history

at least as cool as FDR if not cooler for working for the more correct politics. both did cringe re: ethnic minorities and homophobia was rampant in both governments/populations at the time, but they also did major positive things with lasting impact. i would obviously hope a modern socialist leader would be much better on lgbt and minority issues, but stalin was decent for the time period when compared to his peers, a less hateful person than someone like churchill for example. if you (or a normal person at least) would idolize someone like george washington or julius caesar or marcus aurelius or alexander the great or shaka zulu or king tutankhamun or ghandi or napoleon or oda nobunaga, or anyone else who has more or less successfully presided over a major world power, you should have no problem idolizing someone like stalin, who was at least democratically elected and tried to do things for the average person while resisting the industrialized ethnic annihilation of his people by the nazis, though in reality none of them should really be idolized in an unironic sense, its just misinformation that needs pushback and theres a lot of it for any socialist historical figure.