"Children matured sooner in Russia than in the West"

There aren't many lies too preposterous for your really devoted political theologian to tell himself — and you too, if you're willing to listen:

When the Kremlin gave the public order during the terror of the 1930s that not only the wives of the victims but children as young as 12 were to be shot, the French communists were reduced to arguing that children matured sooner in Russia than in the West.

Such servility seems incredible in retrospect, but one of the main points of Conquest's new book is that the human capacity for self-delusion is limitless in all eras.

Boy, is it ever. The servility seems downright homey, if you pay much attention to the Michael Moores and Ken Livingstons of the world. Plus ça change, eh, copain? The Left marches on.

Via Nawwm.