A form of fallacy that cites the absolute number of deaths attributed to communist regimes—typically the Soviet Union, China, or Cambodia—as an argument against any form of socialism or communist thought, while ignoring context, comparative analysis, or the question of what those numbers actually mean. The fallacy works by presenting large numbers as self-evident condemnation, as if the scale alone settled the matter. It ignores that all modern states have killed millions—colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, democracy—and that the question is not whether atrocities occurred but what caused them, whether they were inherent to the system or contingent, and what the alternatives were. The Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation is beloved of cold warriors and those who prefer moral simplicity to historical complexity. It reduces genocide to a statistic and uses that statistic to foreclose thought.
Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) Example: "He ended every discussion of socialism with the same numbers: 'Stalin killed millions. Mao killed millions. Pol Pot killed millions.' The Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation meant he never had to engage with arguments about healthcare, wages, or working conditions. The numbers did all his work for him—never mind context, never mind comparison, never mind that capitalism had killed its millions too. Absolute numbers, absolutely weaponized."
by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026
Get the Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) mug.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
Get the Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) mug.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
Get the Fallacy of Specific Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) mug.I regularly find myself, usually as I'm regaining consciousness after I sleep, where (though I try) I have no control over my body and I have to sit there and wait while the processes in my brain that allow me to control my limbs come online. For, like, 1 to 60 seconds I am a soundless voice in an endless void. And that isn't a feeling I have. While it's happening the only feeling I have is, like, a mild anxiety regarding my inability to gain control of my limbs. I have memory of the articulated thought I generated while I was in this state. Prime example is one morning where I either dreamt there was or I awoke to a middle aged hispanic women standing in my apartment staring out of my window. I raised my head but I was still struggling to gain access to my limbs and I yelled at her "What the fuck are you doing in my apartment!?" (And this isn't the state I'm talking about by the way) but as she turned around and seemingly glided out of my apartment, I stumble as I was trying chase her our of my apartment and my head fell into my pillow and everything went black and I was in this this state. I was fully conscious and I thought "Did I leave my door unlocked or something?" And I couldn't move my body and struggled to gain control of my limbs. It felt as though I was filling a glove or something. But THAT is the self.
It is the first process that comes online when you gain conscious and the time span between that process coming online and the other processes can vary. But that isn't an illusion that my brain made me think I was experiencing. I don't fault you for thinking than and I am sure some people DON'T have a self or a sense of self but that isn't necessarily the maker of a high functioning mind.
Hym Iam "So the inverse is also true. In the same way you describe the meditative state where you are fully present in your body you can, conversely, be in a state were you are relegated entirely to your own mind. And the reason I take issue with the assertion that it isn't real is that it gives solipsistic, mentally retarded, and morality retarded people license to be overconfident in the veracity of their own experience (which is more often than not delusion) and, thus, validate the solipsism. In the same way that this practice of weaponized schizophrenia gives people license to denigrate me and deny me rights. And NOW... After being self-righteous in the inaction and making themselves an obstacle to me (deliberately and only because I said that they were that) are trying to scapegoat me for the consequences of that decision they made so that they don't have to live with the consequences of their failure to reason and/or spite."
Hym Iam "So the inverse is also true. In the same way you describe the meditative state where you are fully present in your body you can, conversely, be in a state were you are relegated entirely to your own mind. And the reason I take issue with the assertion that it isn't real is that it gives solipsistic, mentally retarded, and morality retarded people license to be overconfident in the veracity of their own experience (which is more often than not delusion) and, thus, validate the solipsism. In the same way that this practice of weaponized schizophrenia gives people license to denigrate me and deny me rights. And NOW... After being self-righteous in the inaction and making themselves an obstacle to me (deliberately and only because I said that they were that) are trying to scapegoat me for the consequences of that decision they made so that they don't have to live with the consequences of their failure to reason and/or spite."
by Hym Iam February 26, 2026
Get the The inverse is also true mug..
Angel Jose Robles Is Also Known As Hellstromism (Hellstrom), Also Known As Messenger Add Oak Is Thing One And He Knew It Would Happen To Him Soon.....
by Angel234IsTheDarkSeraphim March 16, 2025
Get the Angel Jose Robles Is Also Known As Hellstromism (Hellstrom), Also Known As Messenger Add Oak Is Thing One And He Knew It Would Happen To Him Soon..... mug.by MajorLeague1989Inspiration April 24, 2025
Get the Melissa Gallo Fumero Is Also Known As, Julia Lopez Robles Estrada Tanna mug.by Hym Iam June 12, 2025
Get the This is ALSO the Truth mug.