[jojobas]

"We're endlessly cursing comrade Stalin, of course, for a good reason. And still I'd like to ask - who wrote the four million delations?"

S. Dovlatov

Still, it's Stalin&Co's "achievement" that people were en masse corrupted to the state where they'd frame their neighbours and family to gain their sorry possessions or stave off their own persecution.

The closer you were to the Leviathan, the more at risk you were too, the most executed occupation being NKVD officer.

[galaxyLogic]

That is how Devil, mafia-bosses and authoritarians work in general:

They get people to do some dirty deed on their behalf. Kill somebody for instance. Once you do that you cannot rat on the boss any more because you too have by now engaged in crime. So now you are under the thumb of the mob-boss, you cannot go back to normal decent life any more.

Consider Trump and Republican Party. Very few there dare to be critical of Trump any more even when he says publicly he will be dictator on day 1 if he wins the next election.

If you give the Devil a finger he will take your hand, and soon everything.

But that old saying also tells us the choice is yours to make. If you don't give Devil anything he can't take anything from you.

But once you let yourself to be corrupted a little, he can take more from you because if he then sinks you will sink too. He can then order you to do more evil deeds and then use the fact that you did them to make you do more.

[jojobas]

House and Senate Republicans are motivated by their own goals and gains, not fear of Trump's vengeance.

To even compare Trump with Stalin is idiotic.

Also, Devil doesn't exist.

[galaxyLogic]

You can compare anything to anything to see how they differ and not.

Stalin obviously wanted to be a dictator before he became one. Trump has said he wants to be dictator on Day 1, and today his lawyers have lost a case in court where they argued that Trump should be immune from being prosecuted for anything he did while in the office. Luckily for us they lost the case. But appeals are surely coming.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68026175

Trump is arguing nobody could charge him with anything, if he cancelled elections and even murdered his opponents, like Putin seems to be doing. And we know he likes and admires Putin.

Stalin was a dictator but not always. There was a time when he merely wanted to be a dictator. Trump is not a dictator at the moment, but clearly he would like to become one. He has instructed his lawyers to argue in court he should be given the power to be above the law, to be immune from any prosecution.

[jojobas]

You sure can compare anything, but in this case the very fact of comparison highlights that you're either delusional or trolling.

Stalin was not always a dictator, but he was always a ruthless murderer, his revolutionary career started with extreme violence and went on for 40 years. Stalin was never elected other than by a murderous clique (whom he then had murdered) and ruled by corruption and murder ever since.

I hate to defend Trump but he's totally harmless in comparison. There's just no scope for anything resembling the personal fear-loyalty dynamics of 1920s-1940s ruling circle USSR in the US. Trump can't order anyone killed, he can't even order anyone imprisoned.