Elkins Park in Montgomery County has several synagogues ... and one large monument to Nazi collaborators. Many people had no idea it existed until recently.
This particular kind of Nazi collaborators is actually all the rage now, since Western public has found THE conflict of our age in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, immediately conveniently forgetting all other conflicts and genocides going on where every Western power has consistently shat its pants. I’m pleasantly surprised that there is, in fact, outrage at this.
In Russian-speaking (those supposedly liberal) parts of Reddit everybody would be justifying this memorial. Cause most of people you’d consider liberal in Russia and Ukraine are in fact disgusted with Putin etc mostly because of weakness and lack of development and corruption.
Not because of any crimes, plenty of them support ethnic cleansing (say, supporting Russian central government against Chechnya is not cool anymore among them, but for most it was like 10 years ago) and even military aggression (say, Azeri aggression against Artsakh). They just want those things to look cool, and Putin’s empire of decay, theft, incompetence and general despair is not what they’d like to see.
You know, a bit like people from Hungary/Poland/Baltics just love to say that Soviets were “worse than Nazis”, and have that slightly hidden irritation at being reminded that there are Jewish people in the room.
And this is why I call tankies fascists. They are just fascists who disguise themselves with socialist populism. And guess what? It is something the Nazis did as well.
Nice to see somebody who likes Eco`s definition, but that’d be circular logic - his Ur-Fascism criteria were a result of optimization based on a selection of axiomatically fascist regimes, Stalin’s explicitly included. (Sorry for this sentence being clumsy)
Also Stalin’s regime became much more fascist in the middle of war and immediately after it. As an attempt to counter the “national liberation” offering of Nazis, with their national legions etc. So all the republics’ anthems are quite pretentious and proud, and Soviet propaganda in the middle of war also turned to nationalism from just revolution and communism and globalism.
About your invitation - well, 3 and 6 are actually not so easy for me. I’d say these were present before Stalin, as in 3 would be basic Bolshevism, and 6 would be basic Marxism. 14 - see my first paragraph, it was (for Orwell) first and foremost inspired by USSR, and while Nazis or Italian fascists also had distinct public language (Klemperer’s Lingua Tertii Imperii comes to mind), they never went as far.
well it’s not circular, it’s definition, for example, the Armenian Genocide fulfills every definition of a genocide, of course this was also the event that defined genocide
Yeah, I meant that it’s a truism, it’s not adding new information. I’m clumsy with words, sorry.
One person (similar for me to the one described as “hell on earth” in the Disco Elysium game) also advised me long ago to read “Homo Ludens” by Johan Huizinga, it approaches (not as the main subject, just in the end a bit, it was written in the 30s) the similarity between various fascist (including Stalin’s) regimes from another direction - sublimation of games, as in imagining and playing and then abandoning games which involve fighting and loss. In addition to manifestations of the 30s noted by the author, one can also look at today’s more militant and generally inhumane societies and see that they have consistent traits in relation to fantasy and sci-fi literature, and fairy tales, and anime and so on, and also that their representatives are often unable to honorably accept defeat in sports.
This particular kind of Nazi collaborators is actually all the rage now, since Western public has found THE conflict of our age in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, immediately conveniently forgetting all other conflicts and genocides going on where every Western power has consistently shat its pants. I’m pleasantly surprised that there is, in fact, outrage at this.
In Russian-speaking (those supposedly liberal) parts of Reddit everybody would be justifying this memorial. Cause most of people you’d consider liberal in Russia and Ukraine are in fact disgusted with Putin etc mostly because of weakness and lack of development and corruption.
Not because of any crimes, plenty of them support ethnic cleansing (say, supporting Russian central government against Chechnya is not cool anymore among them, but for most it was like 10 years ago) and even military aggression (say, Azeri aggression against Artsakh). They just want those things to look cool, and Putin’s empire of decay, theft, incompetence and general despair is not what they’d like to see.
You know, a bit like people from Hungary/Poland/Baltics just love to say that Soviets were “worse than Nazis”, and have that slightly hidden irritation at being reminded that there are Jewish people in the room.
to be fair, the soviets, especially after Stalin took over, were indistinguishable from fascists.
The cult of tradition. soviet iconography literally everywhere
The rejection of modernism. modernism is after all the spawn of the western capitalist.
The cult of action for action’s sake.
Disagreement is treason. off to the gulags with the dissident.
Fear of difference. other than them having created some of the most racist groups in Europe…
Appeal to social frustration.
The obsession with a plot. fucking anti-revolutionary on every corner!
The enemy is both strong and weak. just look at the propaganda.
Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. second verse, same as the first.
Contempt for the weak. the modern soviet man.
Everybody is educated to become a hero. and sacrifice yourself for the revolution
Machismo and weaponry. have you seen the soviet leaders? or their weaponry on display everywhere?
Selective populism. literally deporting ethnic groups because they might create a contrary populist opinion.
Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak.
I invite you to fill out the remainder 3, 6, 14
And this is why I call tankies fascists. They are just fascists who disguise themselves with socialist populism. And guess what? It is something the Nazis did as well.
Nice to see somebody who likes Eco`s definition, but that’d be circular logic - his Ur-Fascism criteria were a result of optimization based on a selection of axiomatically fascist regimes, Stalin’s explicitly included. (Sorry for this sentence being clumsy)
Also Stalin’s regime became much more fascist in the middle of war and immediately after it. As an attempt to counter the “national liberation” offering of Nazis, with their national legions etc. So all the republics’ anthems are quite pretentious and proud, and Soviet propaganda in the middle of war also turned to nationalism from just revolution and communism and globalism.
About your invitation - well, 3 and 6 are actually not so easy for me. I’d say these were present before Stalin, as in 3 would be basic Bolshevism, and 6 would be basic Marxism. 14 - see my first paragraph, it was (for Orwell) first and foremost inspired by USSR, and while Nazis or Italian fascists also had distinct public language (Klemperer’s Lingua Tertii Imperii comes to mind), they never went as far.
well it’s not circular, it’s definition, for example, the Armenian Genocide fulfills every definition of a genocide, of course this was also the event that defined genocide
Yeah, I meant that it’s a truism, it’s not adding new information. I’m clumsy with words, sorry.
One person (similar for me to the one described as “hell on earth” in the Disco Elysium game) also advised me long ago to read “Homo Ludens” by Johan Huizinga, it approaches (not as the main subject, just in the end a bit, it was written in the 30s) the similarity between various fascist (including Stalin’s) regimes from another direction - sublimation of games, as in imagining and playing and then abandoning games which involve fighting and loss. In addition to manifestations of the 30s noted by the author, one can also look at today’s more militant and generally inhumane societies and see that they have consistent traits in relation to fantasy and sci-fi literature, and fairy tales, and anime and so on, and also that their representatives are often unable to honorably accept defeat in sports.
I feel that there’s truth to that criterion.