Seriously look back in history over the last 100 years or so and you will notice some of the worst people guilty of genocide and similar acts are from the left in the political spectrum.

Stalin, Chairman Mao, Kim dynasty, Hitler, Mussolini.

I know some will say Nazism is far right, however its base is on the far left. The Nazis believed in much the same economic policies as the Soviet Union, state owned industry and full employment. The only major difference was unification of the peasant class under communism, where as Nazism still adhered to a class structure where people knew their place in society.

If you look back to more recent events say in FYR and the genocide in Kosovo where Milošević was leader of the the Socialist Party of Serbia. The same man who committed such horrific war crimes against Albanian muslims. He had been a Communist most of his life till the fall of the USSR, he didn't even wander that far either when he founded his party.

My point I would pose is this, Left politics seems to be the instigator of so much war and strife over the last 100 years. You look at the atrocities from Armenia to as recent as Kosovo and they have been committed by left wing socialists.

If Socialism is such a good thing, why have so many millions of people died underneath it?

I could never understand my flatmate at Uni. We got on very well really. He was very left. He was veggie, believing in free expression and all the airy fairy lefty things BUT he supported the oppressive Soviet Union.

Greed and the desire for power are shared by all oppressive systems. It isn't unique to communism.

I'm not sure proving you can twist something makes it evil.
By that definition anything could be evil.

If poverty and hardship is widespread then the power-crazed will promise a socialist utopia to get themselves elected.

They are not actually that way inclined really.

I agree, however on balance left wing politics has been responsible for the worst crimes committed over the last 100 years.

Why does is socialism seemingly always in the mix?

That sounds very right-wing to me!

Oh yes, that left-wing tyrant Hitler and his bunch of commies...

I agree also but its the individuals who are power hungry and/or greedy who end up running things, the system comes second whatever it may be.

You keep saying socialism this and socialism that but then say nothing of socialism itself.

I don't think you are being serious so won't waste any more effort.

I.e. Nazism is neither left wing nor socialist, so your entire premise is wrong.

So, right wing evil dictators are better ?

That it took till your post for someone to notice that is a little worrying.

Socialism is the root of all evil for at it's base socialism postulates "from each according to their means to each according to their needs"

Which sounds nice only to those who think they stand to gain once someone else has been taken into the back alley and relieved of their means.


It has ever been thus, those who can steal, do.

You've got the quote wrong and misinterpreted what Marx meant. He wasn't talking about taking money or possessions from people.

I always remember seeing a car sticker, many years ago, that read'if people were nice to each other, there would be no need for Communism'.

Anyway, another one of these pointless threads.

And yes, that I have contributed too!

The only people who go on about socialist utopias are right-wingers.

And weren't you a socialist in the past? Or am I thinking of someone else?

Call him facist or whatever but he took a socialist base and turned it into what it became. The OP is correct IMHO. Look at the party policies and the direction of the "control" and its becomes clear to me its left wing rather than right wing at its base.

Of course socialism/communism isn't the root of all evil, its system of governance is just easily manipulated and corrupted by the more unsavoury side of human nature.

Capitalist democracies with a socialist influence are the best forms of governance for large scale populations that humankind has devised so far.

There aren't any socialist Utopias.

Exactly, and no socialist has ever claimed that socialism is, or would be, a utopia. It's only right-wingers who use it as an insult.

Socialists think socialism would be better than capitalism. Nothing more, nothing less.

Agree. They pick the strongest horse to ride.

"Don't mention the war."

Actually

"from each according to his ability; to each according to his need"

and not very far removed from the ethos of many religions, the eradication of social inequality.

Do you postulate that the pursuit of equality is 'evil'?

There seems to be a movement by some people to place extreme right wing authoritarian politics on the left of the spectrum.. I've frequently seen this on these forums with the BNP, and now there are some people trying to re-invent Hitler and the Nazis as some sort of communist / socialist / left wing grouping.

There is no ambiguity, socialism proposes that everyone is equal (and in failed socialist societies, some are more equal than others). The BNP, Nazis, right wingers etc propose the opposite, that people are not equal, whether that is on racist or sexist grounds.