[the_af]

> She has also done work on religion,[57] and has argued that Stalin was a god of science, and an incarnation both of the god Thoth and the Christian God.

I took the time to follow the link and read her very short essay on Stalin the God and it's very clearly parody and an attempt at absurdist humor. Russians and Kazakhs can do dry/straightfaced humor as well as the Brits.

Misrepresenting the essay as her honest beliefs is like arguing Monty Python really cannot tell a dead parrot from a live one.

[CamperBob2]

(Shrug) If her support for Stalin and Russkiy Mir in general is parody, she fooled me.

Elbakyan comes across as ten pounds of crazy in a five-pound bag, but that doesn't mean she isn't doing awesome, vital work.

[the_af]

(Read until the end, I'm merely commenting on the Stalin God thing, I do agree some things are weird).

I just read it, and the excerpts, the random images she chooses to include in it, the straightfaced giant leaps in logic (Thoth was the Egyptian god of knowledge, the Christian god came from the Middle East, therefore they -- and Stalin -- are one and the same), all reek of something that could have been posted in Something Awful.

I mean, come on:

> Hence Stalin was not just an ancient pagan god - but he was that God christians believe in. In a critical moment for the country and for the whole humanity he came down to Earth, wearing a cool mustache avatar, and restored the order: he revived economics and created the powerful science. He created a communist paradise for righteous people, while bad people were sent to GULAG. He won the war against the evil forces of Hitler, and even restored Israel, as he promised to do long time ago.

"Wearing a cool mustache avatar"? You really believe she wrote this in earnest?

Russians have a warped sense of humor. Though I suppose in this day and age, it's impossible to tell when someone is being sarcastic on the Internet ;) I know I can't anymore!

Edit: I do admit her subjects of interest are all over the place though. I'll grant you that!

[orbital-decay]

Having heard her before, I can assure you she's not sarcastic. This completely fits her character of a pure, devoted paladin of a totalitarian imperialistic communist (heh...) religion of her own making, with a bizarrely self-contradicting pantheon in her head. Putting it bluntly, she's batshit insane. Which is probably the only kind of person that can be good at this sort of work.