Michigan State prof sugar coats communism for kids, ignores massive death toll and tyranny

By Elad Vaida – Campus Reform

A Michigan State University (MSU) professor wrote an article targeted at children that whitewashes the crimes of communism.

Aminda Smith, a history professor who has a “particular interest in the social and cultural history of Chinese Communism,” wrote an article in response to a child’s question: “What is a communist?” The article, published on The Conversation on Oct. 14, is part of the “Curious Kids” series in which alleged “experts” answer questions from “children of all ages.”

 

Smith writes: “Simply put, a communist is someone who supports communism.” She states that some “experts” believe that “communist views are well supported by historical evidence” and that “[o]thers suggest that history has shown communism not to work.”

 

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Defining communist beliefs, Smith writes that “[c]ommunists believe that people should share wealth so that no one is too poor, no one is too rich, and everyone has enough to survive and have a good life.” She concludes by stating that “[c]ommunists are optimistic that humans can one day create a more fair and equal society.”

 

Smith does not mention anywhere in her article, however, that communist regimes have been responsible for the deaths of up to 100 million people, often through methods like starvation and torture. For example, Mao Zedong, the communist dictator of China, has been called “one of the greatest mass murderers in history,” being responsible for murdering at least 45 million Chinese men, women, and children in just four years.

 

Joseph Stalin, the communist dictator of the Soviet Union, murdered up to 20 million Soviet citizens, and Cambodia’s communist party, the Khmer Rouge, massacred almost one in four of all Cambodians.

 

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Smith also claims that “[t]heoretically, communism should entail some form of democracy,” but does not mention that countries that have adopted communism have consistently become repressive dictatorships. Karl Marx, the “Father of Communism,” called for the establishment of a “dictatorship of the proletariat” and for the usage of “revolutionary terror” against the enemies of communism.

 

An MSU spokesperson told Campus Reform: “MSU is committed to supporting the academic freedom and First Amendment rights of our faculty. The views and perspectives of faculty members are that of their own and are not reflective of the institution.”