[TeeMassive]

> if not by exploiting widespread discontent in the general population?

That wasn't the original point. Widespread discontent do not always lead to bloody revolution or communist regimes with despotic leaders.

[hanche]

Indeed, but widespread discontent seems to be an important risk factor for that outcome, isn’t it?

My understanding of history is limited, but this I know; History is always messy, and you can never identify just one single reason for the way things turned out.

[TeeMassive]

The US hasn't seen total war, famine and disease yet the Marxists are openly pushing people against one another to ferment a revolution. Again we see the same pattern of upper middle class intellectuals radicalized in universities openly opposing incremental reforms in favor of violent uprisings. Just saying "History is messy" is intellectual laziness, the patterns are clear and happened many times before.