• lilpissbaby [any]
    ·
    4 years ago

    every time you're overthrowing a monarch you either kill potential heirs to the throne or run into the possibility of someone challenging your legitimacy in a few years. there's even passages in The Prince, by Machiavelli that goes over this.
    remember that this was in the early 20th century, in a largely agrarian country and as the world's first worker's revolution. they needed to be as paranoid/careful as they could to succeed.

      • FidelCastro [he/him]
        hexagon
        M
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Trotsky, I know you're still salty about things, but damm why you gotta do the state departments work for them?

      • lilpissbaby [any]
        ·
        4 years ago

        yes, but there is a difference between someone who the people have been told their entire lives is entitled to power by god and some random fuck the bourgeoisie and foreign powers decided to back as their counter-revolutionary leader. one can be done with much more ease and speed while the other takes longer and needs actual political work. nobody cares about a thirds cousin fuckwit, but the king's child? that's someone people can rally behind.
        of course counter-revolution is a constant for a proletarian State, but there's no need to do the reactionaries' work for them. there's no way keeping them hostage would have been any better optics (the soviets kept the Romanov children hostage for decades while torturing them and using them as bargaining chips!!!!!!!!)
        no one cares about the Romanov family except for monarchists (lmao) and leftists, this is literally a non-issue.

          • lilpissbaby [any]
            ·
            4 years ago

            you really think that if the Romanovs were to be in the custody of the bolsheviks for a while that the torture accusations wouldn't pour in? you might think it wasn't necessary to minimize the chances that someone with a direct claim to the throne shows up, but leading thinkers of taking power against monarchies, like Machiavelli, would disagree.
            i'm saying no one cares about what happened to them now, back then, as futures heirs to the throne, it was a very different story. to say that a post satirizing the killing of aristocrats is specifically talking (and gloating!) about killing children and hyperfixating on it is arguing against something that only exists in your head, at best, and being dishonest, at worse.

      • SerLava [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        The no-name third cousin isn't much of a threat

          • SerLava [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            4 years ago

            I mean, empires have been sustained off the legitimacy of a 5-year old

            The people who did it could have easily imagined one of those kids decreeing the massacre of their families

            • FidelCastro [he/him]
              hexagon
              M
              ·
              edit-2
              4 years ago

              You're right and also I don't think this person studies history lol

              • SerLava [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                4 years ago

                I don't say it to dunk on them, and the killing makes me really uncomfortable. I think the issue is not seeing the situation as real, not living in their present day in the midst of all the history that came before it.

                I think anyone would understand shooting down like, a German bomber that the Nazis decided to put a couple of babies in.

              • SerLava [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                4 years ago

                yes, and when neolibs drone strike children, they imagine those children will grow up to be terrorists. perceived threat and actual threat aren’t the same thing.

                I mean, one of those is significantly more realistic. You make some other good points though

                  • SerLava [he/him]
                    ·
                    4 years ago

                    no no worries, sorry the thread is kinda hostile, and you might be right about it being really useless. I still think if it was cut and dry, it's just a trolley problem, but you made good points that it might have been excessive and counterproductive. Either way it sucks, and someone is guilty for creating that situation, either directly or indirectly