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Capitalism's death toll
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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I don't think that's an accurate assessment of Socialism as it exists in the real world, or Capitalism as it exists in the real world. Further, I think the idea that Communists don't focus on the politics beneath, alongside facts, statistics, and causality to be extremely far outside the norm. If anything, ask any Communist for a source, and they likely keep a laundry list of books and links for you to check out, a flood of information. That has been more true in my experience, and is part of what led me to Communism.
To be clear, I favor communism as an idea. It's just the implementations of the idea historically have been flawed. I don't know anything about communistic subgroups. Take China for example; changing historic events by pushing an alternative "truth" is not focusing on facts. A list of books is a good indicator, but the contents of the books are also relevant
If you could elaborate on what you designate as "flawed," that would be more useful. However, all systems, inevitably, run into struggles, both internal and external. Evaluating how these struggles are solved in different ecomomic systems is more important than the idealistic and fruitless quest for a "pure" and "sinless" system; no such system exists and to pursue it is to pursue unicorns and fairies.
As for China specifically, as you brought it up, what do you mean by "changing historic events to push an alternative truth?" What exactly is the PRC guilty of obscuring or changing? If I were to venture a guess, you may be referring to discrepancies between Western reporting and reports within China, but without specifics all I can say is that it is indeed true that those discrepancies exist, but that doesn't mean Western accounts are correct and Chinese are not.
By flawed I mean that there is a hierarchy where power consolidates at the top between a small number of humans. The reason why I call this a flaw is based on three premises:
As for China; take Hong Kong and or Tiananmen Square. Or something more straight forward; their conflict with Taiwan. They are pushing a narrative that Taiwan belongs to them, even though Taiwan clearly does not belong to them, which then reduces the statement to propaganda and an attempt to reframe what is true
I don't think materialist analysis of Socialist societies backs your assertion that power is consolidated between a small number of humans. That's certainly an assertion made by free-market advocates like the Heritage Foundation, who seek economic freedom for the bourgeoisie, but if we analyze the historical systems at play based on modern records we find an expansion in democratic power over the economy in Socialist states.
Secondly, I don't agree that "power" has a supernatural corrupting factor. I agree that humans work in their self-interest, but I don't agree that positions of administrative superiority inevitably cause the occupant to "break bad." Your childhood schoolteacher has authority, as does the post office manager. Ultimately, administration and management is a necessary component of modern and future society, therefore it is important to ensure democratization and accountability are prioritized, not to claim they can't be. Socialist societies have made good strides in these departments over Capitalist ones.
To return to China, I don't see how they are practicing historical revisionism on Hong Kong or Tian'anmen Square, if you could be specific we could discuss them. Since you were specific with Taiwan, though, I can offer some assistance.
In 1895, the Qing dynasty was forced to cede Taiwan to Imperial Japan as a colony, following their defeat. After Japan lost its colonies in Taiwan and Korea, and the Chinese Civil War came to a head, Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang, the Nationalists that lost the civil war against the Communists, and who previously held sovereignty over all of China, fled to Taiwan (then called Formosa). They slaughtered resistance to their takeover of the fledgeling Taiwanese government, and asserted sovereignty over the mainland, hoping to retake it one day.
When the PRC says they have sovereignty over Taiwan, it is because Taiwan was Chinese before Japanese colonization, and the current government is made up of the former government of the mainland. Taiwanese and Chinese share a common history and heritage, and is just off the mainland, so this is a point of contention. The KMT still asserts that it is the "real" government of China, ergo this is an unresolved contradiction left over from the Chinese Civil War.
Hong Kong was a British buffer state that deserved to be crushed and Tiananmen Square was where student protestors were given weapons and materials to attack Chinese officials/police officers. Even your average communist can tell you that when you attack police/etc you should EXPECT a response despite the remarkable restraint they showed. Much more than American police at the very least.
Instead of shitting your whole pants and crying about propaganda, how about you apply some actual critical thinking and tell me why X is propaganda and how so instead of knee-jerk deflecting into "DUH TANKIE COMMIE IZ BAD"
Example, why is Taiwan not there's when it was created by a fascist government in exile that was justifiably exterminated by the communists after collaborating with the Japanese?
So much anger, so desperate for control. You have my sympathy
Anger is the natural emotion one feels when they become aware of the world and the damage the west has done. Where there is desperation, there is a demand for change and the imperialist west has engineered such desperation for the world over millions in exchange for cheap goods.
I don't need your sympathy. "I pray that you will grow intellectually, so that you can understand the problems of the world and where you fit into, in that world picture. I pray that all the fear that has ever been in your heart will be taken out" ~ El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz
You lived in ignorance, but now you see? I'm sorry to say the problems of the world aren't limited to west versus east
Of course not, that's exactly why you don't get the "world picture".