> Though he is murdered, the boy’s martyrdom does not go unavenged, as the Red Army soldiers subsequently kill the “bad guys” and praise the name of this brave boy like the mothers of Hamas suicide bombers.
I’m not sure why this is an example of something uniquely bad about Soviet literature. All martial societies (all societies) will necessarily vaporize real or fictional child soldiers who fought valiantly for them. How else will kids grow up to fight in the military? Even if there’s conscription you need to motivate future soldiers. This argument seems weirdly pacifist.
Overall bothsides are terrible, I do agree with that general thrust
It's not that it's uniquely bad but context matters here in terms of who the soviets were taught were the enemy in place of their own govt.
That's a "no duh" moment, of course, but what I'm emphasizing more is that it was effectively moving on a grander scale than Kendi or someone like that because of how good of a writer Gaidar was.
Ahh good point. The contention is specifically about the elevation not of the elimination of enemies as such, but of one's countrymen. Not no duh, apparently!
He wrote during Stalin's purges so that was especially a time when every other person was suspected of being a spy and you never knew if you'd be the one to be randomly taken to the Gulag when you hear the NKVD party van approaching.
Truly a psychological hell on earth, giving way to the physical hell of the Gulag itself.
The banning of "identity politics" books and works of art is done in such a low IQ, brutish way for one, simple reason.
Conservative dishonesty and severe, terminal levels of cowardice.
A honest right winger would demand that some of these books are taken out of education (and the shelves in general) as they promote degenerate lifestyles and normalize queerness. In the case of the racial ones, the same honest person would argue that the US has grown to be as it was in it's prime because of whiteness prevailing, or white primacy if you want. Any attempt to grow a racial identity in minority groups is obviously destabilizing and creating racial and ethnic strife, which is undesirable. In nation states that know their past, history etc., there is an ethnic group at the core, often imperfectly defined. Its behaviors are mainstreamed. Minority behaviors are not normalized and frowned upon.
But, we do not have honest conservatives, we have liars.
> Though he is murdered, the boy’s martyrdom does not go unavenged, as the Red Army soldiers subsequently kill the “bad guys” and praise the name of this brave boy like the mothers of Hamas suicide bombers.
I’m not sure why this is an example of something uniquely bad about Soviet literature. All martial societies (all societies) will necessarily vaporize real or fictional child soldiers who fought valiantly for them. How else will kids grow up to fight in the military? Even if there’s conscription you need to motivate future soldiers. This argument seems weirdly pacifist.
Overall bothsides are terrible, I do agree with that general thrust
It's not that it's uniquely bad but context matters here in terms of who the soviets were taught were the enemy in place of their own govt.
That's a "no duh" moment, of course, but what I'm emphasizing more is that it was effectively moving on a grander scale than Kendi or someone like that because of how good of a writer Gaidar was.
Ahh good point. The contention is specifically about the elevation not of the elimination of enemies as such, but of one's countrymen. Not no duh, apparently!
He wrote during Stalin's purges so that was especially a time when every other person was suspected of being a spy and you never knew if you'd be the one to be randomly taken to the Gulag when you hear the NKVD party van approaching.
Truly a psychological hell on earth, giving way to the physical hell of the Gulag itself.
The books just added insult to injury of course
The banning of "identity politics" books and works of art is done in such a low IQ, brutish way for one, simple reason.
Conservative dishonesty and severe, terminal levels of cowardice.
A honest right winger would demand that some of these books are taken out of education (and the shelves in general) as they promote degenerate lifestyles and normalize queerness. In the case of the racial ones, the same honest person would argue that the US has grown to be as it was in it's prime because of whiteness prevailing, or white primacy if you want. Any attempt to grow a racial identity in minority groups is obviously destabilizing and creating racial and ethnic strife, which is undesirable. In nation states that know their past, history etc., there is an ethnic group at the core, often imperfectly defined. Its behaviors are mainstreamed. Minority behaviors are not normalized and frowned upon.
But, we do not have honest conservatives, we have liars.