This rule has held true my entire life so far, and has probably been true since the 1940s.
Although i definitely know people who are pro-Palestine and pro-Ukraine and its like uhmmmm lol
in his mind the strongman only exists in “authoritarian” states, which he lumps Hitler/Mussolini/Stalin/Kim Jong-Un all into one big group as far as that’s concerned. He’s part of that group of anarchists that thinks every revolution has just led to authoritarianism and state capitalism. Wants the revolution, but also every previous revolution is bad? im like yea ok, eat up that American propaganda.
oh and my particular example is also a Trotsky fan. so yeaaaaaaaaaa. He gifted me Fascism: What it is and how to fight it he’s such a fan.
Oh man I feel like you’re talking about my one friend who grew up as a British Trotskyist. We’ve argued in circles for hours about Ukraine (he also thinks the Donbas civil war was a Russian psyop), with me trying to fully articulate where I’m coming from with regards to the history of the region and my understanding of imperialism, only for this guy to complain that I was gish galloping and “parroting Russian propaganda.” Then he came back a few days later and was like, errm, so I looked into it and yeah I guess there’s right wingers in Ukraine. But still didn’t admit he was wrong on that issue!
He also thinks that Lenin’s letters should have made Trotsky the emperor of communism or whatever. I got him to admit that he treats his ideology as basically a religion. Ultimately I realized there’s no getting through to someone who’s unable or unwilling to admit when they’re wrong. Gotta say I can’t respect that level of arrogance.
I like him in other contexts so I just avoid any controversial topics now, which includes the entire Russian Revolution and any questions about China’s socialism. The upside is now I know more about those topics from looking into things after those arguments!
Sorry for the rant, I’ve been holding that one in for a while.
