“THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”

― Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Actually we just won an election

Ok that's just an outright fucking lie.

The Bolsheviks didn't start "winning" elections until they'd already forced everyone into supporting them, the 1917 election featured the Bolsheviks being blown out of the goddamned water by the SRs, and getting tailed pretty hard by the Ukrainian Regional Socialist Party

All this comic does is bend history into absolute knots to try and sell an image of what a democratic revolution would look like, but the tone and telling it represents is blatantly revisionist to a fucking maddening degree.

This thread has been a lesson in how many ways people can find to miss the joke. The cartoon isn't that subtle, surely?

look, I read the Economist every time I'm at my dentist's office, so I'm obviously a little bit ahead of the curve in terms of political literacy, but I'm not sure I understand what this comic is trying to say, given that the events it depicts did not literally happen. could someone explain what this comic means? it would be a great help.

unrelatedly, but just as urgently, is there anyone who is an expert in going to the bathroom? I got to the part where my pants are fully pulled down around my ankles, but I'm not sure how to sit if I have to make both doodie and weewee. I'm guessing I face the tank? thanks in advance.

I mean I get it, but it still feels very disrespectful towards all the eastern europeans killed by bolshevism

My take for the comic is that voting for those "communists" will not change anything, and capitalism will still eat us alive.

There has to be some option that is not Bolshevik dictatorship or capitalism with some virtue signaling dressing.

The metaphor is a bit weird. It's almost as if they're dogwhistling about the horrors of the actual Russian revolution and system.

But I guess what they're actually trying to say is that calling democrats communists is just stupid and wrong. Which yeah, it totally is.

THE VERY DEFINITION OF COMMUNISM

I'm having nightmares every day about the poor billionaires having to pay something slightly more close to their fair share in taxes! When will this horror end?

Yeah, the bolsheviks would just have shot them. The whole family. Yes, kids too. Probably they would have raped them before and/or after. Then set the house on fire.

Trump is handsome?

I don't think that's how it went