Episode 116 Is There Life After Tankieism?: BadMouse Recants, BadMouths Stalinism
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Gabriel and Andrew welcome Dave, aka BadMouse, who was cited as a YouTube Stalinist in Radio Free Humanity Ep. 13: The Tankie Craze, Part 2 (at about 44:35), but who has since recanted. They discuss why a certain subset of youth finds Stalinism appealing, and why and how Dave himself turned to it. He then recounts how he became disillusioned—because of tankies’ incessant appeals to “material conditions” to excuse Stalinism’s crimes, brutal repression of protest in Hong Kong by the Chinese government, the works of Grover Furr, and so on. Dave and the co-hosts discuss the importance of “becom[ing] OK with not necessarily having all the answers,” and how to help people resist and overcome the pull of Stalinism, including the work that Dave is now doing on his BadMouse YouTube channel. Plus current-events segment: Internal divisions in GOP allow US to (finally) provide aid to Ukraine’s defense against invasion. A New Yorker column by Susan B. Glasser is cited. Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. It is co-hosted by Gabriel Donnelly and Andrew Kliman. We intend to release new episodes every two weeks. Radio Free Humanity is sponsored by MHI, but the views expressed by the hosts and guests of Radio Free Humanity are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of MHI. We welcome and encourage listeners’ comments, posted on this episode’s page. |
In the European elections it’s interesting to note that under the Irish Proportional Representation system vote transfers from the Far Right have gone in significant numbers to the Far Left uber-tankie Clare Daly!