Michael Malice

So that's certainly going to play into it.

I've asked myself that question as well.

Do these people believe their own bullshit?

And I think the receipts are when Elena Ceausescu, who's one of the four women on the cover, when she's being taken away to be executed in 1989, she's yelling at the soldiers, how could you?

I raised you like a mother.

So she at least believed her own bullshit.

Yeah.

With Stalin, he was obviously extremely intelligent.

I think it's kind of easy for us to kind of psychologize and say he's a sociopath, he's a narcissist, he's this, he's that.

But at a certain point, like if you're surrounded by a culture dedicated to glorifying you and everyone you meet is so happy to see you and, oh my God, all your pronouncements are so good,

And you know what, if you make a decision that's wrong, the people around you, it's their job to tell you why it's not your fault.

It's the fault of the wreckers or it's the fault of Hitler or whoever it is, the kulaks.

At a certain point, the human mind wants to believe how great it is, especially someone in that vaunted position.

But he had his, there was this one funny, I'm using the word loosely, quote, when Hitler invades Russia and he couldn't believe it.

And he's just missing in action for days because how could Hitler betray me?

We had a deal, birds of a feather.

And he had this quote about like, we've taken Lenin's legacy and shitted out our asses.

I think he was very aware.

That's no question that he was aware that in terms of being a philosopher or a thinker, he wasn't on Lenin's level, right?

So that was, I'm sure, played a lot into his psychology.