1/
>What abuses are unique to communism & not just a byproduct of govts in general?
excellent question, let's try shaking my memory a bit.
2/
"collectivization" as nation-scale stealing of most of land from farmers and giving it to collectives (kolkhozes) and the government (sovkhoz). this detached people from their roots and destroyed productivity, with all the attendant hungers, poverty and misery.
3/
related: "dekulakization" as process of killing or jailing the farmers that were previously well off. this also destroyed productivity and detached communities from the knowledgeable and respected members.
4/
killing off, siphoning off and globalizing the elites of conquered countries: the unrepentent ones are killed off; the willing ones are schooled & trained in capital and offered positions high up in communist hierarchy. top-down cultural replacement.
5/
on similar note, subversion of elites in the non-conquered countries through education & training in Moscow. of all the KGB's work, this one apparently was the most budgeted.
6/
gulag archipelago - the large scale channeling of inmates (largely political inmates) into heavy and highly dangerous labor for economic reasons. common penalty: 10 years hard labor in gulag.
7/
large scale use of "blocking detachments" - military formations created to shoot at own troops if they started retreating.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_No.…
8/
astroturfing a break-away faction & region and coming to "rescue", in order to conquer or disarm whole neighboring countries. examples: Ukraine (DNR, LPR); Syria; Georgia; Abkhazia; Transnistria; much of the "Cold War" like Vietnam & Korea; early in WW2.
9/
in common with some other socialist systems: use of feminism & its grievances & its eagerness for promises of equality
to divide politics and to steer policy through narrative, rather than through contract with society.
11/
use of compromising material to subjugate the official religion to state's ends.
while various states use various methods of subjugating religion - Russia & China in particular use compromising materials on the clergy, and also hand-picking the clergy hierarchy.
12/
replacement of art & literature with state-sponsored pulp.
>inb4 american college educated nu-elites attempt the same: that comes from entirely the same ideological & practical roots.
13/
centrally planned economy - on both the production and consumption side.
with all the attendant inefficiency, wastage, shortages and general lack of reliable information on the economy.
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