He literally just argued work camps were more progressive than western prison practices.

Those “western prison practices” include private prisons, i.e. slavery.

Many people here will realize how fucking silly it is to argue the USSR was a progressive place.

It very unambiguously was. It tremendously improved the lives of people, both directly within its own territory, by helping liberatory anti-colonial movements, and by pushing the Imperial Core to improve workers’ rights domestically.