I’m worldbuilding a fictional universe centred on communist societies, and I want to write the socialism/communism aspects as accurately as possible.

So if a country is currently monarchist, fascist, imperialist, etc but with a socialist revolution is underway, there is certainly going to be extreme resistance from the existing State. In a situation like this, do you think the socialist revolution should do things that help them, but would be considered unethical in war, aka “war crimes”? For example, things like poisoning key figures of the existing State, using “cruel weapons”, torture, etc. Especially if the existing State is already acting in that way? Would this contradict socialist philosophy or morality? What if the revolution is in danger of being extinguished by the State?

  • @kretenkobr2@lemmygrad.ml
    12•2 years ago

    Avoiding war crimes is a way of making manslaughter more humane. You see the paradox here? During war tons of bad actions take place, that is what war is. There is no morality in war, only before it, before you choose sides. After that it is only survival, and the ultimate form of survival is removing those who want to kill you.

    • @AverageUlyanovFan@lemmygrad.ml
      18•2 years ago

      There’s a difference between removing those who want to kill you and raping civilians in occupied city before skinning them alive in front of their kids whom you’ve forced to lick your boots clean. War is going to expose the worst and the best in soldiers fighting it, but the leadership can still make a difference between a probably decent number of unfortunate excesses and a genocide.

      • @kretenkobr2@lemmygrad.ml
        8•2 years ago

        You went from “poisoning key figures” to “indiscriminantly raping and pillaging civilians” real quick. Of course there are sick individuals, war brings the worst of scum to it. And such individuals should be punished. I don’t know what you are asking then, whether actions of a few individuals demoralize everything everybody else fights for?

        • @AverageUlyanovFan@lemmygrad.ml
          11•2 years ago

          I’m not the OP. My point is that “making manslaughter more humane” is a real thing, and it’s actually a good thing in at least that it makes your troops not seen as monsters that much, which is extremely important for social stability in the long term. USSR has invested heavily into moral and patriotic education of troops that were sent to Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, and Russia vs. Ukraine treatment of local population provide a more modern example.

          • @kretenkobr2@lemmygrad.ml
            0•2 years ago

            I understand, of course there is a difference between killing 1000 civilians and 1000 opposing troops. But that does not change the fact that shit happens everywhere and that does not delegitimize the whole movement. Just because Soviet soldiers raped some German women does not mean that suddenly Bolshevism is delegitimized, demoralized and must be eradicated.

            • @Beat_da_Rich@lemmygrad.ml
              3•2 years ago

              Some?

              We can talk frankly about the unfortunate realities of war, but that’s a really dismissive statement about mass rape and revenge taken out on civilians.