# Affirmed:Lenin really is the tits **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 2, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmed-lenin-really-is-the-tits/538021 "2010-05-02T12:42:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 74
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmed-lenin-really-is-the-tits/538021/74 "2010-05-03T20:57:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I doubt that a significant number of such people exist. The problem is, mass murder and tyranny tend to poison the well just a little bit. Most people don’t want to read it, because it’s Lenin. Even a cookbook by Lenin would likely get a hostile reception, much less a political piece. > > So, no it hasn’t “taught us something useful”, because most people won’t read it and would consider any claims made to be highly suspect due to the source. In fact, picking something written by Lenin to push a political position is counterproductive as it only hands ammunition to the people who like to equate anything even slightly left wing with Communism. > > And I am surprised that I apparently actually had to explain all this. Well, I’m not polemicizing in this instance. Left wing and communism are not the same thing in virtually all instances. Liberalism is considered by communists and socialists to be a bigger enemy than capitalism for good reason: it is an workable alternative to both. Anyone interested in the theory behind politics should at some point read Lenin’s Imperialism. Just as they should also read anything written by Machiavelli. Lenin actually committed a lot of evil. Machiavelli committed little to no evil, but was a teacher of evil, but nonetheless understanding him is essential. Not so coincidentally, both Hitler’s and Stalin’s favorite book was The Prince. As for the right wing propagandists who want to conflate have read Lenin (or Marx) and seeing they had a valid point here and there to be the same as agreeing, that is just spreading fear and ignorance. If we want to avoid the mistakes of the USSR, we do need to study the USSR and the ideas behind it. That road to hell was paved with good intentions. We live in the world as it is, with the history it has, not the world we fantasize about with the fairy tales about history taught to school children. (Also a part of the world we live in.) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/affirmed-lenin-really-is-the-tits/538021)._