20 Years ago...

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

You are aware that maybe up to 2600 people died during the protests back then?

Oh yes, I know and it is a terrible thing. And before that there was Mao's Red Guards and the cultural revolution, another event with a heavy human toll.
But when it comes to mass murders, human rights abuses, and general maltreatment of one's own populace, nobody beats the Stalinists. Not even the Nazis.
At least the Chinese were nice enough to wait for students to protest before killing them. Soviet academia was afforded no such luxury, and joined tens of millions in the Gulag, where they pretty much all died of exposure or starvation or being worked to death. The lucky hundreds of thousands were just shot, or hanged.

It is not my intent to trivialize Tianamen Square in any way, I'm just saying that when it comes to Communism, it could be a lot worse.