Condemn communists’ cruelties, but capitalism has its own terrible record | Owen Jones

Rightwingers point out the horrors of Stalinism, yet forget the human misery their favoured economic model was built on

A spectre is haunting the British media: the spectre of negative takes on capitalism. Ever since the academic and writer Ash Sarkar uttered the words "I'm a communist, you idiot" on national television, the right has recoiled in horror. The alacrity with which commentators jumped on Sarkar's off-the-cuff comment to relitigate the cold war is deeply revealing.

The right has been terrified that it is losing the war of ideas to the left ever since Jeremy Corbyn's Labour deprived the Tories of a majority a year ago. Sarkar's unintentional rescue of Marx's vision of communism - as a stateless, classless society in which humanity is liberated from wage labour - from the Stalinist totalitarianism that followed led the magazine Elle to declare she was "literally a communist and literally our hero". The Telegraph reflected: "Communism sent millions to their deaths - so why is it cool to wear it on your T-shirt?" As far as Douglas Murray of the Spectator is concerned, meanwhile, Sarkar is no better than a fascist.

Related: 'That's when I lost my temper': Ash Sarkar on her clash with Piers Morgan