Communism
Discussion Community for fellow Marxist-Leninists and other Marxists.
Rules for /c/communism
Rules that visitors must follow to participate. May be used as reasons to report or ban.
- No non-marxists
This subreddit is here to facilitate discussion between marxists.
There are other communities aimed at helping along new communists. This community isn't here to convert naysayers to marxism.
If you are a member of the police, armed forces, or any other part of the repressive state apparatus of capitalist nations, you will be banned.
- No oppressive language
Do not attempt to justify your use of oppressive language.
Doing this will almost assuredly result in a ban. Accept the criticism in a principled manner, edit your post or comment accordingly, and move on, learning from your mistake.
We believe that speech, like everything else, has a class character, and that some speech can be oppressive. This is why speech that is patriarchal, white supremacist, cissupremacist, homophobic, ableist, or otherwise oppressive is banned.
TERF is not a slur.
- No low quality or off-topic posts
Posts that are low-effort or otherwise irrelevant will be removed.
This is not a place to engage in meta-drama or discuss random reactionaries on lemmy or anywhere else.
This includes memes and circlejerking.
This includes most images, such as random books or memorabilia you found.
We ask that amerikan posters refrain from posting about US bourgeois politics. The rest of the world really doesn’t care that much.
- No basic questions about marxism
Posts asking entry-level questions will be removed.
Questions like “What is Maoism?” or “Why do Stalinists believe what they do?” will be removed, as they are not the focus on this forum.
- No sectarianism
Marxists of all tendencies are welcome here.
Refrain from sectarianism, defined here as unprincipled criticism. Posts trash-talking a certain tendency or marxist figure will be removed. Circlejerking, throwing insults around, and other pettiness is unacceptable.
If criticisms must be made, make them in a principled manner, applying Marxist analysis.
The goal of this subreddit is the accretion of theory and knowledge and the promotion of quality discussion and criticism.
Check out ProleWiki for a communist wikipedia.
view the rest of the comments
What don’t you with about communism?
Different person, but my issue with communism is that it puts too much power in the hands of government, which, thus far, has always led to some abusive power figure corrupting the whole thing for personal gain. It's a wonderful theory, I'm just not convinced humanity will ever be able to make it actually work long term.
That said, I definitely think we should be dabbling with it, and moving more and more power out of the hands of corporations. There's a balance in there somewhere.
People are capable of having power and remaining true to the people. Though it’s true some of the leaders of the USSR eventually became estranged from the people and ended up illegally dismantling it, Stalin and his comrades were paid the same as a normal worker and he died with nothing but the clothes on his back. We can and are learning from the mistakes of the past so we can do better in the future. China’s leaders have remained principled and that’s how they managed to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty and crack down on corrupt corporations and politicians. Scientific socialism will continue to learn from our mistakes and avoid them in the future. Also, If communists were out for power why would we side with the oppressed (not that you’re necessarily insinuating we are just “power hungry authoritarians” or something like that).
Absolutely, I agree. Let me clarify, I don't think all people are secretly evil or anything, or that power corrupts all, my feelings are more that positions of immense power attract a certain type. I completely believe that we can have a moral leader, who means well and does all they can, but how do you setup a system like that with longevity? How do you check and balance that kind of power in the long term, when someone takes it who does want to corrupt it, and will say anything to get their way, and has the support of the average person?
A generation or two of prosperity doesn't interest me if it creates all the tools and power for long lasting dystopia.
Also, just to be crystal clear (although I don't think you're insinuating this either), in no way do I think communists are out for power, or ill intentioned in the slightest. I would've said I'm communist myself a decade ago, but after a while of watching corrupt pastors, politicians, and businessman weasel their way into incredible power, and how they'll say one thing and do another, the more convinced I become of the need for a system that limits the power in any one place.
Lastly, I'm not so sure about China? Do feel free to share some resources, maybe I'm exclusively hearing the bad here, but aren't they involved in Uyghur genocide, and a country with some of the worst privacy imaginable? I'm still interested to hear about their political theory, but it doesn't seem like a government I'd want to live in.
There are many tools that we can use to avoid degeneration such as democratic centralism and criticism and self criticism. The fall of the USSR wasn’t inevitable I think it could have been avoided if the Khrushchev coup didn’t happen, as well as other mistakes. We can study those mistakes and avoid them like China is. China has studied their mistakes intensely, and that’s why they’ve managed to stay around and continue to improve people’s lives. In terms of the “Uyghur genocide” it is a fabrication of the western media. Basically, the US trained jihadis in the Middle East and many happened to be Uyghur. The terrorism was brought home to China and instead of killing hundreds of thousands like the US after 9/11, China organized education and de-radicalization programs. The media has spread the lie that genocide was being committed there instead with dubious sources like (CIA) radio free Asia and (CIA) Adrian Zenz. Many visitors from Islamic countries testified there was no genocide happening. I believe these programs are since closed. We have many resources here on Lemmygrad.ml if you use the search function like this. On the surveillance thing what I’ll say is the US has more per capita CCTV cameras. I’d love to live in China especially because according to Harvard over 90% of people support their government their.. If you want to learn about Socialism With Chinese Characteristics I’d suggest Roland Boers book on the subject and some more resources here and here.
About Uyghur "genocide", check this https://archive.ph/sYD5q#selection-2093.20-2093.27
In case you don't know, Adrian Zen is the guy most western media base their sources from.
An excerpt on “2 million” number: