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Vladimir_M comments on Science Doesn't Trust Your Rationality - Less Wrong
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To be fair, white terror can be extremely nasty and non-selective too. This was true in the time of Sulla as much as in the 20th century, including the killings by the Russian Whites cited by Lessdazed.
Sulla then resigned the dictatorship, restored the Republic, and returned to private life, though the fact that such measures as Sulla's were necessary to protect and revive the Republic should have demonstrated it could not be revived.
In general, white terrors are response to red terrors, or to the dire and imminent threat of a red terror.
In war, both sides always do dreadful things, for to win, you have to be twice as bad as the bad guys. If one side is better than the other, they demonstrate moral superiority by how they behave after they have won, not by how they win. Compare what followed the white terror in Taiwan, with what followed the red terror on the Chinese mainland.
Granted being bad can be useful, being bad can also be useless or counterproductive. As it often is the latter two, the principle doesn't hold.