Just six years ago, when there were rumors that Stalin was dead, was dying or was going to the United States for a serious operation, the Associated Press Moscow correspondent—then Charles P. Nutter—wrote asking him for the truth.

This answer came, signed in blue pencil in Stalin’s own hand:

“I know from reports of the foreign press that I long ago abandoned this sinful world and moved into the other world.

“As one cannot doubt such foreign press dispatches unless he wants to be expelled from the list of civilized people, I request you to believe them and don’t disturb me in the calm of the other world.

“With respect,

“J. Stalin.”

    • Anarcho-Bolshevik@lemmygrad.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      When I was reading The Hoaxers and all the lies that antisocialists circulated about the U.S.S.R. and the People’s Republic of China, I could not help but be reminded of the absurd rumors that the capitalist media constantly publish on the DPRK.

      I can’t say for sure if the capitalist media are consciously copying their previous generation in this respect, but it definitely feels like old wine in a new bottle. It’s funny how easily today’s youth are experiencing what our predecessors had to endure, only in a different presentation… plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

  • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Their shit talking is on another level lmao.

    One of my favourites is when Marx made a critique called “the poverty of philosophy”, the book its criticizing is called “the philosophy of poverty” 😂 he then wrote something akin to “needless to say, we are no longer friends”.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Even better, he wrote that entire book originally in french, just to make that pun and drive the point ever harder. He bashed Proudhon mercilessly like saying that Proudhon got a pass in Germany for being French economist and in France for practicing German philosophy while in fact he was bad at both, and then proving that in the book.

      Truly the greatest dunk of all time.

      • deathtoreddit@lemmygrad.ml
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        1 year ago

        That’s like a 2nd to Lenin’s “The State and Revolution” and the “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”, where he keeps on roasting the ‘pope of Marxism’…

  • Munrock ☭@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I love it. It really shows that the blind trust by liberals in their privately-owned media free press and capitalist-controlled state media public service media has been a frustration for the left for so long that even Stalin was taking the piss out of it.

    The Western Media’s stranglehold on public trust is being severely shaken by the situation in Palestine, but even as people see organisations like the BBC blatantly trying to suppress the reality of Palestinian genocide they still believe the same liars when they talk about Xinjiang or try to portray public sentiment in Taiwan as separatist.