When you see the Hammer And Sickle, what do you think

[Fireye]

I generally think "oh, great, another one who's going to gloss over Stalin's atrocities."

[Dejanic]

Honestly, though I am a Communist and I do like the aesthetics of the Hammer and Sickle, I largely associate it with Stalinism/Maoism. I think the red flag is a better symbol of genuine Communism.

[Quackquackhonk]

When you look at a communist hammer and sickle, what first pops into your head?

communism, not really stalinism or the atrocities of the soviet union.

[Lerodan Chinamerica]

A more stylish swastika.

[Luziyca]

Communism.

[Alyakia]

When I see the Hammer and Sickle, I think of idiocy and jealousy. Exactly what the Bolsheviks were.

oh yeah. i see what you mean. the secret police really got their start in 1880 under the tsar, people were starving while he thought the proper solution to this was to send paintings instead of food to the soldiers who were fighting the war that "russia was totally prepared for serious guys" but the real fucking kicker was jealously, envy of the rich, of the successful! oh what a horrible class war. you nailed it. right on the head. good job. send in the pity parade, if you can. it was kinda a piece of shit practically feudal state (not going to space any time soon, tbh) so you might have a bit of a problem actually getting there. but i'm sure that had you been able to you would have been welcomed with open arms, and the serfs would have all joined you in awe of the russian ruling classes amazing wealth and fought with you against the horrible evil jealous people who want to take it away because of their envy of the rich. god speed.

[Viritica]

I think of the USSR and how much of a douchebag it was.

[Xsyne]

I think of being able to deal full damage to skeletons and zombies.

[Old Tyrannia]

I think of gulags, war, famine and secret police. Of course I also think of communism, the Soviet Union, and edgy teens and intellectuals- "useful idiots" as Stalin called them. And I even think of Command and Conquer: Red Alert. I do not, however, immediately think of the actual symbolism of the hammer and sickle- that is, the union of industrial and agricultural workers. That's the last thing I think of, and even then I only think how bitterly ironic it is.

[The Union of Sjaelland and Fyn]

As a socialist, it depends on how it's being used. Looking at it alone just tells me "Communism," but when I see it on a GOP badge, it tells me, "Here! Have another reason to move to Denmark!"

Yes, I know Denmark is not socialist, but it's probably the closest thing we have to democratic socialism, as well as a potential step between capitalism & socialism.

[Jetan]

When I see the Hammer and Sickle, I think of idiocy and jealousy. Exactly what the Bolsheviks were.

oh yeah. i see what you mean. the secret police really got their start in 1880 under the tsar, people were starving while he thought the proper solution to this was to send paintings instead of food to the soldiers who were fighting the war that "russia was totally prepared for serious guys" but the real fucking kicker was jealously, envy of the rich, of the successful! oh what a horrible class war. you nailed it. right on the head. good job. send in the pity parade, if you can. it was kinda a piece of shit practically feudal state (not going to space any time soon, tbh) so you might have a bit of a problem actually getting there. but i'm sure that had you been able to you would have been welcomed with open arms, and the serfs would have all joined you in awe of the russian ruling classes amazing wealth and fought with you against the horrible evil jealous people who want to take it away because of their envy of the rich. god speed.

Because the Collective Regime of Peace and Love that followed was so much better, amirite?

[Alyakia]

oh yeah. i see what you mean. the secret police really got their start in 1880 under the tsar, people were starving while he thought the proper solution to this was to send paintings instead of food to the soldiers who were fighting the war that "russia was totally prepared for serious guys" but the real fucking kicker was jealously, envy of the rich, of the successful! oh what a horrible class war. you nailed it. right on the head. good job. send in the pity parade, if you can. it was kinda a piece of shit practically feudal state (not going to space any time soon, tbh) so you might have a bit of a problem actually getting there. but i'm sure that had you been able to you would have been welcomed with open arms, and the serfs would have all joined you in awe of the russian ruling classes amazing wealth and fought with you against the horrible evil jealous people who want to take it away because of their envy of the rich. god speed.

Because the Collective Regime of Peace and Love that followed was so much better, amirite?

in almost every single way yes

the only reason people don't think of, i quote, "gulags, war, famine and secret police" when they think of the glorious russian empire is that people tend to gloss over it in their flurry to be the top soviet hating red blooded capitalist incidentally let me tell you about a hero named augusto pinochet...

[Jetan]

Because the Collective Regime of Peace and Love that followed was so much better, amirite?

in almost every single way yes

Riiiiight. Both were oppressive shitholes, just of a different brand.

[Dejanic]

The life expectancy of Tsarist Russia was 50 and over half of all children died under the age of 5, you can't really compare it to the Soviet Union. Tsarist Russia was one of the worst places imaginable.

[Alyakia]

in almost every single way yes

Riiiiight. Both were oppressive shitholes, just of a different brand.

north korea is an oppressive shithole. for most of its life, south korea was also an oppressive shithole. yet i don't think you'd so much as skip a beat were i to ask you which was better, even if we use a time frame where south korea is an oppressive shithole still.

turns out its possible for one oppressive shithole to be better than another oppressive shithole, and the scales just so happen to wildly tip towards the soviet union, to the point that anyone that says "feudalism please!" is probably trying to delude someone, whether it be other posters or themselves.

[Jetan]

The life expectancy of Tsarist Russia was 50 and over half of all children died under the age of 5, you can't really compare it to the Soviet Union. Tsarist Russia was one of the worst places imaginable.

Tsarist Russia was basically a pre-modern society. It was certainly bad, but using life expectancy and child deaths as the scale won't work.

Riiiiight. Both were oppressive shitholes, just of a different brand.

north korea is an oppressive shithole. for most of its life, south korea was also an oppressive shithole. yet i don't think you'd so much as skip a beat were i to ask you which was better, even if we use a time frame where south korea is an oppressive shithole still.

turns out its possible for one oppressive shithole to be better than another oppressive shithole, and the scales just so happen to wildly tip towards the soviet union, to the point that anyone that says "feudalism please!" is probably trying to delude someone, whether it be other posters or themselves.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[The Holy Therns]

Well that poll sure wasn't a comically loaded question or anything. If I didn't know better I could almost suspect you were trying to provoke rather than discuss. Ho ho ho, silly me.

[The Huskar Social Union]

A bunch of things really, the main two would be:

The union of both agricultural and industrial workers, the likes of welders, factory workers, farmers etc.

The Communist ideology which aims at creating a classless, moneyless and stateless society structured around common ownership of the means of production and a more equal society.

Then the other main thing i think of would be The Soviet Union and the stuff it did, both good (Scientific works and SPACE COMRADES!) and bad (gulags, purges etc)

And if we are going to be really literal; Metal and Bread, The best combination in the world.

Pole wise: No i would not primarily associate it with death and genocide, even though some of the ones who flew the emblem did such things.

[Herskerstad]

When you see the Hammer And Sickle, what do you think?

Tools.

[Thafoo]

When you see the Hammer And Sickle, what do you think?

Tools.

[The Huskar Social Union]

When you see the Hammer And Sickle, what do you think?

Tools.

This man knows his stuff.

[United Marxist Nations]

Source for my figures on Gulag (as I have said many times, do not say "the Gulag" or "gulags"; it was the name of a government agency that managed prisons, not the name of the prisons; the prisons themselves were probably just called prisons):
http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc0901/gulag.htm

[Ucropi]

I would just like to take a moment and point out that communism is a form of economics just like capitalism. America and the rest of the west have used propaganda for years to make you automatically associate communism with dictatorship and capitalism with democracy. It is not true capitalist societies have done just as much bad in the world if not more than communist societies.

[The Scientific States]

When you look at a communist hammer and sickle, what first pops into your head? Do you think of the death and oppressive actions that occurred under it, or do you think of just the plain old ideology of communism, regardless of your possible views upon it?

Personnally, I have always seen it as a symbol that suggests you are in direct support of the death and oppresive policies that have occured under this symbol. That it is a symbol witch supports the confiscation of grains during the Russian Revolution even in the harsh winter, that it is a symbol witch supports the millions whom were killed in Gulags simply over political ideology or ethnicity

What about you NS, what does the Hammer and Sickle mean to you?

You do realize that the hammer and sickle wasn't just used, and for that matter, first used by Russia, right? You lack a understanding of 20th century history.

[Romano-Germanic Empire]

I think of communism and what a stupid, broken down system it is compared to market socialism.

That and the kick-assingly epicness that is the Soviet national anthem.