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Punch on: Open thread 09/11/2010

Lucy Kippist

by Lucy Kippist

09 Nov 05:00am

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Filed under: Joseph Stalin, Open Thread

23 comments

Joseph Stalin entered the provisional government of Bolshevik Russia today in 1917.

And it’s Tuesday at The Punch. What’s on your mind? Share it here.

Most commented

431Australia, you have nothing to fear but fear itself
390There's no one Thomson won't burn to save his skin
336Animal experiments won't cure me from cancer
313Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking
265Who murdered the Arts degree?
246A big day for Thomson, who thus far is guilty of nothing...
231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...
231South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.

23 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • acotrel says:

      06:37am | 09/11/10

      It doesn’t really matter whether the regime is left or right wing, if it’s authoritarian it’s dangerous! I read MIchael Orloff’s book ‘The March of Time’.  Stalin must have been a real charmer?  Apparently he used to have anyone with knowledge of his crimes, murdered.  When Orloff, a top KGB operative, got the invitation to return t o Moscow, he grabbed his wife and kids, and fled from Spain t o Canada.  Ended up in the US talking to the FBI.  The only subject he wouldn’t discuss was Philby, Burgess and Maclean!

      Reply

    • P. Darvio says:

      07:56am | 09/11/10

      Stalin - the failed christian priest who trained to become a priest for 4 years - maybe that has something to do with him being a mass murderer - like Hitler (a christian) and Pol Pot (who trained at a Catholic School for 7 years)

      Reply

    • Mother Rose says:

      09:26am | 09/11/10

      Abbott - failed Christian priest?
      Dog whistling inciter of hatred?
      Where will this dangerous man take Australia?

    • TheRealDave says:

      09:52am | 09/11/10

      Queue the inevitable incorrect replies about them all being atheists…  wink

    • MrMac says:

      12:11pm | 09/11/10

      Hitler attended a monastery school that had a swastika on an archway ... he hijacked a long-standing religious symbol.

      TheRealDave: the truth is now out there!

    • MrMac says:

      08:11am | 09/11/10

      Stalin went from one doctrinal belief system to another when he went from seminary to Marxist revolutionary in Lenin’s Bolsheviks.

      Reply

    • Reg says:

      09:42am | 09/11/10

      I’d be extra special careful about people who go through life never deviating from one narrow belief.  You can usually tell by the vacant stare.

    • Reg says:

      09:27am | 09/11/10

      Hitler learned a great deal from the atrocities of Stalin and in the early years of his rise admired the prospect of eliminating the same upper echelon of society, that is, until he found his votes falling away. Then he played it down and reversed his attitude to Communism into one of hate. 

      As early as 1869 Engels put a figure of 10% on the population who would have to be eliminated to enable the rise of Communism. Besides those there were the races who were at least two generations behind the threshold of accepting Capitalism who would also have to be eliminated. Basques, Scottish Highlanders, Gypsies, the Polish and others. All this Communist philosophy was carefully churned to his advantage by Hitler.

      The Ribbentrop Pact has always been of great interest. I expect that Stalin saw the rise of Nazism as a weapon that would do most of the work for him and that after the war he would simply move on the winner, from his point of view, hopefully Hitler. I think Hitler saw through Stalin’s plan and that is one of the reasons he regarded the USSR as his greatest threat. That and the need of their resources. By June/July 1941 Hitler thought he had achieved his peak success in Europe and that was the time to abandon his pretense of friendship with the USSR and attack without warning. Recall also that Stalin had been warned by the British that the Germans were about to attack, yet he chose to ignore it for the obvious reason that he would never have trusted the British. Anything to dismantle the Ribbentrop Pact.

      It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that Communism and Stalin were the instigators of the horrors of WWII. But of course we could go back further and blame the English for not putting Engels in the stocks yet still, there are times when free speech is not balanced by appropriate intellectual analysis. Look at the recent US elections.

      Reply

    • JulesG says:

      09:50am | 09/11/10

      An interesting piece of history for us Reg and very well written. Thanks

    • Eric says:

      12:46pm | 09/11/10

      I can’t believe I’m agreeing with you. Well said, Reg.

    • stephen says:

      06:18pm | 09/11/10

      What about the recent US elections ?

    • Reg says:

      09:13pm | 09/11/10

      Why thank you my old insomniac friend and JulesG. The date of the signing of the pact has become a memorial day to all those who suffered and died as a result of the evil association and on the 50th anniversary of its signing, in 1989, over two million people joined hands in a line that stretched 600 kilometres.

      It is not generally appreciated that when the Germans invaded Poland from the West, the Russians did the same from the East and took up positions agreed in the secret part of the pact that only came to light at the end of the war. Ribbentrop was one who was sentenced to death in his trial at Nuremberg. See the real villains.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPpQ0MNm4go

    • Reg says:

      03:55am | 10/11/10

      Stephen if you have to ask, you prove the point of what we’ve been discussing about “free speech not being balanced by appropriate intellectual analysis.”  But, (and in my most condescending manner,) one should not sneer at a sincere attempt to seek enlightenment. It’s just that to do so here would be like winnowing in a gale. Most unproductive. But no, I must point out that most political parties grow and change. Neither the US Republicans nor National Socialists are what the were. (Although they do have certain exclusionary aspects in common).The Australian Liberal Party never was a party of the people and yet they cling to an image of Communism that has almost vanished from the face of the Earth. This of course only serves to prove the point that they live in the past while explaining their tendency to choke on the idea of “moving forward.”

      I go now to migrate from Win XP to Win 7and in the words of Scott, “I may be some time.”

    • sue says:

      09:31am | 09/11/10

      Tony Abbott has gone from one belief system of saving the Murray Darling Basin,( Howard legislation of which Abbott was a cabinet minister),  to standing up at meetings promoting Murray Darling residents march on politicians in Canberra.
      In January 2007,Howard refreshed from his Xmas holidays called a press conference to launch the campaign to save the Murray/Darling. The catch cry by Howard,  the Murray Darling had to be saved. The aim to seize control of all water from the states and give the federal government total control. Turnbull, the Water minister,  was given the responsibility of the legislation.
      So when the marchers come to Canberra, I hope Abbott/ Turnbull will be the first to greet the marchers, explain their current belief system and how it relates to their own legislation.

      Reply

    • fairsfair says:

      10:24am | 09/11/10

      Hows this?

      http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/television/family-cheated-over-hamish-and-andys-monkey-business-at-werribee/story-e6frfmyi-1225949737373

      I can’t stop laughing. Not so much at the joke - but at people’s responses to it! The most alarming part by far is the fact that “The Southbank father can’t bring himself to tell children Oliver and Michaela the gorillas weren’t real.”

      Parents, I urge you. Be honest with your kids. When I was little we had a Staffy who had an affinity for my brokers three wheeled bike. My father started calling him Martin Vinnicomb and one day I overheard a comment about Bully being able to ride a bike… I told all of my friends. Man I was cool. I didn’t twig until I was about 14. Perhaps a poor reflection on I, but for god sake man - tell your kids or they may make it to adulthood thinking that they saw some golfing gorillas.

      That has made my day smile  hahahahahah.

      Reply

    • NicoleG says:

      11:35am | 09/11/10

      That’s hilarious! I think Dad’s only peeved off because he thought they were real and he now looks like a complete numpty. I’m still laughing and my mascara is all over my face.

    • fairsfair says:

      11:50am | 09/11/10

      I know! How is the “see you in court” comment from the family friend from freo. Absolute cracker.

      Meanwhile… just re-read my comment and that was by brothers bike by the way. Not my broker… I was not that entrepeneurial as a child.

    • NicoleG says:

      12:20pm | 09/11/10

      Oh yeah. There’s some cracker comments. What about the one ’ I was there that day. It is a legally binding contract when I pay money to view animals blah blah blah’. That one nearly made me fall off me chair. Hahaha

    • TheRealDave says:

      12:51pm | 09/11/10

      *yawn*

      Meet you back here in a week when the same journo’s bleat about Tony Abbott loosing a few points

    • NicoleG says:

      01:53pm | 09/11/10

      You wish Dave. Each day becomes more disastrous for her. Please don’t hold your breath waiting for Abbott to lose points. You’ll suffocate.

    • Dan says:

      09:39pm | 09/11/10

      If you think that the quality of a prime minister can be judged only by opinion polls, you need to learn about politics.

    • MarK says:

      09:04am | 10/11/10

      I demand an open thread for the 10/111/2010.

      This thread is so yesterday

      Reply
 
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