ReadabilityMass Murders Wanted, No Experience Needed
Stacy McCain links to a story in the NYT concerning a young Marxist who has developed a following:
Since its debut in September 2010 it has attracted nearly 2,000 print and digital subscribers, some 250,000 Web hits a month, regular name-checks from prominent bloggers, and book deals from two New York publishers.
While Stacy comments on the lack of interest in bloggers with bigger audiences I found the following words much more significant: (emphasis mine)
it got my attention because, of course, Marxism is the deadliest idea in human history. Marxist-Leninist regimes killed 100 million of their own citizens in the 20th century but, hey, let’s assign a cheerful human-interest story about this young idiot who thinks it’s hip and cool to revive a discredited ideology.
It’s that 100,000,000 in a century that is significant, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
Think about it for a moment. Government sponsored murder is a lot of work, there is apprehending a person, holding them, stripping them of valuables, mock trials, guards preventing the person from escaping or overpowering those holding them, the actual killing of the victim, disposal of the body, record keeping to make sure its done right and people to supervise the entire operation in case anyone gets cold feet.
Now consider the number of people murdered. 100,000,000 people murdered in a century works out to 1,000,000 a year or 2739 people a day, 114 an hour or just over one person murdered every 31 seconds 24 hours a day every day for a full 100 years.
How many people do you think murder on such a scale requires: 1000? 10,000? 100,000?
Maybe even 250,000!
Those hits aren’t visits to a web site, they are a reminder to the next person who wants to pick up the bloody mantle of 20th century Marxism that there are people ready willing and able to do its dirty work, they are the resume pool for the next Marxist régime
Update: Last paragraph repeated, removed
Stacy McCain links to a story in the NYT concerning a young Marxist who has developed a following:
Since its debut in September 2010 it has attracted nearly 2,000 print and digital subscribers, some 250,000 Web hits a month, regular name-checks from prominent bloggers, and book deals from two New York publishers.
While Stacy comments on the lack of interest in bloggers with bigger audiences I found the following words much more significant: (emphasis mine)
it got my attention because, of course, Marxism is the deadliest idea in human history. Marxist-Leninist regimes killed 100 million of their own citizens in the 20th century but, hey, let’s assign a cheerful human-interest story about this young idiot who thinks it’s hip and cool to revive a discredited ideology.
It’s that 100,000,000 in a century that is significant, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
Think about it for a moment. Government sponsored murder is a lot of work, there is apprehending a person, holding them, stripping them of valuables, mock trials, guards preventing the person from escaping or overpowering those holding them, the actual killing of the victim, disposal of the body, record keeping to make sure its done right and people to supervise the entire operation in case anyone gets cold feet.
Now consider the number of people murdered. 100,000,000 people murdered in a century works out to 1,000,000 a year or 2739 people a day, 114 an hour or just over one person murdered every 31 seconds 24 hours a day every day for a full 100 years.
How many people do you think murder on such a scale requires: 1000? 10,000? 100,000?
Maybe even 250,000!
Those hits aren’t visits to a web site, they are a reminder to the next person who wants to pick up the bloody mantle of 20th century Marxism that there are people ready willing and able to do its dirty work, they are the resume pool for the next Marxist regime
Update: Last paragraph repeated, removed
[...] UPDATE: Da Tech Guy does the math and figures to kill 100 million people in 100 years, you’d have to k…. [...]