My dad called me one last week. I told him I’m not even a communist, just a moderate social democrat who likes Soviet symbols for the shock value. (Not true, I’m a Marxist-Leninist, but gotta keep the peace with family, IYKYK.) But now I’m wondering, is “Stalinism” even a thing? Are any of you bears “Stalinists”?
Stalinism is when you really like food so you get a really big spoon so you can fit more food in your big fucking mouth like the big ol’ slop-loving piggie you are
Really though, yes and no. Yes Stalinism is a term that could be used in a way that would be meaningful. Stalin was a world leader and he had actual policies, so you could refer to those policies and the philosophies behind them as Stalinism and that would make sense. But among people who know what they’re talking about, that set of ideas is usually just called Marxism-Leninism, because that’s what Stalin called them when he was actually doing them.
Usually when you hear the term Stalinism, it’s from people who don’t know what they’re talking about and think Stalin was some kind of demon summoned from the underworld to do a genocide worse than the holocaust. So it’s kind of a poisoned term at this point.
I wish we could summon Stalin from the underworld to actually be those cranks’ nightmare.
And someone will probably call me a Stalinist for saying that.