I was sent a post by a friend which has a libertarian talking about “Cannibalism Under Communism.” Of course, since it was written by a libertarian it is so factually incorrect, logically flawed, and without any actual research – we must pause to wonder why he calls himself the “Skpetical Libertarian” (Edward Coke) when he clearly demonstrates no scepticism whatsoever. Not only that but a basic lack of critical thinking skills.
He claims to point out instances of cannibalism in communism/socialism. Of course, he can’t tell the difference between communism and socialism. Here are the places: North Korea, Soviet Union, Ukraine, China, and Jamestown Virginia. One should notice immediately that the United States is a capitalist country, not a socialist/communist one. This is typical libertarian idiocy; if there’s a state it’s automatically socialism. So he also can’t tell the difference between capitalism and socialism.
There is no denying that there have been famines. There have been famines everywhere under every economic system. What is important here is the intellectual dishonesty or total absence intellect in his post. So let’s jump right into it.
North Korea (1997): “We started seeing cannibalism. When one is very hungry, one can go crazy. One woman in my town killed her 7-month-old baby, and ate the baby with another woman. That woman’s son reported them both to the authorities. I can’t condemn cannibalism. Not that I wanted to eat human meat, but we were so hungry. It was common that people went to a fresh grave and dug up a body to eat meat. I witnessed a woman being questioned for cannibalism. She said it tasted good.”
DPRK defectors are notoriously dishonest about their previous lives in the country. Shin Dong-Hyuk, as well as Park Yeon-mi, have both been found to have lied. It is also important to point out that no actual evidence of cannibalism has been given. Merely horror stories by people who are paid to speak ill of the country. A little scepticism would have gone a long way here for the libertarian. (The link to his sources doesn’t work but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.)
Ukraine, Vasily Grossman: “Some went insane. They never did become completely still. One could tell from their eyes–because their eyes shone. These were the people who cut up and cooked corpses, who killed their own children and ate them. In them the beast rose to the top as the human being died. I saw one. She had been brought to the district center under convoy. Her face was human, but her eyes were those of a wolf. These are cannibals.” (p. 164)
The “Skeptical” Libertarian here quotes a book by Vasily Grossman… a fiction book. This idiot libertarian (redundancy) actually quotes a novel as proof of cannibalism. Forever Flowering is a fiction book, as in it’s not real. If he thinks that’s proof of cannibalism, a work of fiction by a notoriously anti-Soviet author, then I’d like to blow his mind by introducing him to the Harry Potter series. (Yes, it is necessary to be mocking when the “research” is so badly done.)
Soviet Union, V.I. Lenin: “It is now and only now, when in the regions afflicted by the famine there is cannibalism and the roads are littered with hundreds if not thousands of corpses, that we can (and therefore must) pursue the acquisition of [church] valuables with the most ferocious and merciless energy, stopping at nothing in suppressing all resistance.”
This one is particularly interesting as it quotes Lenin. A quote which appears nowhere but in the book Koba the Dread, which the author Martin Amis claims was released to the public in 1970. Since it was released to the public, but only appears in his own book, I’m going to call bullshit on it. The quote doesn’t even make any sense. The description is so fantastically exaggerated it’s comical. If this were true, there’d be data to back it up, which there isn’t. I’ve included a link to some data in my sources section. This is another moment which should have included a sceptical eye.
China: “Most of the culprits on the list practiced necrophagy, either eating those who had passed away or exhuming and eating cadavers after burial. When a team of inspectors was sent to review the Quiatou commune in Shizhu county, Sichuan, in early 1961, they were startled by the extent of cannibalism. In some cases, only parts of a body were eaten Zemin’s heart, for instance, was scooped out. Some people covered the meat in hot peppers.” (p. 323)
His source is Mao’s Great Famine by Frank Dikötter… a book that has already been completely refuted by a critical writer at Monthly Review. Dikötter went so far in his dishonesty as to count people who were never born as having died. Let us not forget that famines were common in China. One occurred under socialism and then never again.
Jamestown, VA: “So great was our famine that a savage we slew and buried, the poorer sorte tooke him up againe and eat him; and so did divers one another boyled and stewed with roots and herbs. It were too vile to say and scarce to be believed, what we endured: but the occasion was our own, for want of providence, industrie and government, and not the barrennesse and defect of the Country, as is generally supposed.” Update: the recent discovery of a skeleton in Jamestown has proven this account.
The United States isn’t, and never was a socialist country, you fucking idiot.
Yes, the population of the Soviet Union decreased during the civil war, particularly by the harsh conditions of World War One in which Russia was destroyed. The one the Czar dragged them into along with the capitalist countries. That destruction left the country in shambles. Never mind the civil war, then the invasion of the Soviet Union by foreign powers along with the “White Russians.” These inhumanities of capitalism are what drove people into the Bolshevik party and the revolution.
All of this “scepticism” is from a libertarian… people who believe I a fictional version of an economic system that has never existed but is responsible for all good things that have ever been developed. “Skeptical libertarian” is an oxymoron.
Sources:
Cannibalism under Communism, “Skeptical” Libertarian
Prominent North Korean Defector Recants Parts of His Story of Captivity
Prominent N. Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk admits parts of story are inaccurate
The Strange Tale of Yeonmi Park, The Diplomat
http://thediplomat.com/2014/12/the-strange-tale-of-yeonmi-park/
Yeonmi Park: The Defector Who Fooled the World
http://jooparkblog.blogspot.ca/2014/12/yeonmi-park-defector-who-fooled-world.html
Soviet Union Population statics
Click to access population.pdf
Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?
maoistrebelnews.com 