Replace communism with fascism in the meme and sudden suddenly seems stupid.
Free thinking doesn't mean opposing common views by default, it means you reached your views (common and uncommon) by your own
You didn't get the comic. It's a critique of mainstream propaganda. Not an endorsement of the "free thinking" argument.
Its not an endorsement, is a criticism of those who consider themselves free thinkers but only follow the what they have been fed.
The fact that it can't be reversed (by having the media something correct) shows the bias that "free thinking" is only good when it follows our personal bias.
Ironic how it's flying over so many heads
It's kind of stupid though, most sane people know communism hasn't exactly provided the pinnacle of human existence.
It feels less like a smart comic and more like a propaganda comic; "like communism if you are a smart free thinker".
You're the "Communism is bad" guy. In the lower panels.
The thought that communism has been established in USSR, China, Cuba, etc. and has proven to be horrible for human florishing is the propaganda.
Then show me a place where it worked. Oh there isn't...
I prefer our social democracy.
Then show me a place where it worked.
Define "worked". 1930s Catalonia had a good run. So did anarchist Ukraine. Also: about the majority of the time humanity existed "worked" without private property, money and modern nation states.
I prefer our social democracy.
"Your" social democracy is most likely currently in the process of giving power to fascists (depends on where you live, exactly. But all of Europe for example is pretty much the boiling frog meme of turning fascist.), or preparing to start WW3.
As I said: full of propaganda.
A good run? A few years?
If propaganda is your concern, communism relies on complete altruism of EVERYONE just to get off the ground. And then it is a free for all to who grabs power first and turns into a dictatorship...
And discussions comparing it other systems are useless, because people end up comparing a real system to the ideal theory of communism. Because it's never worked.
If propaganda is your concern, communism relies on complete altruism of EVERYONE just to get off the ground.
Why would you think that? Communism doesn't require "altruism". Yes, the pro-social tendencies inherent in the species is supposed to be used for bringing humanity forward. But in the end, communism is focused on cooperation (rather than competition in capitalism). cooperation and altruism are different things.
And then it is a free for all to who grabs power first and turns into a dictatorship...
Nothing in communism implies that there can't be guardrails against power grabs. Quite the contrary in anarcho-communism, in fact, where the socialeinstitutions are to be set up specifically to prevent these kinds of things.
And discussions comparing it other systems are useless, because people end up comparing a real system to the ideal theory of communism.
So? Why can't you discuss systems in theory? I don't really see the problem.
Because it's never worked.
There have been ample historical and contemporary examples of "it" working. Socialism (i.e. worker ownership of the means of production) and communism (a stateless, moneyless society) has no precedent of collapsing due to internal conflicts. Only through external pressure.
And even if: Let's say he first few attempts at conducting a liberal democracy have failed (not a historian, but it seems very likely that you could argue that was the case). Should humanity have abandoned the project of liberal democracy, then?
I had this experience growing up. People in the US kept telling me communism was bad without ever substantiating why. It just is!
A famous alt-right politician in Brazil was in a podcast once and said the quiet part out loud. He's one of the main "next generation right wing" representatives and he said, live:
"... you know we are lucky the average Brazilian is too dumb, if they started reading and thinking they'd vote for the left, God blessed us with this idiocy"
His voters couldn't parse this sentence and understand what he is saying.
Yeah cuz right-wingers are uneducated savages
"Communism has killed trillions of people!"
Meanwhile... in an American tent city or under your nearest American freeway...
Commernism is when John Lennon starved A bazillion people and you have no freedom!
Capitalism is when tiddies burger truck football!
You forgot beer, hell yeah
It's like you were present at every one of my conversations.
Tankies bad
TBF there's not a lot of anti-commie music, but there is a lot of anti capitalist music. If you ignore the pro capitalist music we've at least kinda got the music.
True but most of the places people would be inspired to write anti-communism music, they'd be in jail or worse for doing so...
Because the right is completely devoid of creativity
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Serious posts, news, and discussion go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low-quality!
0. Only post socialist memes
That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We require alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.
We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.
When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.
0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms
When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart
Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them
1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
4. No Bigotry.
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)
6. Don't irrationally idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
