Hi Abhinandan,

Last week I watched the movie The Death of Stalin, recommend you review it in ANA. I came across the below passage in an article describing Stalin’s influence on Che:

“In the so called mistakes of Stalin lies the difference between a revolutionary attitude and a revisionist attitude. You have to look at Stalin in the historical context in which he moves, you don’t have to look at him as some kind of brute, but in that particular historical context. I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn’t read Stalin. I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another time. And because I’m not very bright, and a hard-headed person, I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find a Seri of things that are very good.”

In one of the Hafta podcasts, you showered immense praise on Che. I think Stalin’s influence over him might be one of the main drivers for him to take the violent actions that he eventually took. My question is:

1. What is your take on this aspect of Che?

2. Would your reaction on seeing a 10-year-old, wearing a t-shirt of a person who was inspired by a paranoid dictator who killed 43k of his own army be the same as that of seeing a 10-year-old wearing khaki pants attending an RSS shakha? 

3. Can you do a piece on why Che’s influences are hidden from the public, at least in pop culture? 

The mention of context definetely reminds me of you. So my last over extrapolated question would be: are you inspired by Stalin as well?

Keeping doing the good work. And please get Anand Ranganathan back, dunno what conflict has happened between you guys, but really miss his unique take on issues.

Mihir Chate

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Hello, 

I’ve been a subscriber for the past year. I’d like to suggest you all listen to this episode from NYT‘s The Daily podcast. 

It’s a podcast where the publisher of The New York Times, AG Sulzberger, talks to Donald Trump and tells him about the effect his anti-press rhetoric is having on journalism and journalists across the world, and how dictators around the world are using his rhetoric to suppress free press. 

What was striking to me was how the publisher and the two NYT journalists were able to strike a balance between respecting the office of the President while asking him tough questions. 

Would love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Regards,

Jesal Parekh

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When the US jobs numbers fell several times during the last recovery, it was not uncommon to hear statements/explanations like “a certain number of people might have stopped looking for jobs after they failed to find one in (say) 8-12 months, which may have lead to the dip in the unemployment number”.

I am not saying that it is a similar (inverse) case here, but my very limited point is that Jaggi’s tweet is not totally irrational as it was made to appear in the last Hafta discussion. (I am not an expert and I do not know the methodology used in the calculation of unemployment data in India, so I am not defending him.)

Also, Abhinandan it will be Trump’s third Supreme Court judge and not second if RBG stops breathing. 🙂 

Keep up the good work.

Thanks.

Chandan Kumar