Bob Piper's historical myopia

That old dinosaur of the Left is at it again. In the classic Internet debating style of "bait and switch" he has turned a realistic observation into a completely different argument simply because he cannot bring himself condemn the Soviet Union for the totalitarian murderous state that it was (in fairness to Bob he has condemned Stalin, but he's finding it difficult to condemn the whole damn thing to the dustbin of mankind mistakes).

In this thread, Bob, suggests that essential wear for people today should be a t-shirt blazoned with the Hammer & Sickle celebrating the Spanish Civil War and the fight against fascisim. Now, as anyone with half a brain can see, there is something inherently ironic in the t-shirt as it celebrates a fight against one set of vicious extremist views whilst sporting the totemic symbolism of the other. Turning it on it's head it's a bit like a t-shirt celebrating the fight against communism with a picture of Mussolini on it. Both extremes are equally abhorrent, equally discredited, and as history shows, utterly wicked.

However, sadly for Bob, the genius intellectual that he is, he is unable to acknowledge that distinction of irony. Instead, he's tried to lead the argument along a different path, claiming that the "Hammer & Sickle" is merely a symbol of worker solidarity, not the Soviet Union, or any of it's leaders. That is, and I'm going to be completely frank here, one of the most intellectual bankrupt and historically disingenuous statement since the Okhrana wrote the "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion".

It is a matter of historical fact from the Soviet Archives that the International Brigade was proposed by the head of Comintern, Münzenberg, in Moscow, in 1936. It then remained wholly within the sphere and control of Comintern. It was not a solidarity of workers who just chose to use the Hammer & Sickle, it was a Comintern Army that recruited across Europe through the various Moscow driven Communist Parties.

If someone wants to wear the t-shirt that Bob has said is "essential wear" then I have no problem with them doing it. I am, after all - unlike Bob - a libertarian. However, if you choose to wear something that effectively disowns one form of extremism by promoting another then you should be aware of that historical reality. Burying your head in the sand and trying to justify it by deliberate obfuscation in argument won't change the historical record. The Soviet Union, The International Brigade, Franco's Spain, Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Pol Pot's Kampuchea, Castro's Cuba - none of them are anything to be proud of.