Monday, November 10, 2008

Who would have a poster of Stalin?

There is a timely article questioning why Stalin has been given the light touch treatment from history on the BBC which follows on from Russell Brand's resignation video where he had a picture of the dictator on his wall.


The article argues that part of the problem is thaqt Stalinw as an ally during WW2.I would argue for most students today that is nonsense. The problem is that they see something honourable in communism and thus believe the tractor statistic bullshit.

At the same time, amongst the more left-liberal classes, there is a tendency toward anti-americanism of he kind that Nick Cohen noted in What's Left?. This is essentially the dogma that "whoever is America's enemy is my friend".

Personally I think it is quite sad that a man who made Hitler look like a pussycat should be revered by (ignorant) people. The man killed in excess of 40 million of his own people for no reason other than his own mental whim. How could anyone have a poster of him on their wall?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a dart board!

Elby the Beserk said...

Actually, I had one once. But I was 17, and had just been to the USSR, and came home with three huge posters on a red background, of Marx, Lenin & Stalin.

Well, you would, wouldn't you?

And, frankly my dear, who gives a flying fuck about Brand, who seems to equate offending people with comedy. Maybe Big Joe could sort him out?

Driving along the Caucasus Military highway, we turned a corner, to find painted in HUGE letters on a cliff face

LONG LIVE STALIN

(in Russian, of course).

Anonymous said...

I hope the resignation video wasn't shot at the BBC...

Anonymous said...

"And, frankly my dear, who gives a flying fuck about Brand, who seems to equate offending people with comedy. Maybe Big Joe could sort him out?"

The idea of Brand in a saltmine or gulag makes communism seem quite appealing... that and the fact that Uncle Joe always made sure that vodka and beer were cheap and in plentiful supply.

Anonymous said...

I think that Brand looks rather like Stalin did when he was creeping about the more unsavoury parts of East London around 100 years ago. The picture is there to tell Brand what he will look like in 30 years time when he will be the Chief Commissar of the BBC.

Anonymous said...

Who the hell cares about Brand?

Anonymous said...

he clearly just enjoys being a tw@

Anonymous said...

it's not possible to make Hitler look like a pussycat.

Ben Gray said...

@ anonymous 15:25: maybe, but you can make a pussycat look like Hitler

The ironic thing is that the same people who support the notion that "an enemy of the West is a friend of mine" are the same ones who berate the West for employing the same realpolitik in foreign affairs.

The stoppers are quite happy to side with murderous jihadists that wish to destroy the West in an alliance of convenience, but when the west happened to support Saddam against what they considered was the greater threat of Iran in the 80s, they're accused of hypocrisy.

It seems that one can then be hypocritical about being hypocritical.

Anonymous said...

I seem to remember seeing a picture on one of the MSM sites when they lost the fifteen million child benefit records that was stated to be a shot of the office where the discs were posted from.

On the wall was a Che Guevara poster. I think I find it slightly more frightening that the people who collect taxes consider that a fitting decoration for the office than a posing wanker doing the same.

can't find it now though.

Anonymous said...

That's not Stalin. It's General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett. Baaaah.