Bret Devereaux

Says the fool with 'tankie' in their handle! Sorry, I know too many eastern Europeans to take anyone seriously who embraces that label voluntarily.

Thanks for sharing your honest appraisal, and I'm sure an interesting discussion could be had on that topic regardless of the personal experiences of your Eastern European acquaintances (of which I also have a few) but I'm not the one serving up WWIII agitprop, Mr. Palmer is.

'Tankie' literally calls to defenses of the USSR's use of force to crush opposition in Hungary and the (modern) Czech Republic. It's as if there were people on twitter calling themselves "Anschlussies" but claiming that the only did it because they liked Hitler's vegetarianism.

If someone wears a war crime around their neck like a badge of honor, I am going to assume it is either because they are a monster who supports war crimes, or because they are an idiot who doesn't know any better. I really don't see any other options.

Especially since there are all sorts of ways to identify as more reasonable versions of the left - you can be dem-soc or even outright socialist but still repudiate the USSR. The point at which you are insisting on the virtue of murderous regimes *instead* of those options...

Social democrats are perfectly at ease with welfare states at home, at the cost of continuing misery, exploitation, war and death abroad. They are not a viable alternative to capitalism, merely a soothing palliative while the world goes to hell.

And by 'goes to hell' you mean that levels of war, violence and poverty all fall at record rates.