• Pezevenk [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    they were way way more legitimate than the Khmer Rouge and an actual revolutionary communist movement

    You can say the same stuff about the Khmer Rouge. They were every bit as bad, they just never got to power. The only difference was that Shining Path was on slightly better theoretical grounding, but very slightly better. Even before they became big they were completely out of touch and weird, and they operated largely like a cult.