Having come to ML from liberalism, I remember vividly my qualms, biases, and anxieties.

I was happy to dismiss writing authored by Stalin as ghost-written, and any praise as coerced.

Therefore his recorded interviews with European public figures were particularly eye-opening.

In 1931 he was interviewed by Swiss-German Emil Ludwig. Some brilliant excerpts:
https://redsails.org/stalin-and-ludwig/

In 1934 he was interviewed by the extremely famous "Shakespeare of science fiction," H. G. Wells. The questions Wells posed Stalin may as well have been posed by anxious, liberal me.
https://redsails.org/stalin-and-wells/

As things get more and more chaotic, it becomes more and more important to remember Assata's piercing words: "Only a fool lets somebody else tell him who his enemy is."

Do your *own* reading.
Don't let anybody else do your reading for you. https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1337779692183687168

The repetition that this chapter of history is closed and that there is nothing defensible or salvageable in it is ubiquitous and incessant (some would mockingly say "totalitarian" ), so precisely on this basis I *insist* we reopen it. https://twitter.com/HugoShahvez/status/1347254902356140037