{"id":11550,"date":"2018-12-03T13:36:46","date_gmt":"2018-12-03T21:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11550"},"modified":"2018-12-03T13:36:46","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T21:36:46","slug":"angry-reader-12-03-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-12-03-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Angry Reader 12-03-2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

From An Angry Reader:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was the worst piece of historical analysis I\u2019ve ever read in any halfway respectable publication. Please ask your alma mater for a refund on all degrees earned. There isnt (sic) enough time in the day to go through all the stupidity you posted, but I will point out what is perhaps the biggest error – your hot take on Brest-Litovsk. There was no sense of internationalism or any ideological factor that caused the reds to sign that treaty – it was the simple fact that they were fighting a civil war and did not need to fight Germany, AH and the Whites.<\/p>\n

Craig Johnson<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Dear Angry Reader Craig Johnson,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why all the ad hominem invective? Let your argument speak for itself without the resort to slurs and smears. The tired rhetoric trope that \u201cthere is not enough time to list all the errors\u201d usually means there are no errors. You confirm that fact when you list only one\u2014and the supposed \u201cbiggest\u201d\u2014which unfortunately reveals your own historical ignorance.<\/p>\n

You write:<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>There was no sense of internationalism or any ideological factor that caused the reds to sign that treaty – it was the simple fact that they were fighting a civil war and did not need to fight Germany, AH and the Whites.\u201d<\/p>\n

My take is not \u201chot,\u201d whatever that silly usage means, but is historically accurate and, in fact, non-controversial. Ideology\u2014specifically the naive Marxist idea of an anticipated global and internationalist communism making the European nation state irrelevant\u2014most certainly was the chief factor in the Bolsheviks\u2019 disastrous signing of such an otherwise humiliating peace\u2014one that was immediately seen as an abject betrayal of their Western allies and allowed the transference of at least 500,000 troops to the Western front.<\/p>\n

Many in the nascent Soviet originally and vainly felt that they might at least drag out the humiliating negotiations for weeks in some pathetic expectation that their war-weary Western European \u201ccomrades\u201d might in the meantime likewise revolt when learning that the war was ending in the East and a communist revolution was ascendant, and thereby force an end to the war in the West as well and join a communist continental take-over.<\/p>\n

A desperate Lenin, a zealot beholden to Marxist ideology, had demanded of the Central Committee that it sign the \u201chumiliating\u201d peace in order to save the \u201cworld revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your point about the communists\u2019 need to be free to concentrate on the whites and not lose more blood and treasure to Germany and Austria-Hungary is banal and yet of course has the force of nullifying your own adolescent argument: Lenin and the communists were not<\/em> nationalists, but ideologues, and global ones at that. And they felt confident in the future of a world communist revolution\u2014but only if ensured by its beginning in a viable Soviet Union relieved of conflict, a surrender judged far more important to the international communist agenda than any worry about the individual fate of the old nation-state of Russia. Your own use of \u201creds\u201d for Soviet communists is itself an internationalist ideological term and concedes that the Russian negotiators saw themselves in 1918 first as committed communist comrades and second, if at all, as Russian nationalists.<\/p>\n

Ignorance when coupled with arrogant vitriol is a regrettable.<\/p>\n

Victor Hanson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From An Angry Reader: This was the worst piece of historical analysis I\u2019ve ever read in any halfway respectable publication. Please ask your alma mater for a refund on all degrees earned. There isnt (sic) enough time in the day to go through all the stupidity you posted, but I will point out what is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-30i","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9510,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-8\/","url_meta":{"origin":11550,"position":0},"title":"Angry Reader","author":"Megan Ring","date":"October 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Comment from a Reader: Maybe you can become his campaign manager now.\u00a0 That is, if you can get him to sit still long enough for you to explain to him who Bull Halsey is. Victor Davis Hanson's Reply: Your cynicism is noted. But,as you know, Trump refers to Gens. MacArthur\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11925,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-7-30-2019\/","url_meta":{"origin":11550,"position":1},"title":"Angry Reader 7-30-2019","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Dont worry , no silly greetings for you. Ha ha ha , reading your opinion in Albuquerque Journal made me laugh out loud. Fortunately, I rarely read such Bull Shit. Such crap is beyond belief. Thanks for the Laugh , Darrell Little \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 Dear Angry Reader\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10968,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/02-12-18-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":11550,"position":2},"title":"02\/12\/18 Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: I was surprised this morning. Usually when I read your column I want to throw up. But today\u2019s column was absolutely brilliant Nice job Mike Benbrook Oakhurst CA \u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013 Dear Reforming Angry Reader Mike Benbrook, Vomiting is not healthy. If I were to do so each\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11440,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-10-04-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":11550,"position":3},"title":"Angry Reader 10-04-2018","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: it is painful to see or read your columns. I usually ignore them;today\u2019s on Nunes was pathetic. Mr. Hanson,you are a fraud and in a just world you\u2019d be condemned to occupy a spot in that special place down below where it\u2019s always hot... Delusional is\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-7-a-response-to-the-liberal-aristocracy\/","url_meta":{"origin":11550,"position":4},"title":"Angry Reader #7: A Response to “The Liberal Aristocracy”","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Angry Reader #6 wrote:\u00a0\u201cMr. Hanson unfolds the conservative Procrustean hide-a-bed. If a Democratic president is wealthy, he's a hypocrite. If a Democratic president isn't, then he's guilt of envy and class warfare.\u201d VDH replied: This is a childish snark. My point is not that wealthy liberals should not enjoy the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12592,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-08-29-2020\/","url_meta":{"origin":11550,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader 08-29-2020","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: dang dude you\u2019re racist Jacob Kovacs-Goodman ______________________________________________________________________________ Dear Angry Something or Other Jacob Kovacs-Goodman, It is not wise to level an ad hominem charge of racism against someone without producing any evidence whatsoever to support your smear. Somehow your slang \u201cdang dude\u201d rings falsely, more likely\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11553,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11550\/revisions\/11553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}