Black Book of Communism DEBUNKED!

[Teiid]

In one of Stefan’s most recent call in shows, he mentions the Black Book of Communism (BBC), which has been on my “to read” list for a while. The mentioning of it prompted me to finally dive in.

 

But before I could, an internet search brought up Jason Unruhe’s video titled “Black Book of Communism Debunked.”

 

I couldn’t resist that. There’s so much gold in this 18:30 video. I’ll give you some of my highlights.

 

Introduction:

Mr. Unruhe’s first round of arguments is so close, yet so far away from devastating. He brings up the death tolls in Ukraine from the famines and says “compared to what?” What about the famines in capitalist countries?

 

A great point except for two major omissions. One, he never defines communist countries OR capitalist countries. And two, he never answers his question. He just floats it up there, expecting us to believe that capitalist famines must be so much worse.

 

Ukraine Famine:

Right out of the gate comes this direct quote:

“[bBC Author] claimed that the soviet grain requisitions must have caused mass starvation. Of course at no time did [the author] mention the right of people living in cities not to starve to death.”

 

Actually, he’s absolutely right by communist logic. The lowest class of people have no rights, while the oligarchy in charge are kings. Wikipedia says that the famine started in 1921 and ended in 1923 and that throughout 1922 and 1923 Russia was exporting grain. Let that sink in. Famine. Mass starvation. Take the food and seed crop from the starving farmers and export it so the rulers can have more money. So yes, Mr. Unruhe is correct, the only people who matter in communism are the rulers. The people have no rights and their deaths are meaningless and acceptable.

It should be pointed out that there’s a year discrepancy here. Wiki says 20s, BBC says 30s. I’m no expert on this, but the idea is that these events occurred at the same time.

 

Later he goes on that much of this information comes from Nazi sources and that Nazi’s are a terrible source of the truth. Again, this is coming from a communist.

 

Good lord look at this paragraph he posted on screen:

“Stalin did not gain from starving Ukrainian peasants, unlike the way capitalist speculators who hoard food grain when peasants starve. To say that Stalin did gain is a simple projection of life under capitalism to life under socialism where often the politicians also personally gain from development, weapons or other deals they broker politically.”

 

Pardon, my millennial brain but I can’t even.

 

Admissions Regarding the Soviet Union:

Summed up: Here are a bunch of communist authors who say that the numbers are way over exaggerated and we REALLY know exactly how many people were killed TO THE MAN.

 

China:

Summary: The math is speculative and wrong. The [bBC] authors are stupid. There is much stupidity by the authors. Mr. Unruhe poorly reads from a piece of paper under the camera. The death toll was 50 Million, not a 100 Million. Again, you can’t trust numbers from Nazi collaborators. Accurate information from the Communist parties of China and the USSR.

 

Conclusion:

Paraphrased: The other communist countries in the book are not actually communists.

Finally, some attempt at a definition.

 

Mr. Unruhe goes on to say that readers of the BBC who give it good reviews are obviously bad at math and are poorly educated in history and that the media will “buy anything anti-communist.” I guess he only watches Fox News. More poor reading from a note card taped to the camera.

 

Finally (life be praised) he ends with “Nothing will eradicate that fact that the average person lived longer under socialism than under capitalism.”

 

I hope you enjoyed my summary and it was as fun for you as it was painful for me.