I forget what the fallacy is called, but basically just because thing X is associated with Y and Y is bad doesn’t make X bad. If a communist leader killed people, it doesn’t necessarily mean communism is the reason he killed them.
In the same vain saying fascism is bad “because Hitler was a fascist” would also be a logical fallacy. Hitler also drank water but that doesn’t mean water is bad.
That’s not a very good example, because good and bad people drink water, pretty much everyone does. Here is a list of communist states:
en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_socialist_states_(comm…
I’d say that all of these sucked to live in. There are definitely states that treat their citizens better than these. If something always leads to death and suffering, maybe we can conclude that it’s a bad idea. Communists are not “associated with“ communism, they are communism.
As I said elsewhere:
Every socialist state that has ever existed has been, contextually, far better than what came before it, and in instances where socialism dissolved, better than what replaced it, for the working classes.
This is true for all of these. What’s also important is analyzing context, life expectancy doubled in both Russia and China thanks to the lives saved by socialism. Cuba has, in many years, a higher life expectancy than the US Empire. On the whole, there may be states where quality of life is higher for the working classes, but these are exclusively imperialist states that subsidize their safety nets with the spoils of plundering the global south, and is why these same countries are surging to the far-right as imperialism is decaying.
I hold the positions I do because I learn from history. Here are some sources on what you call "crazy:"
Life expectancy from birth, Russia
Life expectancy from birth, China
Death rate and birth rate in Russia, before, during, and after socialism
Wealth inequality in Russia, before, during, and after socialism
US vs. Chinese vs. Cuban life expectancy
Unequal exchange, graphed
The truth is that socialism works remarkably well, and I only came to this position after studying socialism in theory and practice. Same with analyzing the downfall of capitalism and imperialism, and the failures of social democracy in Europe to pivot away from imperialism.
In the case of Germany, Eastern Germany was made to pay war reparations for the incredible damages dealt to the soviet peoples, and the 27 million people they murdered. Western Germany slapped the Nazis on their wrists, and was flooded with western cash. The social safety nets in Eastern Germany were more developed and robust, while the west had more money. West Germany was indeed a dictatorship, and certainly not free and prosperous, though it had money. Eastern Germany was poor, but had much better social care, social progressivism, and more.
Go ahead, block easily verifiable facts and statistics, I’m sure that will end up helping you.