TO THE EDITOR:

The recent editorial “The case against Soviet memes” suggests that college students and other meme lovers turn a blind eye to the historic implications (and, in many cases, horrors) of the Soviet Union’s legacy. 

Insinuating that Russian bots are responsible for “Soviet fetishism,” the editorial provides no factual basis for this claim. In speculatively linking Stalinist memes, Russian bots and the Mueller investigation, the editorial trivializes an investigation that, if not taken seriously, threatens the vitality of the American political system.

From here, the editorial asserts that this “sex appeal of evil” comes at the expense of acknowledging the horrors of the Soviet regime. It is unquestionable that events such as the Ukrainian Holodomor, Katyn Forest Massacre and gulags are atrocious crimes against humanity. 

But the USSR is not the only “bloody empire” to use consolidation or nationalism as grounds by which to expand. We need only look to our own history (and the bountiful list of symbols associated with American imperialism) to understand that packaging atrocities as emblems of ideological superiority is one of empire’s first exports.