94
High levels of thinking happening on the red site
(hexbear.net)
Communism is when Jeff bezos is fired by Donald trump
Ah you say the Soviet Union was democratic? Have you considered that 8% of Americans are millionaires, and they're mostly car lot owners, landlords, or play the stock market? You see, America is great because we afford millions of people access to ruling class democracy by virtue of their con artistry skills. The Soviet Union merely had a regional party structure using councils made of local workers and their representatives. And that's just not right. What we need is a society where I can own my dad's factory when I turn 18.
Also, a lot of those 8% are millionaires on paper, and it's only because they own a home that they bought when it was $200,000. They're not buying yachts and eating gold foil caviar and whispering into politicians' ears or whatever. The ultra wealthy are as concentrated as ever.
Yeah that too. Eyes Wide Shut continues to be correct. Some random dentist with a $2 million property has an unreasonable amount of sway in American society, and yet even that amount of influence is dwarfed by the ultra bourgeoisie. The rest of us have no influence at all.
using my advanced technique i estimate that as every apartment in russia costs more than 1 million rubles [1] , everyone was a millionaire in ussr 
[1] (i made it the fuck up)
Russians literally all got rich after they embraced capitalism [2]
[2] It was revealed to me in a dream
It's true, I'm Russian and I wear the most expensive NKIE [^3] shoes available while buying exotic treats every day [^4]
[^3]: This is not a typo
[^4]: Cottage cheese bar "Моя цена" with cacao and cookie
i'd eat that
The teleporter broke, sowwy 
That sounds delicious
It is! Looks like there are recipes available, and that it is easy to make. I don't know how homemade ones taste though; the store-bought has soft and even texture
Yeah just look how prosperous the average Russian got after the fall of the USSR. It was just smooth sailing for them!
I’m technically aware that a majority of people in imperial core countries think this, but it truly seems mystifying to me how that’s the case because it’s just so self-evidently wrong. Red scare propaganda really did a hell of a lot of work.
edit: rereading this and realizing it feels pretty self-righteous “i’m better than you” and going to self-crit on that. I believed the propaganda once too and was able to change my mind. it does nothing to give up on people who bought into the propaganda like all of us once did.
Saying that communism is bad because the wealth isn't all concentrated in the topn10% and somehow that makes it more authoritarian is the kind of mental gymnastics that really makes you lose hope the people were trying to talk to even have the capacity to understand anything.
Teaching is more art than science, you can't get these people to our side by simply pointing out that we are objectively correct. You have to appeal to their material conditions and navigate a lot of psychological entrapments too.
no no no you don't understand it is extremely important for the omelas children to be suffering even if that's the vast majority of humanity.
Those communist leaders having absurd extravagant privileges like benefits totaling a small cost multiple compared to the general population. Disgusting inequality! They nearly rose to the level enjoyed by middle managers here!
it's a good thing "government" and "economic structures" aren't two aspects of the same thing (we could call it political economy) or else all of this would be idiotic drivel!
[1]: Infographic about cows I saw at some point
[2]: ibid
[3]: ibid
etc.
Capitalism is a system where private individuals are allowed to own land…
Hmm, tell that to Blackstone kiddo.
Indeed a weak rip
Whenever someone uses socialism and communism interchangeably, you know they don't know what either means.
Marx and Engels often did, as do many people here.
Marx and Engels had the advantage of having lived and died before the terms were fully clarified. Said clarification was in part by them.
Hell, Engels "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific" explains almost everything, contextually "Socialism" being the movement of socialists, with "Communism" and communists being a sub-movement. With Lenin later putting in the final bit providing socialism as another term for the lower phase of communism. In this context Communism refers to the stage of development, as does Socialism.
Ergo: Both Socialism and Communism have two clearly defined meanings, depending on the context. Their definitions make them non-interchangeable. In the context of stages of development they refer to two different things. In the context of philosophical movements, one is a subgroup of the other. While every communist is a socialist, not every socialist is a communist. c -> s is true, but not the reverse. Thus logically excluding interchangeability
Nerd rant over.
While every communist is a socialist, not every socialist is a communist. c -> s is true, but not the reverse. Thus logically excluding interchangeability
Logically if someone is a socialist but not a communist than most likely they're not much of a socialist to begin with (like being a doctor who wants to treat the symptoms but not the disease), at that point the differentiation is meaningless and very likely an example of anti-communist angst, Marx and Engels had it right in the beginning, there's no point in concealing our aims or glorifying half measures
Lenin's stage theory was very useful in a world dominated by Imperial European empires with no opposition or concept of restraint, so much of Lenin's writing was constrained by his awareness Tsarist censors could clap him at anytime
Now conditions have changed and a century of liberal opportunists and appropriation has made the differentiation toxic and useless to socialist/communist movements
As names of political movements or affiliations, they are usually interchangeable in the sense that what is true of "corvids" is usually true of "jackdaws". Not always, and circumstances might make just one the relevant term to talk about, but in common usage it's just being annoying to police the use of the word "socialist" when the person in question is a communist (and therefore also a socialist).
I'd never police someone about that. But sometimes it is really confusing trying to get what someone is saying if they switch the terms around all the time.
Erm, quod erat demonstrandum, burden of proof, your move, my good sir 
"The government controls your house under communism!"
Eminent domain laws has entered the chat
Also "the government controls your house" means the government gives you a house.
As opposed to under capitalism where nobody gets a house because the government let 4 companies buy them all
Until someone pays their house off it's owned by a bank, not them
this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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