I kid you not, *this video is demonetized* because it contains "edited video gameplay that primarily focuses on graphic violence; severe violence or death that shows blood; harm to minors; abuse of animals; domestic violence; graphic dead bodies in a non-educational video." UA-cam is a company ran by cowards and idiots. So please consider buying some merch: teespring.com/stores/the-cynical-historian Or donating to my Patreon: www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian
UA-cam is too reliant on an algorithm that mostly automatically decides what fits its creators' standards with margins so thin and flimsy, a feather is pushing it. If nothing else, at least they still allow you to direct your viewers to your Patreon page and such or every upcoming video would be made on the cheap. Not that you're making this solely for money, but it reminds me of that video you made explaining the benefits of being a historian on UA-cam and one of the messages from there: presentation is important, and not just on this platform.
UA-cam need to add threat and death threat to the like/dislike buttons :) Cypher: "Press the like button if you liked the video, the dislike button if you didn't like the video. If you want to sucker punch me then hit the threat button, and if you want me dead then smash that death threat button. Remember to subscribe and I'll see you in the next video".
@@CynicalHistorian Daddy noticed me! I am forever grateful 😇. Honestly though, keep up the good work, Cypher. We always enjoy your thorough, insightful, and... quirky savagery 🤭
@@connorhennessey1316 I didn't think it was possible. You messed up A-A-RON. Take yo ass down to O Shag Hennessey office and tell him exactly what you just did
I never understand how people can be so quick to condemn atrocities but then turn around and defend identical atrocities because those atrocities were committed in the name of their own precious ideology. Murder and oppression is murder and oppression, no matter what Ideology it supposedly serves.
It just like that: People are quick to criticise the groups they dislike (sometimes a fair and with points criticism) but when it comes to their own group.... So is always the best to watch what one side criticises the other side and then what that side criticises the other side and them make you own conclusions after researching and comparing yourself of course.
It’s quite literally “whataboutism” It’s the equivalent of, say, today someone defending Trump (or Biden) using Drone strikes by saying “well, Biden did it too” Like... okay? It’s still wrong no matter what ideology or political side did it
@@Ajaws I notice that happens a lot when Trump supporters defend kids in cages, they usually say "well Obama did it too". Maybe this is a hot take, but it was wrong when Obama put kids in cages and it was still wrong when Trump put kids in cages.
Boy, try to open a discussion about the Sahaaran slave trade, and how it made over twice the victims and atrocities of the trans atlantic slave trade and its impact is a major factor in the problems of Africa, and see how fast you are called a racist bigot.
My favorite myth about the USSR and communists in general is the "clean communist" myth. The myth, popular with tankies, is that Eastern Europe was such a cesspool of anti-Semitism that the governments and people secretly collaborated with Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jews. If this sounds like an excuse to try to discredit the atrocities the USSR committed in Eastern Europe as Nazi propaganda and try to paint communists as having a monopoly on being anti-fascists, then I say congratulations, you pointed out the obvious.
@@hammerandsickle8117 Ew. Why do you support raping their spouses? You can be fucked up and think whoever you view as fascist deserves death but I think you're disgusting if you think their spouses should be raped. How is that in any way justified? Do you get off to unnecessary brutality? I'm frankly surprised you aren't in support of the atrocities the nazis have committed because from your comment you sound more like a demented sadist looking for excuses than a genuine political advocate.
Just for the record: most of the really excellent historians I know mispronounce names and words all the time. It's almost an inevitability because truly good historians have a breadth of understanding that goes beyond just sources in languages they speak - and most of the time "you can't pronounce Russian so you obviously know nothing" is just a cheap attempt to silence any scholarship of Russian history that disagrees with the "official" Russian state interpretation of history. Curiously, those same "critics" will turn on Russian historians who speak English (or another language) a little TOO well, accusing them of being "corrupted" by Western propaganda. As a native Russian speaker and historian, let me just say this: I really do not give a crap about anybody's pronunciation of Brezhnev, nor should anybody.
Pronunciation Police, along with Spelling Nazis are a menace to interesting discourse. More than anything else, in my opinion. As long as a person can make themselves understood, that is the most important thing.
As a kid who’s dad lived under two stereotypical socialist states (Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia), one of which was a Soviet satellite state, there was so much I wanted to comment about that I forgot about because why should I care what I watch on UA-cam. Reading reliable history books is much better for the noggin than anything on a website that doesn’t have a peer review system, even if that video was made by an actual historian.
I must say I appreciate how equal opportunity i.e intellectually consistent and honest you are in curating your comment section..I feel like that's a rare trait especially on YT these days.
This comment is just respect for getting Friedrich Engels' pronunciation pretty much right, with Friedrich being one of the hardest German names to pronounce :D
@@CynicalHistorian Du bist besser als wir Berliner, bei uns heißt Friedrich II von Preußen einfach "der Olle Fritz". You're better than people from Berlin. Over here, Friedrich II of Prussia is just called "the Old Fritz".
Andropov's policies differed greatly from those of Brezhnev. Despite being in power for only sixteen months, Andropov tried to do many questionable things, such as banning the growth of vineyards. My Dad's friend, who was a farmer's son, said that his mother was put out of business in 1983 for growing grapes. Chernenko repealed the policy during his short time, and as Cypher said, he was similar to Brezhnev in terms of policy. But it was Gorbachev who truly saved the farmers. Shortly after he took office in 1985, he reintroduced private farming, which was only a temporary measure. However, by the time Glasnost and Perestroika were fully realized, it was clear that private farming would not be revoked. Gorbachev's reforms are what led me to see him as a saint. Gorbachev said many times that ''Yeltsin was a drunk, Putin is an idiot.'' That is absolutely true. Putin IS an idiot. Putting up statues of Stalin in Volgograd, having notions of changing its name back to Stalingrad, butchering innocent Ukranian children, sending Russian children to their deaths... he's a monster and an idiot. Soon he'll get his comeuppance.
I'm Russian communist and I absolutely love your videos about communism and USSR. An adequate adult should be ready to give up his beliefs if he is presented with evidence that they are false, be critical of himself and his convictions, listen to both evidence and refutation and don't believe in anything on 100%. As you said, there is no absolute, no only 100% good or bad in communism, capitalism, monarchism and any other thing.
It's really nice to see level-headed folks in the comments here. These political matters are super touchy because of their divisive histories, but being skeptical and objective is really important, even when it comes to one's own beliefs.
Yeah, you did tons of research and cited primary sources, but you mispronounced a name that isn’t native to your mother tongue, so you’re not a real historian. /s On a serious note, it’s hilarious that you got called a neo lib and a Tankie on the same video.
I agree with you but there is one thing that I do not understand about native english speakers or maybe just americans? Idk, why do you not inherently know how to pronounce words that are foreign to you? I am not trying to insult anybody but I just find it odd when people pronounce " carne asada" as " carneygh ass a dah" I am actually confused and do realize that this comment may sound condescending or smth like that but I assure you that this is a very real and not rethorical question
Pretty sure that’s a centrist fallacy. It’s arguing that because what you’ve defined as radicals on both sides disagree with you, you’re in the right regardless of what the evidence, itself says, as it doesn’t address that issue in the slightest.
@@Le-cp9tr no that's not what I meant, the fact that the extremes of both sides target the historian ie. both accusing you of bias then you are taking a neutral stance on history or giving an accurate, realistic interpretation of it. We all know the extreme left and right both don't like history as it condemns their views and beliefs and love to deny history.
Before I watch I just wanted to say thank you for that video. It was fun to watch and I learned a lot. I appreciate all the work you do and I'm happy to be here for the channel.
I Was born in USSR and live in Russia now. You can not imagine how many myths about our history we can hear every day on our TV. Capitalism is same everywhere. For more then 30 years they tell us about non working communism. I am lucky to read Lenin and Stalin in original. I bag pardon for my terrible English. Glad to see people like u in USA
"The Soviet Union was invited Afghanistan by the lawful government of Afghanistan, to provide military assistance. It's disingenuous to say that the Soviets invaded." That screenshotted comment made me laugh. Yeah the same 'lawful' government that overthrew the previous government in the 1978 Saur Revolution (revolution was supported by the Soviet Union of course). Then followed by the Soviets decalring intervention as the current leader of Afghanistan wasn't pro-Soviet enough and then sending Spetnaz soldiers to assassinate him and then started military intervention, hardly an invitation, sounds more like an invasion to me. (It is worth noting that Hafizullah Amin had his pro-Soviet predecessor, Nur Muhammad Taraki, assassinated before him, but the Soviet's announcment of their invasion occurred during Amin's brief rule.)
Tankies: 'Western Imperialism Bad' Also Tankies: "ackshually the soviet union was completely just in it's invasion of (insert country here), they were just trying to spread the light of communism and in no way did they have any sort of selfish reasoning for doing so despite the fact literally every country operates by it's own self interest"
@@teslashark why would Stalin just hand the actually important bits to Hitler? That was never even a possibility. No dictatir in the history of ever has been ok with losing power or territory
@@str.77 Nah. He only was scared by him, as Hitler was; so they tried to prolong the peace within them. And the Poland part is more about revenge, from him not helping Tujachevsky (?) in Varsovia
Your calculation of Lend Lease's impact (at least the figure you show) is derived from Wolfgang Schumann which are in absolute dollars not PPP adjusted real dollars. Schumann used Leo Crowley's figures for his work and Crowley derived his figures from the funds appropriated under the Lend Lease Act which are all in absolute terms not real dollar terms for each country recipient. This is a problem because one dollar of aid does not go the same distance in the UK vs the USSR so simply taking at face value the absolute number does not tell you relative importance of the aid for each country. A second complicating factor is using dollar value vs utility value. The best example of this is rubber, both natural and synthetic. The US had good access to natural rubber via Brazil and good production of synthetic rubber vs. the UK which had limited access to natural rubber but good production of synthetic rubber vs the USSR which had some access to natural rubber via central Asian calculation but very bad production of synthetic rubber, so the dollar value of one pound of rubber had a lower utility value in the US then in either the UK or the USSR, but this utility value which does not show up in the absolute dollar value Schumann used. Again I'd recommend Military History Visualized series of videos on lend lease. Like you he is an academic historian making youtube videos and he's a great resource. ua-cam.com/video/IJ9PiDvI4pY/v-deo.html
Conversely, have there been positive comments that you would want to highlight that provide historical, political, or social context that you feel is important?
I really just want to thank you for making the myths video, It really made me feel good to learn something new about a subject and I have you to thank for being a good teacher
Its ironic that you get accused of censorship when you literally make response videos to comments where you display the comments and openly respond to them with evidence and clarification, and you take in criticism and make notes on your decisions. It's literally how discourse works. I appreciate you're willingness to make this a conversation and that you make these diatribes.
@@primuspilusfellatus6501 its His Comment section His Rules, thats like saying you were censored by your Neighbor because he kicked from his house when you called him and his wife an A*Hole. You can yell and scream in the street about anything but not on someone else's Property.
@@dasfowler Free speach Laws only apply on Public areas not Privately owned ones like Comment sections as they are owned by the Channels and even technically anyother website you don't own, so UA-cam, Google ect can remove anything they don't want.
19:40 We're an ethno-religious group not a race, nor just a religion. They're utterly baseless in calling us a race, but it's best not to accidentally miscategorize us while defending us.
@@aaroncohen2700 not necessarily by definition, but functionally speaking, yes. Judaism (at least for the thousand or more years) hasn’t sought converts and, generally speaking, has frowned upon intermarriage (the last 150 years or so, the latter has loosened, but only somewhat). The result is that Judaism tends to pass down by family only, and not through conversion or missionary work or other forms of expanding the group. While Catholicism spread to ethnic groups throughout Africa and South America (means not withstanding) and therefore expanded to tons of ethnic groups, while Buddhism was intentionally spread across the known world by the edicts of Ashoka, Judaism was far more isolated in community. Fast forward a few thousand years, and the result is some amount of genetic isolation, and therefore the emergence of more distinct ethnic groups. There is a reason why Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish ethnic group) are much more likely to suffer from the genetic illness Tay Sachs Disease than Slavs or Germanic peoples living in the same exact regions. There’s a reason why genetic markers can be found linking Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Ashkenazi Jews distinctly separate from other populations. It’s a result of cultural practices that have gone on for thousands of years.
I want to apologize for my comrades. Some of them are really stupid and stuck in the past. I hope we can overcome that in the future. Thanks for your great work!
@Doctor Wollenseuss oh no, pls not again (I get this question every fucking time). my channel name is a joke. on the other hand, all communists want to get rid of the state and Lenin was a communist; plus the original meaning of libertarianism was anarchist socialism so it really isn't that far of a stretch
@@LibertarianLeninistRants Not surprised. Commienism inspires a lot of local variants with different degrees of authoritarianism and many outliers like... Whatever the hell Pol Pot is trying to do...
Why would you apologize to a rad lib? He should actually apologize for not even adressing critique in the comments but just making a smug video claiming how wrong everyone is and how right he is.
@@owenr-m4619 Entertaining in the fact that some of these comments are so idiotic, and that the cynical historian always does a good job of explaining his position
@@CynicalHistorian lol well that's good, I know it really can take a toll in your mental health, so keep it up! we need more good quality content on the internet, that's for sure
You remind me of that movie scene: Girl asks biker if all they do is get drunk and tattooed, biker confirms, shows off tattoo of his birth place. Girl: "North Kadota?" Biker: "Yeah, the guy screwed up, it should be South Kadota... Kadota? Aw maaaaan..."
As an beginning historian looking to join the field through actual study, it amazes me that some people are so far up their own asses they cannot look at facts. Cypher makes awesome videos, and its sad that people love to start flame wars in comments that makes it worse for the rest of us.
10:45 That response reminds me of what the Cold War channel had to say when they tried to have a starting point when talking about the Cold War. They mentioned how trying to pinpoint the exact date of when the Cold War had started is complicated and can actually be put on many points from the latest being the Soviet nuclear test to the earliest being the October Revolution. In the end, they decided on the Potsdan Conference as that is when the borders dividing the East and West were made but they also mentioned how this can still be argued over, as once again, trying to actually pinpoint the date of the start of the Cold War is complicated.
I know that this probably doesn’t mean much, but I’m sorry you had to deal with all of the those tankies and fascists in the comment section. I’m pretty certain we disagree with each other politically (I’m for direct democracy over representative democracy at this point, regardless of whatever defense is erected for it), but I freely acknowledge that you were right in debunking those myths and clearing up people’s misconceptions. Not sure if this will reach you or not, but hope you’re doing well in this cursed year and have a Happy Halloween!
On "The USSR wasn't Imperialistic" I've yet to figure out the practical difference between vanguardism and jingoism, beyond jingoism having more opportunities to manifest itself.
Theoritically I dont see how those two have anything in common. Vanguardism is the idea that the most fortunate of the working class should be tasked with trying to help the rest of the working class. Think about it, if you have more free time to read books, talk to people, travel, etc. Then you van help educate and lead the workers that don't have much free time or less opportunities. Lenin compared it to a wrench. A wrench isn't superior to a person just because a wrench can do a specific job better than a human, so too the vanguard isn't better than the rest of the proletariat just because they can learn more easily. You don't have to agree with him on this by the way, let's just not misrepresent these ideas in ahistorical ways though.
A lot of those comments you deleted really didn’t seem to deserve it. It’s just my opinion and this comment might be deleted but you really don’t have to censor hate it’s hate and anyone who isn’t hateful can tell.
Wow, a history content creator that moderates the comments. What a relief! Seriously, it is disheartening when trying to learn more about history and half the comments are 'race realists' or whatever people who are only interested because they need to justify their world views It's so common on youtube. Thanks for taking the time bro. You make great stuff
Hey Cipher, I just wanted to say that I am a big fan of your work. Your videos are have helped to further my knowledge of all types of history. My one question I would like to ask is that, what is your opinion of the book "Khrushchev Lied" by Grover Furr as well as other pieces of pro Stalin books? Would you say it's historically accurate? I personal have not read it myself, but I think from the title it's just another piece of tankie propaganda. Keep up the great work my dude. With respect, Ivan
Creationist can be Bigots but not all Creationists are Bigots much in the Same way the Ancient Alien guys are, they just want to believe stuff that are not supported by facts.
15:53 interesting thing: this what modern Russia under Putin has done some time. It's always sown distrust against Citizen orgs, but from year 2012 it became legal, with foreign agent law. Non-profits organizations that receive donations or funding outside of Russia. "Foreing agent" label (aside that it sounds like spy organization) increases difficulties of people working for non-profits or outright making them unable to do so. They also have to submit to increased surveillance. It's been extremely effective in curbing NGO's, many who rather shutdown than submit. And before you ask: yes. Main targets of this law have been human rights and anti-corruption Ngo's. Enviromentalist and anti-torture Ngo's also have felt squeeze.
Hey, uh... I'm a long time viewer of the channel and I've learned a lot in terms of historical analysis that has helped me a lot in terms of evaluating information of any kind as being credible or not. Anyways just a quick question as to Marx's flaws, can you like elaborate on your comments in regards to how he treated Fredrich Engels? How come Engels continued on his works after Marx's death if said treatment was pretty "terrible" in your own words? I don't comment much anyways, just curious as to that specific take
They actually had a huge falling out b/c what Marx said about his wife in the 1850s/60s. It took over a decade for them to get on the mend, and basically only because Engels was such a nice guy and kinda sycophantic
"Chad" I only recently found your channel. I'm fascinated by many intellectual pursuits and History is one of them. I'm 71 now and have always enjoyed reading and decided at age 12 that I would keep my learning spread out among many disciplines. My facilities are Math, Philosophy and the hard sciences, but I like to think I worked harder on the difficult things, history being my least natural niche. On surverys I fall into the some college crowd, no degrees. As a Book guy myself I'm guilty of many mispronounciation. I remember when I was 15 I used to pronounce Prokofiev as Pro Ko Fief. I enjoyed how you said Brezhnev properly and then went right back to Brett-nev. Very Amusing. Because of my love of music Ihave a good ear for sounds and in college learned the value of phonetics. Communism was never tried. what about Gandhi's Ashrams (I read his autobiography)? I find the most virulent commentators are usually stuck in 8th grade math history science etc (and probably weren't a students enen then). Math shows the cracks in someone's abilities in a very clear way. My last comment is that recently I came across the idea that Stalin worked with the Orthodox church. I'll have to investigate further. I'm also fond of film, and have watched a few soviet war time epics. Good fun and gives me a chance to peck out a word of Russian here and there and pat myself on the back. Again Chad thanks for the enlightening videos . I for one am not surpised in the least that you got heat of what are for me the two faces of toltaritarianism extreme right and extreme left and their modern not so well informed defenders. All the Best from your latest subscriber Jim Oaxaca Mexico
I am curious on the decrease in Soviet military spending in the mid-1980s. Understand I am not disagreeing with the factuality of it, rather, I am curious as to the cause. Does it line up with things like the Chernobyl disaster, which was financially expensive to deal with? Basically, I’m asking if the military spending drop was because they weren’t trying to outspend the US militarily, or was it because they genuinely didn’t have the money to spend because of the financial fallout (I feel really bad for that pun) of Chernobyl? I’m going to look into some of this myself, but I’d be very interested in your opinion on this as well. I’ve loved your channel, your well researched information, and your presentation style. Also, you’ve opened my eyes to the evil that is Wilson, and the more I’ve researched on my own, the more horrified I am at him. Thanks for the great content!
@@dfmrcv862 well it was more likely because the US, Isreal, UK, and Saudi Arabia want to get rid of Iran not just oil but control of the region and stability for the Saudis and Israel.
My great-grandfather was a member of the CPSU from 1958 until 1992. He said that being a member of the party during Khrushchev's time was a very dangerous job. However, my great-grandfather did see Brezhnev as someone who was more conservative, and in his eyes, more difficult to deal with when it came to being a rank-and-file member of the party. He fiercely opposed Andropov's banning of grapes and Chernenko's apathy. This was one of the reasons as to why he received a Thank You Letter from Gorbachev in 1987 (though Gorbachev pretended that the main reason for that letter is because my great-grandfather survived the Blockade of Leningrad). He got Soviet military awards just before he left the party mere weeks after the Soviet Union fell. He also got Thank You Letters from Boris Yeltsin in 1994, and Lukashenko in 1997. By that point, most of my family was already making plans to move to the United States. In 1998, my parents came here, followed by my grandparents, and finally my great-grandfather in 2002.
History is, more often than not, a dark place, and requires an understanding a complicated web of events, people just want easy answers, but that's not always available. Good job man, keep it up!
Its amazing that some guy telling basic history with sources to prove it is treated as some political person despite the fact that he has never actually revealed his beliefs other than crimes against humanity is wrong. Its also amazing that people demand better sources but yet they never actually provide a link or a way to said better sources. It really is the lyrics from the song eye of the beholder "you can do it your own way/if its done just how i say." By metallica. I dont want to dmca anything so i wont go further. There is more that applies so i just suggest looking it up.
The original video was great. I was born in 1975 and grew up in Kiev until we moved to Texas in 1990 to escape growing antisemitism and the downfall of the soviet economy. So i have a 3 sided perspective at this subject, - Soviet, American and Jewish. Your take on the 10 Soviet History Myths was very accurate. The only thing I would have a complaint about is your pronunciation of Brezhnev's name - but W/E. not a big deal. Speaking of Lenin's vindictiveness - I personally think his whole activism started and continued due to his older brother being hung by the Tzar for assassination attempt. Lenin became an activist to avenge his older brother's death IMHO.
I was surprised lend/lease for USSR ramped up after they made progress against the Nazis, which adds more complex interactions of allied nations in WWII.
I'm sort of curious now to hear your opinion on MHV's old video on the difficulty of estimating the impact of Lend-Lease on the Soviet war effort (Why determining the Impact of Lend-Lease is so complicated - Military History Visualized, 14 August 2018). I didn't ask this in the original video because it doesn't actually say anything different from the original content of the video (debunking the idea that D-Day somehow "saved" the USSR), but given your comments about the minor percentage in terms of value of the total Soviet war effort, I am curious about whether you think the points he makes (or more accurately quotes) about the intangible values of production quality and timing have any impact on your assessment.
I got really confused when you just out of nowhere brought up that conservatism has its origins in Trotsky, like can you go into more of that because it sounds really interesting
This is from wikipedia on neo-conservatism Critics have argued that since the founders of neo-conservatism included ex-Trotskyists, Trotskyist traits continue to characterize neo-conservative ideologies and practices. During the Reagan administration, the charge was made that the foreign policy of the Reagan administration was being managed by ex Trotskyists.[citation needed] This claim was called a "myth" by Lipset (1988, p. 34), who was a neoconservative himself. This "Trotskyist" charge was repeated and widened by journalist Michael Lind during 2003 to assert a takeover of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by former Trotskyists. Lind's "amalgamation of the defense intellectuals with the traditions and theories of 'the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement' [in Lind's words]" was criticized during 2003 by University of Michigan professor Alan M. Wald, who had discussed Trotskyism in his history of "the New York intellectuals". The charge that neoconservativism is related to Leninism has also been made. Francis Fukuyama identified neoconservatism with Leninism during 2006. He wrote that neoconservatives "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will [substantially analogous to "will to power" of Nietzschean memory]. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support".
I think one of my favorite Soviet myths is that Stalin was an unintelligent brute. I usually hear this kind of thing from Trotsky fan boys. The truth is Stalin was a brute of course, but he was actually a very intelligent and manipulative one. The most dangerous kind of brute.
If anybody is that concerned with free speech they can start their own channel and let the comment sections go all wild west if they want to. You're not stopping them from doing that.
@@forickgrimaldus8301 I have received a good many death threats over the years. As well as threats to rape & maim me. I have found all of those threats came from the right. Threats aren't fun to get but I wouldn't put much stock in threats from the left. From the right, you might need to worry.
@@forickgrimaldus8301 You're not kidding there. I used to get a lot of threats when I was on television. They taught us how to differentiate between credible threats & nuisances. Once someone found out where I lived & placed a squirrel with a knife plunged into it and placed it on my doorstep. THAT prompted a call to the coppers.
I’ll never get Holomodor denial. Like I personally don’t think it can be classified as genocide but rather the result of failed economic policies, and Ukraine was hit hardest by policies like dekulakization and forced collectivization, and was made worse by Stalin’s response (or lack thereof), and historians are gonna debate all those things till the end of time, but you deny that 2-3 million people died in Ukraine died during that period. Maybe I’m thinking to hard about it because negationism at the end of the day just boils down to “this event didn’t actually happen”
Some of these comments were so hysterically dumb, that they gave me a bit of a chuckle. (Which is quite unfortunate considering how horrific some of the events discussed are). Anyways, keep up the good work and continue to shit on both the far left and far right.
Hey look, it’s me! 5:08 If you couldn’t tell, I was trying to be respectful, but I don’t feel it’s fair to group this criticism in with ones that are very clearly anti Semitic or are specifically attacking your character.
i was literally going to use you as an example in one of my comments😂😂 i think that's the nature of power and platforms. people can often misinterpret what you mean and i knew that you had well intentions because you seemed very open to debate or discussion
My cousin & I both enjoyed your video. For the record, we are both of the far left and could safely be called Communists. We do have some disagreement on some of your criticism of Communism, Trotsky, Lenin etc That said, you still put together a good, well researched presentation. Any criticism of Communism, combined with historical analysis gives those of us who are pushing to bring about Socialism(and ultimately Communism) more to think about and shines a light on errors that we can avoid going forward. Be well.
Coming from my rather conservative professor at a Christian university "the deadliest words in history are either Deus Vult or hoc est corpus meum" so yeah spot on on the Jesus statement.
If you using Mac, all the text inside, any image is automatically OCR’ed and available to search normally. I often have to search through pages of translated manga to find certain memes, and it’s great having all of that text automatically imported into my system.
I will also say, that you are really helping me learn a lot more about stuff I didn’t fully understand, so cheers and I look forward to the future videos
I kid you not, *this video is demonetized* because it contains "edited video gameplay that primarily focuses on graphic violence; severe violence or death that shows blood; harm to minors; abuse of animals; domestic violence; graphic dead bodies in a non-educational video." UA-cam is a company ran by cowards and idiots. So please consider buying some merch: teespring.com/stores/the-cynical-historian
Or donating to my Patreon: www.patreon.com/CynicalHistorian
🤔
Keep fighting the good fight.
UA-cam is too reliant on an algorithm that mostly automatically decides what fits its creators' standards with margins so thin and flimsy, a feather is pushing it. If nothing else, at least they still allow you to direct your viewers to your Patreon page and such or every upcoming video would be made on the cheap. Not that you're making this solely for money, but it reminds me of that video you made explaining the benefits of being a historian on UA-cam and one of the messages from there: presentation is important, and not just on this platform.
incredible
It is abuse to animals, just look how you destroyed them.
So what your saying... is that history is ambiguous and complicated? Man... your blowing my mind, I thought life was literally red or blue man!
Never is comrade
it's no joke man
There is white too.
Sounds like a communist conspiracy to me
You’d be surprised at how many people DON’t think history can be ambiguous and complicated.
2 death threats and 10 regular threats?
The internet rage machine must be malfunctioning again with low numbers like that.
Maybe the wackos are tired?
Those are rookie numbers, cipher's gotta pump those numbers up
UA-cam need to add threat and death threat to the like/dislike buttons :)
Cypher: "Press the like button if you liked the video, the dislike button if you didn't like the video. If you want to sucker punch me then hit the threat button, and if you want me dead then smash that death threat button. Remember to subscribe and I'll see you in the next video".
Ikr
Gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers.
In Soviet Russia myths tell you
Mispronunciation is hate. Cynical Historian *CANCELLED* 😱
Bye bye every substitute teacher ever
@@CynicalHistorian A-Arron.
@@CynicalHistorian Daddy noticed me! I am forever grateful 😇. Honestly though, keep up the good work, Cypher. We always enjoy your thorough, insightful, and... quirky savagery 🤭
🤣
@@connorhennessey1316 I didn't think it was possible.
You messed up A-A-RON. Take yo ass down to O Shag Hennessey office and tell him exactly what you just did
I never understand how people can be so quick to condemn atrocities but then turn around and defend identical atrocities because those atrocities were committed in the name of their own precious ideology. Murder and oppression is murder and oppression, no matter what Ideology it supposedly serves.
It just like that:
People are quick to criticise the groups they dislike (sometimes a fair and with points criticism) but when it comes to their own group....
So is always the best to watch what one side criticises the other side and then what that side criticises the other side and them make you own conclusions after researching and comparing yourself of course.
It’s quite literally “whataboutism”
It’s the equivalent of, say, today someone defending Trump (or Biden) using Drone strikes by saying “well, Biden did it too”
Like... okay? It’s still wrong no matter what ideology or political side did it
@@Ajaws I notice that happens a lot when Trump supporters defend kids in cages, they usually say "well Obama did it too". Maybe this is a hot take, but it was wrong when Obama put kids in cages and it was still wrong when Trump put kids in cages.
@GF That's a fair point, I'm very critical of the media myself so I get what you're talking about.
Boy, try to open a discussion about the Sahaaran slave trade, and how it made over twice the victims and atrocities of the trans atlantic slave trade and its impact is a major factor in the problems of Africa, and see how fast you are called a racist bigot.
12:33 “ Bolsheviks were in the minority” missed opportunity to say that the Bolsheviks were Menchaviks.
The Bolsheviks were in the majority at the point the term was coined during the Party Congresses, they later lost it afterwards
its also HIGHLY likely that the majority of anti communists were not even russian lol
@@KaiserFranzJosefI pretty sure they were still in the minorities when Lenin called his part of the party Bolshevik. But I'll go see
@@twoscarabsintheswarm9055 You could be right, but I would need to check my (pre u-tube) printed history books.
lol nice pun.
"I don't speak some arcane language dreamt up by mark" *speaks an arcane language dreampt up by William the bastard. * this is a joke btw
I’d say English is more of an abomination than arcane, the bastardized (heh) love-child of Latin and Germanic language groups
WarlordofBritannia and a good one at that.
My favorite myth about the USSR and communists in general is the "clean communist" myth. The myth, popular with tankies, is that Eastern Europe was such a cesspool of anti-Semitism that the governments and people secretly collaborated with Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jews. If this sounds like an excuse to try to discredit the atrocities the USSR committed in Eastern Europe as Nazi propaganda and try to paint communists as having a monopoly on being anti-fascists, then I say congratulations, you pointed out the obvious.
@@hammerandsickle8117 Ew. Why do you support raping their spouses? You can be fucked up and think whoever you view as fascist deserves death but I think you're disgusting if you think their spouses should be raped. How is that in any way justified? Do you get off to unnecessary brutality? I'm frankly surprised you aren't in support of the atrocities the nazis have committed because from your comment you sound more like a demented sadist looking for excuses than a genuine political advocate.
As a leftist, I'm impressed that you've managed to upset both leftists and rightists.
Pretty easy to do that when you have to do with Neo's and communists
Tankies arent lefties. He upset the right and the red right.
@Gemeiner Ossiraptor what does this mean?
@Gemeiner Ossiraptor Ah okay. I wasn't familiar with this terminology.
@Gemeiner Ossiraptor lefties like freedom. tankies like stalin. stalin doesnt like freedom. tankies arent leftists.
Just for the record: most of the really excellent historians I know mispronounce names and words all the time. It's almost an inevitability because truly good historians have a breadth of understanding that goes beyond just sources in languages they speak - and most of the time "you can't pronounce Russian so you obviously know nothing" is just a cheap attempt to silence any scholarship of Russian history that disagrees with the "official" Russian state interpretation of history. Curiously, those same "critics" will turn on Russian historians who speak English (or another language) a little TOO well, accusing them of being "corrupted" by Western propaganda.
As a native Russian speaker and historian, let me just say this: I really do not give a crap about anybody's pronunciation of Brezhnev, nor should anybody.
Pronunciation Police, along with Spelling Nazis are a menace to interesting discourse. More than anything else, in my opinion.
As long as a person can make themselves understood, that is the most important thing.
It's almost like they have more important things to concern themselves with...
"Here's a fact: Dennis Prager should frighten you." *Big racket* XD
As a kid who’s dad lived under two stereotypical socialist states (Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia), one of which was a Soviet satellite state, there was so much I wanted to comment about that I forgot about because why should I care what I watch on UA-cam. Reading reliable history books is much better for the noggin than anything on a website that doesn’t have a peer review system, even if that video was made by an actual historian.
Man I just wanna live in a society that takes care of people. I don't understand why thats so hard.
because too many people are selfish
Because the problem is not in the society but in the humans that are in the society, the problem is in you and i
Because many tried that and ended up becoming... Monsters...
As a socialist who can't stand tankies, I appreciated this video
I don’t like socialism but I can respect that. Fuck tankies all my homies hate tankies
@@TheChowster George Orwell was a socialist and also hated Tankies
What’s a Tankie?
@@TruePT most of the time it's Marxist Leninist
@@snorecore5447 That makes much more sense now, thanks!
I must say I appreciate how equal opportunity i.e intellectually consistent and honest you are in curating your comment section..I feel like that's a rare trait especially on YT these days.
Ya Cipher gets it, it's about facts.
History is facts, truth is opinion.
This comment is just respect for getting Friedrich Engels' pronunciation pretty much right, with Friedrich being one of the hardest German names to pronounce :D
Ich spreche Deutsch ein bisschen
@@CynicalHistorian Du bist besser als wir Berliner, bei uns heißt Friedrich II von Preußen einfach "der Olle Fritz".
You're better than people from Berlin. Over here, Friedrich II of Prussia is just called "the Old Fritz".
Andropov's policies differed greatly from those of Brezhnev. Despite being in power for only sixteen months, Andropov tried to do many questionable things, such as banning the growth of vineyards. My Dad's friend, who was a farmer's son, said that his mother was put out of business in 1983 for growing grapes. Chernenko repealed the policy during his short time, and as Cypher said, he was similar to Brezhnev in terms of policy. But it was Gorbachev who truly saved the farmers. Shortly after he took office in 1985, he reintroduced private farming, which was only a temporary measure. However, by the time Glasnost and Perestroika were fully realized, it was clear that private farming would not be revoked. Gorbachev's reforms are what led me to see him as a saint. Gorbachev said many times that ''Yeltsin was a drunk, Putin is an idiot.'' That is absolutely true. Putin IS an idiot. Putting up statues of Stalin in Volgograd, having notions of changing its name back to Stalingrad, butchering innocent Ukranian children, sending Russian children to their deaths... he's a monster and an idiot. Soon he'll get his comeuppance.
I'm Russian communist and I absolutely love your videos about communism and USSR. An adequate adult should be ready to give up his beliefs if he is presented with evidence that they are false, be critical of himself and his convictions, listen to both evidence and refutation and don't believe in anything on 100%. As you said, there is no absolute, no only 100% good or bad in communism, capitalism, monarchism and any other thing.
It's really nice to see level-headed folks in the comments here. These political matters are super touchy because of their divisive histories, but being skeptical and objective is really important, even when it comes to one's own beliefs.
Yeah, you did tons of research and cited primary sources, but you mispronounced a name that isn’t native to your mother tongue, so you’re not a real historian. /s
On a serious note, it’s hilarious that you got called a neo lib and a Tankie on the same video.
in case anyone doesn't know /s means satirical or sarcastic i just learned this lol
I agree with you but there is one thing that I do not understand about native english speakers or maybe just americans? Idk, why do you not inherently know how to pronounce words that are foreign to you? I am not trying to insult anybody but I just find it odd when people pronounce " carne asada" as " carneygh ass a dah" I am actually confused and do realize that this comment may sound condescending or smth like that but I assure you that this is a very real and not rethorical question
This legitimately cleared up an issue I had with myth 1/2 from your first video, thank you
The fact that you are being targeted by both leftists and rightists Cypher shows that you're doing something right.
Pretty sure that’s a centrist fallacy. It’s arguing that because what you’ve defined as radicals on both sides disagree with you, you’re in the right regardless of what the evidence, itself says, as it doesn’t address that issue in the slightest.
@@Le-cp9tr no that's not what I meant, the fact that the extremes of both sides target the historian ie. both accusing you of bias then you are taking a neutral stance on history or giving an accurate, realistic interpretation of it. We all know the extreme left and right both don't like history as it condemns their views and beliefs and love to deny history.
Tankies have more in common with Rightists then Leftists.
@@lutherblissett2634 based
@@lutherblissett2634 not the horse theorist ffs...
Pissing of Tankies and Fascists with one video. Gotta love it.
Same same... but different... but still same.
You are wrong because your “facts” disagree with my ideology.
Before I watch I just wanted to say thank you for that video. It was fun to watch and I learned a lot. I appreciate all the work you do and I'm happy to be here for the channel.
I Was born in USSR and live in Russia now. You can not imagine how many myths about our history we can hear every day on our TV. Capitalism is same everywhere. For more then 30 years they tell us about non working communism. I am lucky to read Lenin and Stalin in original. I bag pardon for my terrible English.
Glad to see people like u in USA
You have excellent English.
@@TruePT Soviet communistic school 😂😂😂
@@user-es6dc6fu6z lol 😂
"The Soviet Union was invited Afghanistan by the lawful government of Afghanistan, to provide military assistance. It's disingenuous to say that the Soviets invaded."
That screenshotted comment made me laugh. Yeah the same 'lawful' government that overthrew the previous government in the 1978 Saur Revolution (revolution was supported by the Soviet Union of course). Then followed by the Soviets decalring intervention as the current leader of Afghanistan wasn't pro-Soviet enough and then sending Spetnaz soldiers to assassinate him and then started military intervention, hardly an invitation, sounds more like an invasion to me. (It is worth noting that Hafizullah Amin had his pro-Soviet predecessor, Nur Muhammad Taraki, assassinated before him, but the Soviet's announcment of their invasion occurred during Amin's brief rule.)
Love when dudes rag on the US for invading other countries despite the USSR invading quite a few as well
@@themediumcheese what does one have to do with the other? Seriously. One in no way justifies or downplays the other.
@@Cobra1597 when did I say one was worse than the other
@@themediumcheese never said you did. What I accused you of is “whataboutism”
Look it up.
Tankies: 'Western Imperialism Bad'
Also Tankies: "ackshually the soviet union was completely just in it's invasion of (insert country here), they were just trying to spread the light of communism and in no way did they have any sort of selfish reasoning for doing so despite the fact literally every country operates by it's own self interest"
Point on the purges: The Bolsheviks in the 1920s did face a counter-revolution from within the party, the thing is, *it succeeded.*
What a shame. Might be kinder
It's a series of WHAT IF THE WORSE GUYS WIN scenarios until Hitler happened. If Stalin sided with Hitler, well, there goes the party.
@@str.77 He could have handed West Russia to Hitler
@@teslashark why would Stalin just hand the actually important bits to Hitler? That was never even a possibility. No dictatir in the history of ever has been ok with losing power or territory
@@str.77 Nah. He only was scared by him, as Hitler was; so they tried to prolong the peace within them. And the Poland part is more about revenge, from him not helping Tujachevsky (?) in Varsovia
Your calculation of Lend Lease's impact (at least the figure you show) is derived from Wolfgang Schumann which are in absolute dollars not PPP adjusted real dollars. Schumann used Leo Crowley's figures for his work and Crowley derived his figures from the funds appropriated under the Lend Lease Act which are all in absolute terms not real dollar terms for each country recipient. This is a problem because one dollar of aid does not go the same distance in the UK vs the USSR so simply taking at face value the absolute number does not tell you relative importance of the aid for each country.
A second complicating factor is using dollar value vs utility value. The best example of this is rubber, both natural and synthetic. The US had good access to natural rubber via Brazil and good production of synthetic rubber vs. the UK which had limited access to natural rubber but good production of synthetic rubber vs the USSR which had some access to natural rubber via central Asian calculation but very bad production of synthetic rubber, so the dollar value of one pound of rubber had a lower utility value in the US then in either the UK or the USSR, but this utility value which does not show up in the absolute dollar value Schumann used.
Again I'd recommend Military History Visualized series of videos on lend lease. Like you he is an academic historian making youtube videos and he's a great resource.
ua-cam.com/video/IJ9PiDvI4pY/v-deo.html
Still, 84% of 8% is the same amount know matter what dollar value you attribute to it
Conversely, have there been positive comments that you would want to highlight that provide historical, political, or social context that you feel is important?
"Of course, that requires tankies to read history, and that's unlikely."
That wasn't 'shots fired', that was a full-on fire mission lol
I really just want to thank you for making the myths video, It really made me feel good to learn something new about a subject and I have you to thank for being a good teacher
Honestly, I’d love to see a video on the evolution of Trotskyism to Neoconservatism
Imperialism globalisme trotskism neocons. I see a lot of a same paterns in thinking
Its ironic that you get accused of censorship when you literally make response videos to comments where you display the comments and openly respond to them with evidence and clarification, and you take in criticism and make notes on your decisions. It's literally how discourse works. I appreciate you're willingness to make this a conversation and that you make these diatribes.
@@primuspilusfellatus6501 Please provide sources for your argument. That is not censorship in the academic use of the word.
@@primuspilusfellatus6501 its His Comment section His Rules, thats like saying you were censored by your Neighbor because he kicked from his house when you called him and his wife an A*Hole.
You can yell and scream in the street about anything but not on someone else's Property.
@@dasfowler Free speach Laws only apply on Public areas not Privately owned ones like Comment sections as they are owned by the Channels and even technically anyother website you don't own, so UA-cam, Google ect can remove anything they don't want.
2:56 This stock footage is amazing.
Edit: Also keep up the good work :)
19:40 We're an ethno-religious group not a race, nor just a religion. They're utterly baseless in calling us a race, but it's best not to accidentally miscategorize us while defending us.
So that means your religion is tied to you ethnicity? Is it like Mongols and being Tengriest?
🤣🤔
@@aaroncohen2700 not necessarily by definition, but functionally speaking, yes.
Judaism (at least for the thousand or more years) hasn’t sought converts and, generally speaking, has frowned upon intermarriage (the last 150 years or so, the latter has loosened, but only somewhat).
The result is that Judaism tends to pass down by family only, and not through conversion or missionary work or other forms of expanding the group. While Catholicism spread to ethnic groups throughout Africa and South America (means not withstanding) and therefore expanded to tons of ethnic groups, while Buddhism was intentionally spread across the known world by the edicts of Ashoka, Judaism was far more isolated in community.
Fast forward a few thousand years, and the result is some amount of genetic isolation, and therefore the emergence of more distinct ethnic groups. There is a reason why Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jewish ethnic group) are much more likely to suffer from the genetic illness Tay Sachs Disease than Slavs or Germanic peoples living in the same exact regions. There’s a reason why genetic markers can be found linking Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Ashkenazi Jews distinctly separate from other populations.
It’s a result of cultural practices that have gone on for thousands of years.
@@Cobra1597 Exactly
@@aaroncohen2700 See Cobra's response or TL;DR Yes, but there's quite a bit more to it
I want to apologize for my comrades. Some of them are really stupid and stuck in the past. I hope we can overcome that in the future. Thanks for your great work!
@Doctor Wollenseuss oh no, pls not again (I get this question every fucking time).
my channel name is a joke.
on the other hand, all communists want to get rid of the state and Lenin was a communist; plus the original meaning of libertarianism was anarchist socialism so it really isn't that far of a stretch
@@LibertarianLeninistRants Not surprised. Commienism inspires a lot of local variants with different degrees of authoritarianism and many outliers like... Whatever the hell Pol Pot is trying to do...
@@axelpatrickb.pingol3228 Monke?
Why would you apologize to a rad lib? He should actually apologize for not even adressing critique in the comments but just making a smug video claiming how wrong everyone is and how right he is.
that one person who called dennis prager a "classical liberal"...oh god
Oh god this is gonna be entertaining
Charlie Theanteater true
Define 'entertaining'
@@owenr-m4619 Entertaining in the fact that some of these comments are so idiotic, and that the cynical historian always does a good job of explaining his position
it ether tankies or rapid anti commies or both.
I feel so bad for you having to read so much crap, Idk how you do it, honestly I would loose my mind
Eventually I learned to take solace in the good ones and find happiness in deleting the bad ones
@@CynicalHistorian lol well that's good, I know it really can take a toll in your mental health, so keep it up! we need more good quality content on the internet, that's for sure
he doesnt have to.
You know, I had my doubts when I saw that the first vid had comments disabled, and I don't completely agree with it either, but you did good Cypher.
Jreg and a Prager U ytp in a cynical historian video about my favorite subject I must be dreaming
Jeez I cant believe death threats are an expected part of the day's work for a historian on youtube :-/
You remind me of that movie scene: Girl asks biker if all they do is get drunk and tattooed, biker confirms, shows off tattoo of his birth place. Girl: "North Kadota?" Biker: "Yeah, the guy screwed up, it should be South Kadota... Kadota? Aw maaaaan..."
As an beginning historian looking to join the field through actual study, it amazes me that some people are so far up their own asses they cannot look at facts. Cypher makes awesome videos, and its sad that people love to start flame wars in comments that makes it worse for the rest of us.
10:45 That response reminds me of what the Cold War channel had to say when they tried to have a starting point when talking about the Cold War.
They mentioned how trying to pinpoint the exact date of when the Cold War had started is complicated and can actually be put on many points from the latest being the Soviet nuclear test to the earliest being the October Revolution.
In the end, they decided on the Potsdan Conference as that is when the borders dividing the East and West were made but they also mentioned how this can still be argued over, as once again, trying to actually pinpoint the date of the start of the Cold War is complicated.
>has dank Žižek memes
/*sniffes approvingly*/
I know that this probably doesn’t mean much, but I’m sorry you had to deal with all of the those tankies and fascists in the comment section. I’m pretty certain we disagree with each other politically (I’m for direct democracy over representative democracy at this point, regardless of whatever defense is erected for it), but I freely acknowledge that you were right in debunking those myths and clearing up people’s misconceptions. Not sure if this will reach you or not, but hope you’re doing well in this cursed year and have a Happy Halloween!
On "The USSR wasn't Imperialistic"
I've yet to figure out the practical difference between vanguardism and jingoism, beyond jingoism having more opportunities to manifest itself.
No difference me my eyes. Its hegemonic powers and their spheres of influence. Same tactics are even used.
Theoritically I dont see how those two have anything in common. Vanguardism is the idea that the most fortunate of the working class should be tasked with trying to help the rest of the working class. Think about it, if you have more free time to read books, talk to people, travel, etc. Then you van help educate and lead the workers that don't have much free time or less opportunities. Lenin compared it to a wrench. A wrench isn't superior to a person just because a wrench can do a specific job better than a human, so too the vanguard isn't better than the rest of the proletariat just because they can learn more easily. You don't have to agree with him on this by the way, let's just not misrepresent these ideas in ahistorical ways though.
A lot of those comments you deleted really didn’t seem to deserve it. It’s just my opinion and this comment might be deleted but you really don’t have to censor hate it’s hate and anyone who isn’t hateful can tell.
not everything I showed was deleted
Your channel is needed because of your unbiased honesty. I appreciate you, and have always respected that about your work. Your a worthy human.
Wow, a history content creator that moderates the comments. What a relief! Seriously, it is disheartening when trying to learn more about history and half the comments are 'race realists' or whatever people who are only interested because they need to justify their world views
It's so common on youtube. Thanks for taking the time bro. You make great stuff
Hey Cipher, I just wanted to say that I am a big fan of your work. Your videos are have helped to further my knowledge of all types of history. My one question I would like to ask is that, what is your opinion of the book "Khrushchev Lied" by Grover Furr as well as other pieces of pro Stalin books? Would you say it's historically accurate? I personal have not read it myself, but I think from the title it's just another piece of tankie propaganda. Keep up the great work my dude.
With respect,
Ivan
The fact you consider "creationists" bigots is hilarious btw
there's a few other things on there that are ridiculous to consider bigots too.
Big lmao
Creationist can be Bigots but not all Creationists are Bigots much in the Same way the Ancient Alien guys are, they just want to believe stuff that are not supported by facts.
15:53 interesting thing: this what modern Russia under Putin has done some time. It's always sown distrust against Citizen orgs, but from year 2012 it became legal, with foreign agent law. Non-profits organizations that receive donations or funding outside of Russia. "Foreing agent" label (aside that it sounds like spy organization) increases difficulties of people working for non-profits or outright making them unable to do so. They also have to submit to increased surveillance. It's been extremely effective in curbing NGO's, many who rather shutdown than submit.
And before you ask: yes. Main targets of this law have been human rights and anti-corruption Ngo's. Enviromentalist and anti-torture Ngo's also have felt squeeze.
Hey, uh... I'm a long time viewer of the channel and I've learned a lot in terms of historical analysis that has helped me a lot in terms of evaluating information of any kind as being credible or not. Anyways just a quick question as to Marx's flaws, can you like elaborate on your comments in regards to how he treated Fredrich Engels? How come Engels continued on his works after Marx's death if said treatment was pretty "terrible" in your own words? I don't comment much anyways, just curious as to that specific take
They actually had a huge falling out b/c what Marx said about his wife in the 1850s/60s. It took over a decade for them to get on the mend, and basically only because Engels was such a nice guy and kinda sycophantic
"Chad" I only recently found your channel. I'm fascinated by many intellectual pursuits and History is one of them. I'm 71 now and have always enjoyed reading and decided at age 12 that I would keep my learning spread out among many disciplines. My facilities are Math, Philosophy and the hard sciences, but I like to think I worked harder on the difficult things, history being my least natural niche. On surverys I fall into the some college crowd, no degrees.
As a Book guy myself I'm guilty of many mispronounciation. I remember when I was 15 I used to pronounce Prokofiev as Pro Ko Fief. I enjoyed how you said Brezhnev properly and then went right back to Brett-nev. Very Amusing. Because of my love of music Ihave a good ear for sounds and in college learned the value of phonetics.
Communism was never tried. what about Gandhi's Ashrams (I read his autobiography)?
I find the most virulent commentators are usually stuck in 8th grade math history science etc (and probably weren't a students enen then). Math shows the cracks in someone's abilities in a very clear way.
My last comment is that recently I came across the idea that Stalin worked with the Orthodox church. I'll have to investigate further.
I'm also fond of film, and have watched a few soviet war time epics. Good fun and gives me a chance to peck out a word of Russian here and there and pat myself on the back.
Again Chad thanks for the enlightening videos . I for one am not surpised in the least that you got heat of what are for me the two faces of toltaritarianism extreme right and extreme left and their modern not so well informed defenders.
All the Best from your latest subscriber Jim Oaxaca Mexico
I am curious on the decrease in Soviet military spending in the mid-1980s. Understand I am not disagreeing with the factuality of it, rather, I am curious as to the cause.
Does it line up with things like the Chernobyl disaster, which was financially expensive to deal with?
Basically, I’m asking if the military spending drop was because they weren’t trying to outspend the US militarily, or was it because they genuinely didn’t have the money to spend because of the financial fallout (I feel really bad for that pun) of Chernobyl?
I’m going to look into some of this myself, but I’d be very interested in your opinion on this as well.
I’ve loved your channel, your well researched information, and your presentation style. Also, you’ve opened my eyes to the evil that is Wilson, and the more I’ve researched on my own, the more horrified I am at him.
Thanks for the great content!
Damn it’s almost like no political ideology is perfect
Why do I have no desire to explore the nuances of various dictators? I just want to learn how to smoke meat and be nice to people.
I recommend the Ushanka Show to anyone curious what it was actually like to live in the Soviet Union - warts and all.
Can you do a video on "American Myths"?
@@dfmrcv862 well it was more likely because the US, Isreal, UK, and Saudi Arabia want to get rid of Iran not just oil but control of the region and stability for the Saudis and Israel.
My great-grandfather was a member of the CPSU from 1958 until 1992. He said that being a member of the party during Khrushchev's time was a very dangerous job. However, my great-grandfather did see Brezhnev as someone who was more conservative, and in his eyes, more difficult to deal with when it came to being a rank-and-file member of the party. He fiercely opposed Andropov's banning of grapes and Chernenko's apathy. This was one of the reasons as to why he received a Thank You Letter from Gorbachev in 1987 (though Gorbachev pretended that the main reason for that letter is because my great-grandfather survived the Blockade of Leningrad). He got Soviet military awards just before he left the party mere weeks after the Soviet Union fell. He also got Thank You Letters from Boris Yeltsin in 1994, and Lukashenko in 1997. By that point, most of my family was already making plans to move to the United States. In 1998, my parents came here, followed by my grandparents, and finally my great-grandfather in 2002.
Thanks for the amazing content as always my dude. Love your channel and hope life is treating you well. Keep on being badass.
Loved that Good Old PU cameo, greatest prager u video ever.
As someone who’s struggling with whether communism is good or not, historical perspective is helpful. Constantly trying to figure out what it is
It really depends on what type of Communism
Just look at the countries who attempted it and its an easy answer
History is, more often than not, a dark place, and requires an understanding a complicated web of events, people just want easy answers, but that's not always available.
Good job man, keep it up!
These videos are fucking rad. SO glad I found your content.
Dennis Prager should frighten you. Brilliant.
Loved this pair of videos, thank you!
Its amazing that some guy telling basic history with sources to prove it is treated as some political person despite the fact that he has never actually revealed his beliefs other than crimes against humanity is wrong. Its also amazing that people demand better sources but yet they never actually provide a link or a way to said better sources. It really is the lyrics from the song eye of the beholder "you can do it your own way/if its done just how i say." By metallica. I dont want to dmca anything so i wont go further. There is more that applies so i just suggest looking it up.
keep up the good work, the vids you make are really informative
The original video was great. I was born in 1975 and grew up in Kiev until we moved to Texas in 1990 to escape growing antisemitism and the downfall of the soviet economy. So i have a 3 sided perspective at this subject, - Soviet, American and Jewish. Your take on the 10 Soviet History Myths was very accurate. The only thing I would have a complaint about is your pronunciation of Brezhnev's name - but W/E. not a big deal. Speaking of Lenin's vindictiveness - I personally think his whole activism started and continued due to his older brother being hung by the Tzar for assassination attempt. Lenin became an activist to avenge his older brother's death IMHO.
I was also curious about the help send to the USSR by the western Allies.
Glad you addressed it here, filling a gap in my own knowledge about it.
I was surprised lend/lease for USSR ramped up after they made progress against the Nazis, which adds more complex interactions of allied nations in WWII.
People saying Gorbachev is the same as Stalin is the same as saying that Andrew Jackson is the same as Obama
Very true
I know I’m doing something right when the tankies and the red baiters are mad at me, lol. Just gotta stay in that democratic socialist center.
I'm sort of curious now to hear your opinion on MHV's old video on the difficulty of estimating the impact of Lend-Lease on the Soviet war effort (Why determining the Impact of Lend-Lease is so complicated - Military History Visualized, 14 August 2018). I didn't ask this in the original video because it doesn't actually say anything different from the original content of the video (debunking the idea that D-Day somehow "saved" the USSR), but given your comments about the minor percentage in terms of value of the total Soviet war effort, I am curious about whether you think the points he makes (or more accurately quotes) about the intangible values of production quality and timing have any impact on your assessment.
Great video. Nice to see my comment briefly got some time on screen even if you couldn’t read it.
I'd be mortified if I was deleted or banned i love your channel
I got really confused when you just out of nowhere brought up that conservatism has its origins in Trotsky, like can you go into more of that because it sounds really interesting
*neoconservatism.
This is from wikipedia on neo-conservatism
Critics have argued that since the founders of neo-conservatism included ex-Trotskyists, Trotskyist traits continue to characterize neo-conservative ideologies and practices. During the Reagan administration, the charge was made that the foreign policy of the Reagan administration was being managed by ex Trotskyists.[citation needed] This claim was called a "myth" by Lipset (1988, p. 34), who was a neoconservative himself. This "Trotskyist" charge was repeated and widened by journalist Michael Lind during 2003 to assert a takeover of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration by former Trotskyists. Lind's "amalgamation of the defense intellectuals with the traditions and theories of 'the largely Jewish-American Trotskyist movement' [in Lind's words]" was criticized during 2003 by University of Michigan professor Alan M. Wald, who had discussed Trotskyism in his history of "the New York intellectuals".
The charge that neoconservativism is related to Leninism has also been made. Francis Fukuyama identified neoconservatism with Leninism during 2006. He wrote that neoconservatives "believed that history can be pushed along with the right application of power and will [substantially analogous to "will to power" of Nietzschean memory]. Leninism was a tragedy in its Bolshevik version, and it has returned as farce when practiced by the United States. Neoconservatism, as both a political symbol and a body of thought, has evolved into something I can no longer support".
I think one of my favorite Soviet myths is that Stalin was an unintelligent brute. I usually hear this kind of thing from Trotsky fan boys. The truth is Stalin was a brute of course, but he was actually a very intelligent and manipulative one. The most dangerous kind of brute.
High intrigue and diplonacy skill, low learning skill.
Obligatory Zizek references... noice
obligatory *sniff* I D E O L O G Y
ua-cam.com/video/80X0pbCV_t4/v-deo.html ; cut the balls
If anybody is that concerned with free speech they can start their own channel and let the comment sections go all wild west if they want to.
You're not stopping them from doing that.
As center rightist, I approve of this video. Subbed!
"I only received 2 death threats" ONLY?!?!
This is the internet death threats are the norm.
@@forickgrimaldus8301
I have received a good many death threats over the years. As well as threats to rape & maim me.
I have found all of those threats came from the right.
Threats aren't fun to get but I wouldn't put much stock in threats from the left. From the right, you might need to worry.
@@cinemathequerouge317 rule of thumb, extreme people react extremly and there are alot of them in the web
@@cinemathequerouge317 also don't take them seriously as most of them are just annoying rather than a real threat
@@forickgrimaldus8301
You're not kidding there. I used to get a lot of threats when I was on television. They taught us how to differentiate between credible threats & nuisances.
Once someone found out where I lived & placed a squirrel with a knife plunged into it and placed it on my doorstep. THAT prompted a call to the coppers.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and I'm impressed. Subbed and I'll definitely have this channel in my rotation.
I’ll never get Holomodor denial. Like I personally don’t think it can be classified as genocide but rather the result of failed economic policies, and Ukraine was hit hardest by policies like dekulakization and forced collectivization, and was made worse by Stalin’s response (or lack thereof), and historians are gonna debate all those things till the end of time, but you deny that 2-3 million people died in Ukraine died during that period.
Maybe I’m thinking to hard about it because negationism at the end of the day just boils down to “this event didn’t actually happen”
Just want to say I'm impressed by your reasoning ability, it's refreshing
wonderful videos m8ty, rekindling my intrest in the Soviets, intrtnet tankies and their ranting turned me away
Some of these comments were so hysterically dumb, that they gave me a bit of a chuckle. (Which is quite unfortunate considering how horrific some of the events discussed are). Anyways, keep up the good work and continue to shit on both the far left and far right.
Well Lenin did purge the Romonov family
Sir you are to reasonable I LOVE IT have a great day 😊
Hey look, it’s me! 5:08
If you couldn’t tell, I was trying to be respectful, but I don’t feel it’s fair to group this criticism in with ones that are very clearly anti Semitic or are specifically attacking your character.
i was literally going to use you as an example in one of my comments😂😂 i think that's the nature of power and platforms. people can often misinterpret what you mean and i knew that you had well intentions because you seemed very open to debate or discussion
I feel alot of the comments seemed fairly tame some were horrible but others were fairly tame and respectful. just my own observation
My cousin & I both enjoyed your video. For the record, we are both of the far left and could safely be called Communists.
We do have some disagreement on some of your criticism of Communism, Trotsky, Lenin etc
That said, you still put together a good, well researched presentation.
Any criticism of Communism, combined with historical analysis gives those of us who are pushing to bring about Socialism(and ultimately Communism) more to think about and shines a light on errors that we can avoid going forward.
Be well.
Tankies and fascists are the same people just one wears a brown shirt with a tank on it the other wears a red shirt with a tank on it.
Coming from my rather conservative professor at a Christian university "the deadliest words in history are either Deus Vult or hoc est corpus meum" so yeah spot on on the Jesus statement.
If you using Mac, all the text inside, any image is automatically OCR’ed and available to search normally. I often have to search through pages of translated manga to find certain memes, and it’s great having all of that text automatically imported into my system.
I'm on PC, but as far as I know PNGs aren't OCR'd on either OS
I will also say, that you are really helping me learn a lot more about stuff I didn’t fully understand, so cheers and I look forward to the future videos
5:40 D-did Cypher just let a /his/ meme slip into the comments?
Which one?
If you run stock android there's an option in the photos tab that will convert legible text into text.