History and Historiography

November 7 as Victims of Communism Day—2020

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I’ve seen some leftists ridiculing this on social media with comments like “But every day is a victims of capitalism day!” as if it is a matter of either/or, or some kind of “Who’s most oppressed?” pissing contest between global victims of the state.

Ilya Somin, Reason

While I have long advocated using May 1 for this purpose, November 7 is a worthy alternative candidate, which I am happy to adopt if it can attract a broad consensus.

Since 2007, I have advocated designating May 1 as an international Victims of Communism Day. The May 1 date was not my original idea, but I have probably devoted more time and effort to it than any other commentator. In my view, May 1 is the best possible date for this purpose because it is the day that communists themselves used to celebrate their ideology, and because it is associated with communism as a global phenomenon, not with any particular communist regime, such as that of the USSR. However, I have also long recognized that it might make sense to adapt another date for Victims of Communism Day, if it turns out that some other date can attract a broader consensus behind it. The best should not be the enemy of the good.

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Categories: History and Historiography, Left and Right

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  1. Also, capitalism – our rigged market economy – is objectively vastly superior to communism. I know tired octegenarian former Soviet citizens might disagree, but they’re stupid peasants who don’t know history. Any kind of market economy – even a rigged, imperialist one – is better than any kind of state-management. And, yes, that means it’s better to let Bezos get rich than to let the government get its hands directly on his money. If you want to penalize the oligarchic ruling class, get yourself a rifle and a rooftop. Adding more government regulations just cements their position.

    The only way in which Communism is ‘better’ than capitalism is that it’s so dumb and shitty and brokeass that it renders the practitioner weak and is inefficient at mind control.

    There is absolutely nothing of value in the Communist tradition that isn’t corrupted by their core misunderstanding/denialism with regards to how money economies work. Everything Lenin and Stalin get right is undermined by the unworkable joke non-system of state socialism/

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