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Did people ever use Oliver Cromwell as a cautionary tale about revolutions in the same way people use Stalin now? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I was thinking about how the American and French Revolutions are sometimes seen, especially by Marxists, as more 'successful' versions of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth.

Nowadays, whenever people suggest even mild leftwing ideas, someone pops up and says 'Sure if you want to end up with STALINISM' so, I was wondering if people said the same thing about Cromwell and the Roundheads before the American Revolution? Like, 'If we get rid of the British, next thing you know they'll be cancelling CHRISTMAS!'

The parallels between Cromwell and Washington are pretty obvious: 'successful revolutionary general defeats the monarch's forces in a war that started as a dispute about tax, then becomes the new head of state' applies to both. Did people at the time see the comparison or were the two men and the two conflicts seen as very different?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I just want to say we already have left wing policies in the USA. We have progressive income tax, social security, laws against turning people away from hospitals, government-funded food assistance, housing assistance, due process, etc etc.

The reason people associate the recent pushes with Stalinism isn’t because they’re left wing. It’s because they’re Marxist, and because they’re aimed at eradicating inequality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

They're not Marxist; they're not aimed at eradicating inequality; if they did aim at eradicating inequality, that wouldn't necessarily make them Marxist, because Marxism did not aim at eradicating inequality.

Apart from that, yep, all good points.