The erstwhile socialists who defend Russian bombing of civilians in Syria by rooting through quotes from Lenin like he wrote scripture are advised to leave aside what they don’t understand & ask “what would Jesus do?” or “what would the prophet say?”
Somewhere along the way they took a wrong turn & began to identify socialism with realpolitik, sniffing contemptuously at principled antiwar activists as moralists in order to justify Russia & Syria carpet bombing civilians. Maybe if they go back to their catechisms they will learn that the basic rules of morality like “thou shalt not kill” are an advance in human civilization, not a bourgeois construct applicable only to fools.