Leftist intellectuals defended the USSR as an ideal worth moral compromises
Evidence
If both great powers were falling short of their ideals, perhaps the only way to choose between them was to ask which ideals were more worth trying to attain. Leftists felt that, even if America stood for good things like jazz and freedom, it also stood for untrammelled personal greed, economic colonialism and worker exploitation. At least the Soviet Union represented a noble possibility, and for such a goal, what moral compromise might not be worth making? — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 771
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: The Institut avoided public criticism of the USSR until the Moscow purge trials — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 136; Opposing both Stalinism and imperialism gave the New Left its moral authority — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 779; A new Left intellectual type combined Third World rhetoric with anti-communism — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 356 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- A new Left intellectual type combined Third World rhetoric with anti-communism
#contradicts(0.78) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 356 - Opposing both Stalinism and imperialism gave the New Left its moral authority
#complicates(0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 779 - Communism let Russia claim superiority to the West via Western ideology
#corroborates(0.72)