Trotsky didn’t become Lenin’s successor! This was how much control Lenin had actually lost over those years. Stalin was appointing his own people to positions within the government, Lenin and Trotsky knew this. Stalin was even rewriting history to portray him as a hero of the revolution, which he had very little to do with, and even tried to stall. Lenin and Trotsky knew this, they knew he was setting himself up to take power, against Lenin’s supposed wishes. The fact is, the party was in many ways independent of Lenin. He led it but he led it as an intellectual, not a dictator. Even Stalin had limited control over the party, the scariest thing about the Stalinist purges is how much democratic buy in there was for them. but that’s not how we are supposed to think of history. History is actually good guys vs bad guys, with “great men” fully in control of all of these conditions. Which makes us, like you and me, completely inconsequential, just like the capitalist ruling class wants us to believe. Your understanding is so fundamentally flawed you contradict yourself. Your point actually disproves your own premise, which makes me believe that you want a narrative, when you should be seeking truth: messy, incomplete, deeply contradictory truth. “Imperialism” has an actual meaning, stop trying to change it to fit your narrative, it cheapens the word.
Admittedly, I only read the first couple of sentences, but that’s because, intentionally or not, you’re still avoiding and deflecting from my main point.
You admitted Trotsky was a bastard. You now basically admitted that Lenin supported Trotsky and wanted to be succeeded by him. But you refuse to admit that Lenin was a bastard and seem to want to paint him as some sort of martyr or misunderstood saint.
Do you do that same for people who support Netanyahu? After all, it’s not them who are responsible for the horrible things done to Palestinians, it’s Netanyahu! They just happen to support him.
Is it that hard to just say, “Lenin was a bastard”?
Trotsky didn’t become Lenin’s successor! This was how much control Lenin had actually lost over those years. Stalin was appointing his own people to positions within the government, Lenin and Trotsky knew this. Stalin was even rewriting history to portray him as a hero of the revolution, which he had very little to do with, and even tried to stall. Lenin and Trotsky knew this, they knew he was setting himself up to take power, against Lenin’s supposed wishes. The fact is, the party was in many ways independent of Lenin. He led it but he led it as an intellectual, not a dictator. Even Stalin had limited control over the party, the scariest thing about the Stalinist purges is how much democratic buy in there was for them. but that’s not how we are supposed to think of history. History is actually good guys vs bad guys, with “great men” fully in control of all of these conditions. Which makes us, like you and me, completely inconsequential, just like the capitalist ruling class wants us to believe. Your understanding is so fundamentally flawed you contradict yourself. Your point actually disproves your own premise, which makes me believe that you want a narrative, when you should be seeking truth: messy, incomplete, deeply contradictory truth. “Imperialism” has an actual meaning, stop trying to change it to fit your narrative, it cheapens the word.
Admittedly, I only read the first couple of sentences, but that’s because, intentionally or not, you’re still avoiding and deflecting from my main point.
You admitted Trotsky was a bastard. You now basically admitted that Lenin supported Trotsky and wanted to be succeeded by him. But you refuse to admit that Lenin was a bastard and seem to want to paint him as some sort of martyr or misunderstood saint.
Do you do that same for people who support Netanyahu? After all, it’s not them who are responsible for the horrible things done to Palestinians, it’s Netanyahu! They just happen to support him.
Is it that hard to just say, “Lenin was a bastard”?