Reddit reviews Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison

> I don't think my mum has ever joked about rounding people up and sending them off to death camps... sorry but I really can't relate.

Mine neither. That's not what I said is it?

>There are many estimates that put his kill count below that of Hitler, there are many estimates that put his kill count above that of Hitler

Yeah didn't claim that isn't the case. I said the average figure, taking into account ones that are not widely accepted anymore, puts Stalin slightly ahead.

However this is only in terms of people killed within the territory controlled by both regimes. When you take into account the deaths Hitler caused through WW2 that is not Stalin apologia. Would you not agree that Hitler is responsible for the deaths of millions of Allied soldiers and civilians?! Because why leave them out of the count, you havn't explained?

>When you crack out the Stalin apologia trying to desperately prove that Stalin killed marginally less than Hitler, and Stalin wasn't that bad anyway because Hitler would have killed more if he had won the war, my eyes really start to glaze over.

Yeah but that wasn't my main point was it. It was that in addition to the fact that Hitler overtakes Stalin if you attribute the deaths he caused outside of German territory Hitler would have also ended up overtaking Stalin for people killed in German controlled territory. The only thing that stopped him was losing the war, not any restraint. If you can't see why that is relevant without being apologia then I don't know what to say...

>. It wasn't the point I was making in the slightest, but it's awful telling that you jump down my throat at the sight of someone being mean about Uncle Joe.

I love history, I studied history, I can't help jumping down people's throat when they are using a myth that favours the fucking NAzis as part of their online outrage. So shoot me.

> Tankies gonna tank, I guess.

Not a tankie. Nothing I have said is a defence of the USSR, only criticism of Nazi Germany. Also calling someone a tankie implies they are in the wrong party, so you're breaking rule 5 of the subreddit.

I even said

>You don't have to try to make Stalin worse than Hitler in every way to point out he was an awful person.

How can I call Stalin an awful person, not defend any of his crimes, and you still think I'm a tankie?!

This is a good book on the post-war analysis of Hitler and Stalin as a comparison of personality, style of rule, etc.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalinism-Nazism-Dictatorships-Kershaw-Lewin/dp/0521565219

And any scholarship on the disclosed USSR archives is good for finding out about more accurate death counts. As for why it's misleading to only attribute to Hitler the deaths from the Holocaust, not the war, that should be obvious.

If it makes you a tankie to recognise the differences between Hitler and Stalin, without exonerating either of them, then I'm a tankie I guess. But I think most people with half a clue would not see it like that.

So you didn't even read the article yet you feel qualified to critique it and provide what you think is a summary? Sums up the internet right there.

Also how was the OP's headline misleading? There is a paragraph (if you had bothered to read the thing) that describes exactly what the headline said.

Also if you had bothered to read the thing you would see that comparisons made between Socialism and the Nazi movement are based along Hayek's view of "strong and aggressive" movements dominating the 20th century political environment and the idea of creating a "we" vs "them" mentality which both Nazism and Socialism did.

>When an essay starts by invoking Nazis and then immediately compares them to another group, it takes only seconds to know that it's not worth reading.

There are many comparisons to be made between the two. May I recommend a great book I read in college a while back "Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison" by Kershaw and Lewin. That might change your mind and enlighten you on the subject.