
The Price of Self-Delusion - samclemens
https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/08/27/the-price-of-self-delusion/
======
mLuby
A well-written piece.

TL;DR:

African-American prodigy learns racism not a thing in Stalin's USSR, sings his
and communism's praises. Stalin rewards him for his continuous loyalty. After
Stalin's death and horrors are revealed, he attempts suicide and is
emotionally broken, but never recants. Today, his alma mater is celebrating
his impressive accomplishments but ignoring his history with communism and
Stalin.

~~~
lonelappde
Racism was of course a huge thing in the USSR, but racism against blacks was
not, because there were so dew blacks that blacks were a curiosity, not an
oppressed class.

~~~
i_am_proteus
USSR also used the fact of racism in the US (principally racism toward black
people) as a talking point on the evils of capitalism.

Simultaneously, USSR was enforcing its own brand of Russian nationalism in the
outer republics. But the asymmetry in media freedom between East and West made
this non-obvious as it was happening.

------
alexashka
> Failing to acknowledge this checkered legacy ultimately does a disservice to
> the goals he fought for

What checkered legacy? That the country he was born in was so broken he was
willing to give up everything and go to a foreign land in hope of a better
life?

> Can a man endowed with genius squander it through extreme political
> blindness

How did he squander it? He was met with racism every step of the way until he
said 'fuck it' and left. I'd hardly call that squandering.

This writer has a stick up his ass. Regular people just want to lead a regular
life. I'm an immigrant, living in a foreign land - my parents didn't immigrate
because of political beliefs. People leave because their everyday life could
be vastly improved. Everyday life has nothing to do with political beliefs,
because most people are a-political, as are most things we do everyday.

This guy was a football player, actor and singer, not an intellectual who read
Marx and Adam Smith.

This story is a tragedy and an embarrassment of USA's history of slavery and
racism that drove a capable citizen to abandon his country, only to find a
different can of worms across the globe, not 'self-delusion'.

------
mcguire
At first, this seems like a typical attack article, attempting to use one
opinion to discredit all of a person's positions, including the "card carrying
member" cliche. But...

" _A few days later Robeson explained to his [11 year old] son that “sometimes
great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in the
pursuit of a great and just cause._ ” Robeson was talking about the murder of
a poet friend in one of Stalin's purges, but the generalization is horrific.

Ouch.

~~~
DenisM
Can you imagine any situation at all where you would side with this position?

There ought to be many real-life example of the trolley problem.

~~~
ergl
It just depends on what minority you use.

Blacks/LGTB/Jews? Not many people would consider it.

White supremacists/Nazis/Islamic Fundamentalist? It's already mainstream.

~~~
comex
What exactly are the “great injustices” being inflicted on white supremacists,
Nazis, and Islamic fundamentalists?

We certainly aren’t going around killing them in purges...

~~~
alasdair_
>What exactly are the “great injustices” being inflicted on white
supremacists, Nazis, and Islamic fundamentalists?

Killing the children of Islamic fundamentalists in drone strikes. Holding them
for years without any trial or recourse in gitmo. Torture. I'm sure there are
other things.

~~~
hedgedoops2
Those are all islamic fundamentalists though.

More precisely, we are talking about the people targeted or captured during
the 'war on terror'.

The pertinent category here is "whoever is considered an 'enemy' in 'war'" \-
they will get their rights trampled.

~~~
cgio
Isn’t the protection of rights of members of this category the subject of the
Geneva convention?

------
rsj_hn
There were many die hard Stalin apologists. I remember the story recounted by
Sydney Hook of Bertold Brecht not only excusing but cheerleading Stalin's show
trials, proclaiming:

"The more innocent they are, the more they deserve to be shot."

[https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/may/18/politicaltheat...](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/may/18/politicaltheatre.theatre)

There was also Michael Ignatieff's infamous interview of Eric Hobsbawm, the
British historian and Communist Party member, who argued that even if he knew
that Stalin would murder 15 million people ahead of time, it would still have
been worth it. Hobsbawm's reasoning is familiar (see 10:56 into the
interview):

Ignatieff: At about this period '33-'34, the Kulak class is being liquidated
and millions of peasants are dying, being starved, or being deported by Stalin
[...] If you had known that, would it have made a difference to you at that
point? To your commitment to being a communist?

Hobsbawm: [...] If I were to give you a retrospective answer, the answer of a
historian, I would have said 'Probably not'.

Ignatieff: Why?

Hobsbawm: Because in a period of mass murder and mass suffering are absolutely
universal, the chance of a new world being born in great suffering would still
have been worth backing. Now looking back as a historian, I'd say that the
sacrifices of the Russian people were probably only marginally worthwhile.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnd2Pu9NNPw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnd2Pu9NNPw)

People forget how intransigent the western intellectuals were to news of mass
murder coming from Stalin's Russia.

------
SomeOldThrow
It’s a little rich to expect any serious conversation when our society
generally holds genocidal war criminals like Kissinger and Stacey Abrams in
high esteem. And really, I could write pages more of American crimes that are
generally seen as the cost of running an empire by mainstream media and
politicians, and so could you. That doesn’t mean you need to agree with it.

~~~
jmull
Do you really think it makes sense to end serious conversations of the
ramifications and consequences of political allegiance to questionable
political leaders because Kissinger and Abrams?

It seems like basic logic would suggest the opposite, right?

Why shouldn't we dismiss your comment as some weak Wuddaboutism?

~~~
esailija
> Why shouldn't we dismiss your comment as some weak Wuddaboutism?

Because that implies they are equally bad when that's very unlikely. It is
giving undue weight to the less bad which makes the more bad side look better
than it is.

