We don't live in a morally sane world.

Because in a morally-sane world, Eric Hobsbawm would have been every inch the pariah David Irving is.

The eliminationist sentiment that mars the Left was perfectly embodied in this unassuming little man, who was feted and esteemed as a grand old man of letters until the day he died. Because apologizing for the murders of tens of millions does not disqualify you from polite society when it's the Communists who were doing the murdering:

Although increasingly on the defensive, and quite willing to say that the great Communist experiment had not only failed but had been doomed from the start, Mr. Hobsbawm refused to recant or, many critics complained, to face up to the human misery it had created. “Historical understanding is what I’m after, not agreement, approval, or sympathy,” he wrote in his memoir.

In 1994, he shocked viewers when, in an interview with Michael Ignatieff on the BBC, he said that the deaths of millions of Soviet citizens under Stalin would have been worth it if a genuine Communist society had been the result.

Far from getting you booted from polite society, it appears that the ability to spew Marxist apologetics is a tenure requirement. Can't make an omelete, etc.

Hat-tip to Mark Sullivan for the first link.