This episode serves as an introduction to the Cambodian genocide and we discuss, as communists, how the genocide occurred, the ideas that led to it, and ask, how much does communism have a cultism problem? Discussion includes identifying cult tactics of control, the rise of radical groups within a vacuum caused by political and state instability, understanding the Khmer Rouge as a kind of 'peasant ISIS', who viewed the working class as their oppressive class. We also touch on the reoccurring persistence in radical politics of a need to systematise all matters and believe in one universal theory that explains everything, and proposing a system based on the one grand theory that can supposedly solve all society's problems.
This episode serves as an introduction to the Cambodian genocide and we discuss, as communists, how the genocide occurred, the ideas that led to it, and ask, how much does communism have a cultism problem? Discussion includes identifying cult tactics of control, the rise of radical groups within a vacuum caused by political and state instability, understanding the Khmer Rouge as a kind of 'peasant ISIS', who viewed the working class as their oppressive class. We also touch on the reoccurring persistence in radical politics of a need to systematise all matters and believe in one universal theory that explains everything, and proposing a system based on the one grand theory that can supposedly solve all society's problems.