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Democide
aardi.org ^ | R. J. Rummel

Posted on 07/30/2022 4:19:05 PM PDT by algore

Democide is a term coined by political scientist R. J. Rummel for "the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.”

Rummel created the term as an extended concept to include forms of government murder that are not covered by the legal definition of genocide, and it has found currency among other scholars.

Democide is death by government relating to genocides. Democides are not the elimination of entire cultural groups, but rather groups within the country that the government feels they need to be eradicated for political reasons and future threats.

According to Rummel, genocide has three different meanings. The ordinary meaning is murder by government of people due to their national, ethnic, racial, or religious group membership.[1]

The legal meaning of genocide refers to the international treaty, the Genocide Convention.[2]

This also includes nonlethal acts that in the end eliminate or greatly hinder the group. Looking back on history one can see the different variations of democides that have occurred, but it is still the act of killing or mass murder.

A great example would relate to Hitler and Mao Zedong. A generalized meaning of genocide is similar to the ordinary meaning but also includes government killings of political opponents or otherwise intentional murder.

In order to avoid confusion over which meaning is intended, Rummel created the term democide for the third meaning.[3]

The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.

Rummel defines democide as "The murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.” For example, government-sponsored killings for political reasons would be considered democide.

Democide can also include deaths arising from “intentionally or knowingly reckless and depraved disregard for life”; this brings into account many deaths arising through various neglects and abuses, such as forced mass starvation.

Rummel explicitly excludes battle deaths in his definition. Capital punishment, actions taken against armed civilians during mob action or riot, and the deaths of noncombatants killed during attacks on military targets so long as the primary target is military, are not considered democide.

He has further stated: “I use the civil definition of murder, where someone can be guilty of murder if they are responsible in a reckless and wanton way for the loss of life, as in incarcerating people in camps where they may soon die of malnutrition, unattended disease, and forced labor, or deporting them into wastelands where they may die rapidly from exposure and disease.”

Some examples of democide cited by Rummel include the Great Purges carried out by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union (despite those people were executed), the deaths from the colonial policy in the Congo Free State, and Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward resulting in a famine which killed millions of people.

According to Rummel, these were not cases of genocide, because those who were killed were not selected on the basis of their race, but were killed in large numbers as a result of government policies. Famine is classified by Rummel as democide if it fits the definition above.

For instance, Rummel only recently classified Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward as democide. He believed that Mao’s policies were largely responsible for the famine, but he was misled about it, and finally when he found out, he stopped it and changed his policies.

Thus, according to Rummel, is not an intentional famine and thus not a democide. However, contradictory claims from Jung Chang and John Halliday’s controversial Mao: the Unknown Story allege that Mao knew about the famine from the beginning but did not care, and eventually Mao had to be stopped in a meeting of 7,000 top Communist Party members. Based on the book’s claims, Rummel now views the famine as intentional and a democide.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: communism; democide; rummel; tyranny
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1 posted on 07/30/2022 4:19:05 PM PDT by algore
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To: algore

2 posted on 07/30/2022 4:29:47 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: algore

The local commie agitators like to get huffy about The Holocaust when they’re calling everyone that disagrees with them a fascist. Bring up The Holodomor, and that was just a little oopsie on Stalin’s part.


3 posted on 07/30/2022 4:35:54 PM PDT by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: algore

Whatever you want to call it, each and every one of the perpetrators of it will answer on the dreadful day when they meet the Lord. No one’s going to escape that accounting. I can’t fathom the horror of being called to account for mass murdering MILLIONS, yet we have several devil children living now who are vying for the opportunity to kill kill kill again…though they pretend it’s from kindness.


4 posted on 07/30/2022 4:36:37 PM PDT by avenir (Information overload = Pattern recognition)
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To: algore

I think the world is going to get a look at this concept up close and personal very soon.


5 posted on 07/30/2022 4:40:40 PM PDT by Sarcazmo ("Sarcasm is the highest form of wit" ~ O. Wilde)
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To: algore
27210311-022-E-4039-8-CE5-2-FBA118-C5-B36
6 posted on 07/30/2022 4:43:24 PM PDT by Born in 1950 (Anti left, nothing else.)
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To: avenir

I’d ‘ruther we just go ahead and take care of it now. So I can sit with my wife by the lake when I’m 80 and watch the grandkids play in the sand.

I know, I know... I’m being a little selfish.


7 posted on 07/30/2022 4:44:13 PM PDT by Sarcazmo ("Sarcasm is the highest form of wit" ~ O. Wilde)
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To: algore

J6


8 posted on 07/30/2022 4:47:03 PM PDT by combat_boots
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To: algore
Democides are not the elimination of entire cultural groups, but rather groups within the country that the government feels they need to be eradicated for political reasons and future threats.

Like the women and children abused at or on their way to the border. Brandon may soon rank with some of the great mass murderers of history.

9 posted on 07/30/2022 4:52:19 PM PDT by Don Corleone (leave the gun, take the canolis)
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To: algore

Welcome to the 2020s.


10 posted on 07/30/2022 5:05:47 PM PDT by Pollard (If there's a question mark in the headline, the answer should always be No.)
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To: algore

https://hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html

Democide statistics. Death by government (usually your own) is the number one cause of death throughout history,. Wars are not even close.


11 posted on 07/30/2022 5:21:44 PM PDT by Neverlift (When someone says "you just can't make this stuff up" odds are good, somebody did.)
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To: MtnClimber

+1

Anti white. Practice saying it. It gets easier.

If you see something, say something.


12 posted on 07/30/2022 5:24:02 PM PDT by Jim Noble (I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains)
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To: algore

Death By Government was a great book by Rummel. Big Government kills (at a very large scale).


13 posted on 07/30/2022 6:00:02 PM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: gundog

“Bring up The Holodomor”

Most people I talk to have never heard of it. I refer to it as the Ukrainian holocaust, as people are familiar with the term “Holocaust.”

People say of the German/Jewish Holocaust “that we must never forget, lest it happen again.” Thanks to Walter Duranty and the New York Times primarily, we never knew of the Ukrainian holocaust. Not knowing is the ultimate in forgetting. And yes, it happened again, to the Jews.

The New York Times forgave Stalin his holocaust out of sympathy for communism. They thereby encouraged Hitler’s holocaust of the Jews. If the New York Times had responded with appropriate reporting and horror of the Holodomor, the Holocaust would never have happened.

It is ironic that the Jewish owners/managers of the New York Times ultimately brought death and destruction to the Jewish people. However, there is no justice in this. The deceiving New York Times covered up the death of millions of innocent people for whom they cared little. Unintentionally, they encouraged the death of millions of other innocent people, people they cared about.

Denying the Holodomor enabled the Holocaust. We should rub that in their face at every opportunity.


14 posted on 07/30/2022 6:04:32 PM PDT by ChessExpert (Neither a Democracy nor a Republic. "I did that," Joe Biden.)
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To: MtnClimber

The WEF / Davos elites are engineering a worldwide collapse of food and energy production as we speak. You could ask for no better definition of democide. They all need to die badly.


15 posted on 07/30/2022 6:06:26 PM PDT by Noumenon (You're not voting your way out of this. KTF)
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To: Sarcazmo

Yup, I agree.
I’m not to thrilled with looking down the barrel of
Teotwawki.
But Government is The Number one Killer of It’s Citizens.


16 posted on 07/30/2022 6:07:59 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: Born in 1950

The illustration made the text tough to read. Try this:

No need to lock the door
They’re sprouting through the cracks
They’re making room for more
They’re deputizing maniacs
~ M. Allison


17 posted on 07/30/2022 6:08:11 PM PDT by earglasses (I was blind, and now I hear...)
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To: gundog

“Mr. Jones” is an excellent movie for those interested in the Holodomore.


18 posted on 07/30/2022 6:12:17 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: ChessExpert

Good point.


19 posted on 07/30/2022 6:14:52 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

I saw that movie. Hearst published some of Jones’s work when a lot of publishers shunned him. Another reason the left hated W.R Hearst.


20 posted on 07/30/2022 6:49:32 PM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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