Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy)

A fallacy that isolates the deaths attributed to communist regimes from their historical context, treating them as if they occurred in a vacuum rather than amid civil war, foreign intervention, industrialization, and the collapse of old orders. The fallacy presents communist atrocities as sui generis, uniquely evil, while ignoring that comparable or greater suffering occurred under colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism—often at the same times, in the same places, by the same actors. Isolating deprivation allows the fallacy-user to condemn one system while absolving others, to treat communism as uniquely murderous while forgetting the millions killed by Western powers. It's history as selective memory, atrocity as political weapon.

Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) Example: "He listed the deaths under Mao without mentioning that they occurred during a brutal civil war, after decades of foreign occupation, amid the most rapid industrialization in history. The Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation had stripped away all context, leaving only numbers—numbers that could be used to condemn, never to understand. His listeners were left with horror without history, which is exactly what he wanted."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026

Fallacy of Specific Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy)

A fallacy that focuses on specific, often well-documented atrocities while ignoring the broader context of suffering in which they occurred. The fallacy presents, for example, the Holodomor or the Killing Fields as uniquely communist evils, while ignoring that Ukraine also suffered under tsarist rule, Nazi occupation, and capitalist shock therapy—or that Cambodia was devastated by US bombing before the Khmer Rouge took power. Specifying deprivation allows the fallacy-user to condemn particular events while absolving the systems that created the conditions for those events. It's history as highlight reel, atrocity as argument-ender.

Fallacy of Specific Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) Example: "He brought up the Holodomor every time someone mentioned socialism, as if one event could settle the question of an entire system. The Fallacy of Specific Deprivation meant he never had to address the millions who died under capitalism, under colonialism, under 'democracy.' One famine, endlessly repeated, did all his arguing for him."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026

It's kill or be killed

A phrase Flowey says at Undertale's tutorial.

You IDIOT. In this world, it's KILL or BE KILLED.

by hitlerisbadguy February 21, 2026

Fallacy of Absolute Privation (Fallacy of Communism Killed Millions)

A logical fallacy where someone dismisses an entire ideology, system, or idea by pointing to its worst outcomes, stripped of all context, history, and mitigating factors. The name comes from the classic "Communism killed millions" argument—which isn't false on its face, but becomes fallacious when used to end all discussion without examining specific contexts, variations, alternatives, or comparative harms. The Fallacy of Absolute Privation isolates the worst instances, treats them as the whole truth, and uses suffering as a conversation-stopper. It's not that the suffering isn't real—it's that citing it without context, comparison, or analysis is a rhetorical weapon, not an argument. Any system, ideology, or idea can be condemned by its worst expressions; the fallacy is pretending that's the end of the story.

Fallacy of Absolute Privation (Fallacy of Communism Killed Millions) "We were discussing educational reforms, and someone mentioned learning from Nordic models. Response: 'Nordic socialism? You mean like Communism that killed millions?' That's the Fallacy of Absolute Privation—conflating Nordic social democracy with Soviet communism, ignoring all context, and using historical tragedy to shut down discussion of school lunch programs."

by Dumu The Void February 24, 2026