The West is the most Evil Bloc except all those other blocs that have had hegemony from time to time

"The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything - or nothing." - Nancy Astor

***

Oliver Stone's history of the world

"Known for being hysterically outspoken and politically on the left, he has made a career of portraying the United States establishment - from Presidents to the intelligence services - as murderous villains and, as a result, his broad shoulders have been subjected to a fair bit of flak...

It is bizarre, if not downright offensive, that Mr Stone chooses Singapore - where it is thought the Japanese murdered as many as 50,000 Chinese in just a few short years - to talk up the merits of the invading army.

On the fall of Singapore, he adds: "When that happened, it really shook the people. 'Hey, the British can be beaten.' And that was a huge step forward in the consciousness of that time. And although the British got back into Singapore, it would never be the same again. They would never be feared as they were once feared."

It is no wonder the British were never feared in the same way again, if they ever were. The Japanese took torture and murder to industrious levels, shooting, beheading and burning alive thousands of locals and British prisoners of war...

It is not so much saying that Stalin was not a bad guy - he just wants to tell the world that the Americans were just as bad, if not worse.

Stalin was the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world. Why would anyone want to enter pleas of mitigation on his behalf? For me, issues like Stalin and the Japanese during WWII are beyond the pale, just like Hitler and the holocaust...

He says his new series will lay the blame for the Cold War at the door of the former US President rather than Stalin and the Russians. This in itself would be a spectacular fete, as popular expert opinion has it that Truman was pretty oblivious to the dangers of Communism while in office...

Whatever evils Mr Stone believes Truman responsible for, how can they compare with the 10 million or so people Stalin is believed to have wiped off the earth?

I do not object to Mr Stone's politics as such, it is his default setting which sees him attack his own country at every opportunity that I do not like. How can you take someone seriously when they automatically take the opposite view of the West, no matter what the circumstances?...

I remind him that "Stalin was a monster". Mr Stone hits back defiantly: "But only to his own people."

Tell that to the thousands of Poles massacred during WWII or to the Americans who migrated to Russia fleeing the Depression and who were subsequently executed on Stalin's orders. If Mr Stone can get such basic facts wrong, how are we supposed to trust him on anything else he tells us in his Untold History series?...

Mr Stone appears to find some genuine amusement, or even glee, in the idea of incompetence among the British Army ranks."