• Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    but when you make everything else worse

    By what metrics? In which ways was Tsarist Russia better about serving citizens than Soviet leadership?

    • yeahiknow3@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      This is like saying “in which way is capitalism worse than feudalism.” In the way that it was easy to imagine a better alternative.

      • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Im not sure I follow. Are you saying the conception of a Soviet Union was easy/destined/inevitable given how bad the Tsars were?

        I’m not sure I understand your point about feudalism either. Marxists understand capitalism as an economic development built upon feudalism - of which there were many benefits in abandoning, as well as many new evils.

          • Ferrous@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            You replied that Stalinism couldn’t be worse than the Tsarist system.

            Where did I claim this?

            we mean compared to an easy-to-imagine, common-sense alternative for that time and place.

            Why is this your comparison?? If the claim is that Stalin “showed up” and things got worse, it follows that your point of analysis would be comparing against whatever immediately preceded Stalin.

            This is like if someone claims capitalism makes things worse

            Actually, it’s not at all like this… a better comparison would be if someone said “capitalism showed up and made things worse”