While socialists do tend to be violent psychopaths - particularly in that era [1] - it's far from clear that such behavior is necessary.
You can witness the same transition happening in India completely peacefully. Many middle class jobs are transitioning to 5 day weeks as part of capitalist competition to gain/retain workers. Nerdy software engineers - more or less the opposite of violent socialist revolutionaries - are some of the first to gain these benefits.
I remember hearing recently the philosophy of an older (read: 70+) black civil rights activist criticizing Black Lives Matter. He said that back in the day, they had a 4 step process. 1) Have an ideology, i.e. figure out exactly what you want. 2) Ask for it nicely, and reduce levels of niceness in the requests gradually. 3) Peacefully protest. 4) Revolution.
It seems like the socialist revolutions might have jumped to step (4) unnecessarily.
[1] Just read some of Jack London's socialist fiction. One of his short stories is about socialist revolutionaries murdering innocent people and dropping their bodies on the doorsteps of peaceful capitalists.
I'd suggest reading old socialist literature, Jack London being one of my favorites. Then observe the real life behavior of many socialists in that era.
You can witness the same transition happening in India completely peacefully. Many middle class jobs are transitioning to 5 day weeks as part of capitalist competition to gain/retain workers. Nerdy software engineers - more or less the opposite of violent socialist revolutionaries - are some of the first to gain these benefits.
I remember hearing recently the philosophy of an older (read: 70+) black civil rights activist criticizing Black Lives Matter. He said that back in the day, they had a 4 step process. 1) Have an ideology, i.e. figure out exactly what you want. 2) Ask for it nicely, and reduce levels of niceness in the requests gradually. 3) Peacefully protest. 4) Revolution.
It seems like the socialist revolutions might have jumped to step (4) unnecessarily.
[1] Just read some of Jack London's socialist fiction. One of his short stories is about socialist revolutionaries murdering innocent people and dropping their bodies on the doorsteps of peaceful capitalists.