like saying "dont attack my white privilege". Both are heavily reactionary and racist positions, even if they use less volatile language than what I put in quotations above during discourse, at the end of the day it boils down to being the same thing.

So... because some or many rednecks are bigots, you approved of shutting down political discourse? The problem with our immigration system is simple... we have no guest worker program. After implementing a guest worker visa to allow for those seeking economic opportunity in the US. I'd proposed a simple change; if you are not a citizen, or documented alien, then you will be documented temporarily, giving you adequate time to seek other status. If you have no legal status, you will be deported. Personally, I don't think we have or allow for enough legal immigration.

In communism, the state is the custodian of everything and it is the state that owns everything.

There is no classes, and therefore no state in communism. What you are thinking of I bet, is the transitional period between capitalism and communism, called 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat', or in a larger context, socialism. In this phase, classes and thus a state still exist, but that state is now controlled by an organized, revolutionary working class instead of the capitalists. As a result, the state will be used to restructure and reorganize society along socialist lines while at the same time used to prevent the former ruling class from sabotaging the construction of socialism, and ultimately communism. Capitalism is the dictatorship of the bourgeois, socialism is DotP. Communism is a stage reached only when all reactionary elements of the former society have been eradicated and everything is produced for human consumption/need instead of for profit (as in capitalism) or for restructuring social organization (as in socialism), all class distinctions and the social processes (i.e. wage labour) that necessitate them, along with the state itself, are abolished.

But, this is the ideological state of communism that has never existed.

Regarding Stalin's anti-semitism, this is just another good reason for communists of all stripes to distance themselves from him as far as possible. His anti-semitism should be reviled as much as anyone elses that holds such despicable views. That being said, the reason holocaust denial gets more attention I think, is largely because of the ideological nature of the respective systems and their actions. The Nazi regime was explicitly anti-semetic ideologically and it fostered a system that was built upon this premise for the systematic oppression and extermination of not only Jews, but also Gypsies, blacks, disabled persons, leftists/communists or others they viewed as a threat or inferior to them. Stalin might have been anti-semetic also, but his regime wasn't organized or constructed on such a premise in general; and further, his dislike of Jews can probably be attributed to his huge paranoia that they were a nationalist bourgeois organization hell bent on the destruction of the Soviet Union (which of course, was/is utterly ridiculous - many of the original Bolsheviks were Jewish), rather than along ethnical lines as it was for Hitler. This of course, doesn't make it any more excusable, but nevertheless is probably why it receives less attention than holocaust denial.

What is shocking to me is how early on, Soviet;s were protecting Jews by relocating them from the Nazi's as a war time effort (maybe facetious). Only to see Stalin's revolving door of State Enemies after WWII, and the establishment of Israel, eventually swing toward antisemitism.