• GarbageShootAlt2
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    2 months ago

    That’s interesting, I didn’t know that Lysenkoism bled into China, but your number is still nonsense because

    The causation here is a simplification of a famine that had many other factors (I don’t think Lysenko was particularly important to it, even) and also a wild overestimation of the death toll of the famine

    . . . applies even more to China. I’m no expert, but I’ve read a lot of people complaining about the GLF and its agricultural practices and that just never came up. I’m sure it’s a bad way to farm plants, but I think what you’re trying to depict is the product of anti-communists making mountains out of molehills wrt Lysenko. Lysenko is an incredibly convenient communist boogeyman who seems to verify every tired stereotype about communists, so saying it was this specific guy having an unfathomable level of influence [and thereby communism expressing itself to the fullest] that directly lead to a trillion people dead is an excellent bedtime story for those anti-communists so they have an easier time sleeping on the mountains of corpses butchered by their liberal states.

    • ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      All I can say is that the host of behind the bastards is an excellent journalist who does thorough research before each episode. I don’t have any expertise in this topic, but in other episodes where I am knowledgeable his research has been accurate.

      • GarbageShootAlt2
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        2 months ago

        I mean, my suggestion is to look at any other histories of the two famines, including ones by rabid anti-communists, and you will see that there were many other factors (not that I expect a rabid anticommunist to talk about crop blights or kulak sabotage, but still).