Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy)

A form of fallacy that cites the absolute number of deaths attributed to communist regimes—typically the Soviet Union, China, or Cambodia—as an argument against any form of socialism or communist thought, while ignoring context, comparative analysis, or the question of what those numbers actually mean. The fallacy works by presenting large numbers as self-evident condemnation, as if the scale alone settled the matter. It ignores that all modern states have killed millions—colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, democracy—and that the question is not whether atrocities occurred but what caused them, whether they were inherent to the system or contingent, and what the alternatives were. The Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation is beloved of cold warriors and those who prefer moral simplicity to historical complexity. It reduces genocide to a statistic and uses that statistic to foreclose thought.

Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) Example: "He ended every discussion of socialism with the same numbers: 'Stalin killed millions. Mao killed millions. Pol Pot killed millions.' The Fallacy of Absolute Deprivation meant he never had to engage with arguments about healthcare, wages, or working conditions. The numbers did all his work for him—never mind context, never mind comparison, never mind that capitalism had killed its millions too. Absolute numbers, absolutely weaponized."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026

Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy)

A fallacy that isolates the deaths attributed to communist regimes from their historical context, treating them as if they occurred in a vacuum rather than amid civil war, foreign intervention, industrialization, and the collapse of old orders. The fallacy presents communist atrocities as sui generis, uniquely evil, while ignoring that comparable or greater suffering occurred under colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism—often at the same times, in the same places, by the same actors. Isolating deprivation allows the fallacy-user to condemn one system while absolving others, to treat communism as uniquely murderous while forgetting the millions killed by Western powers. It's history as selective memory, atrocity as political weapon.

Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) Example: "He listed the deaths under Mao without mentioning that they occurred during a brutal civil war, after decades of foreign occupation, amid the most rapid industrialization in history. The Fallacy of Isolated Deprivation had stripped away all context, leaving only numbers—numbers that could be used to condemn, never to understand. His listeners were left with horror without history, which is exactly what he wanted."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026

Fallacy of Specific Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy)

A fallacy that focuses on specific, often well-documented atrocities while ignoring the broader context of suffering in which they occurred. The fallacy presents, for example, the Holodomor or the Killing Fields as uniquely communist evils, while ignoring that Ukraine also suffered under tsarist rule, Nazi occupation, and capitalist shock therapy—or that Cambodia was devastated by US bombing before the Khmer Rouge took power. Specifying deprivation allows the fallacy-user to condemn particular events while absolving the systems that created the conditions for those events. It's history as highlight reel, atrocity as argument-ender.

Fallacy of Specific Deprivation (also "Communism Killed Millions" Fallacy) Example: "He brought up the Holodomor every time someone mentioned socialism, as if one event could settle the question of an entire system. The Fallacy of Specific Deprivation meant he never had to address the millions who died under capitalism, under colonialism, under 'democracy.' One famine, endlessly repeated, did all his arguing for him."

by Dumu The Void February 20, 2026