this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
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Why a lot of people on Lemmy like communist so much? As a person who grow up in a country which is almost destroyed by the communist party in the past I don't know what to say just why?, capitalist or not it's depends on your own country's government, at least you still can talking shit about them without getting arrested and torture to death, have we not learn from the past or other communist country, why don't you live in North Korea or China and see how've you like it
It's an unfortunately nuanced subject, where people don't agree on the underlying definitions of words. For instance, I think you're confusing "capitalism" with "democracy". You can have authoritarian undemocratic capitalist countries, where you can't talk shit about your government.
For me personally, I think communism has too many issues to actually try, but I like some of its theoretical tennants when compared to that of capitalism. Those goals are something to strive for. The spirit of communism is helping eachother and rewarding work, and the spirit of capitalism is sacrificing others for personal gain
I think a lot of people don't want to admit that most political ideas ranging from communism to capitalism are half baked labels we stick onto a collection of beliefs about what works best to solve certain problems. If you got rid of the labels you might just ask the question of what works and where the money will come from
I'm a big fan of capitalism, but I appreciate your comment nonetheless. To me there's nothing anti capitalist about sharing or wanting to take care of the people around you.
Capitalism is about taking everything you can, to act as a balance against everyone else doing the same, because the fundamental assumption is that greed is the natural state for people and we shouldn't try to fight it. Under capitalism, competition doesn't just apply to businesses in markets, it extends to everything: people must compete with those around them for resources (be it jobs, or food, or retirement investments), making human connection a primarily adversarial relationship.
Now nothing says that you must apply capitalist principals to every aspect of your life if you live in a capitalist society, but it slowly becomes the norm. Eventually, the reason people take care of eachother because is indirectly benefits themselves, rather than because its a good thing to do... And when that's your justification, it's easy to stop doing it.
It's all about establishing norms about how people should treat eachother. Under capitalism the norm is adviseraial by design, but under communist it was supposed to be cooperative. It didn't even up working that way, but that is the ideal we should strive towards.
Edit: fix typos
Though to be fair, DPRK is the way it is at least in part thanks to the Americans obliterating their cities and farm land. But we can ignore history to make a "I used to be in a communist country and it's bad, trust me bro" statement.
And I agree, I prefer to live in a system where prisoners aren't primarily minorities or political prisoners. And where the prison system isn't the most populated in the world, and rife with for-profit forced labour.
I would also be curious to hear which definition of "capitalism" and "Communism" you are using. That is, if you are open to dialogue.
Not to mention NK is economically blockaded and has to endure yearly military provocations by the largest military in the world. No wonder why they take draconian measures.
They take draconian measures because they're held hostage by one of the world's most powerful and effective crime families. One only needs to look at South Korea to see that it doesn't have to be this way.
Aint you confusing it with South korea? 😂
True, the south manages to have a rising GDP and the world's worst rates of suicide, and some of the longest working hours of anywhere, while being held hostage by that same crime family. That is the difference you can expect while you kiss the boot of the empire responsible for segregating your country and preventing any attempts of reunification.
A number of reasons. Just like you claim a Communist party almost destroyed your country, Capitalist parties destroy and are destroying many countries as well. The existence of bad Communist parties does not itself mean Communism is structurally a bad thing, as pursuit of a Stateless, Classless, Moneyless society is a noble goal for humanity.
I think it's fair to say that decentralization is a good check against Authoritarianism, and as such, this should be extended to the workplace, not just government.
As far as why Lemmy leans left, the founder is a Communist, and principles of decentralization and federation tend to appeal far more to leftists, while Capitalist-inclined individuals have Reddit.
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Heads up, this guy is a troll. His sole, self declared purpose is to be an asshole and pick fights. Not worth engaging
I don’t believe you. This sounds like the sort of thing a person could say to poison the well against someone else, unless someone demands proof.
So where is this statement of purpose?
The self righteous part in question that he's born to be against, is literally just claiming to be tolerant. Not bludgeoning people with tolerance, not using tolerance as a weapon to silence people as he claims. Just labeling oneself "tolerant", and the general idea of tolerance. He also spent several comments doubling down. Maybe go read the exchange and see for yourself?
Also, some of his other greatest hits include denying that the holocaust was so bad because "not all the jews died", outright claiming that "Fossil fuels are recyclable" in a single sentence comment in a debate about why he thinks evs are bullshit, and laying out an explicit violent fantasy about magdumping into a theoretical person who might strike him for any reason.
One of his most recent comments just says, "violence has never not worked"
Do go read some of his exchanges for yourself and determine if I'm just poisoning the well.
Noted!
It’s not so much the existence of bad communism that indicates communism is a structurally bad thing, quite so much as the utter lack of good communism that indicates communism is a structurally bad thing.
That's certainly enough to form a hypothesis, but far, far from proof against it. There aren't any "good" developing countries either.
Absolute load of shit, just like your false dichotomy of capitalism vs communism. Neither affects politics. In fact countries are being destroyed by the same type of people, they don't give a fuck if they're playing communism or capitalism today.
... As for why majority of countries are capitalist and not the system that has never been tried, that's because people always want to outsource decisions to someone else and when the people own means of production, there can be no production, only people inclined to produce do produce.
Classless society is impossible when 80% of people are worthless lackeys and only 20% of people even dream of doing something.
Lmao, none of what you just said actually meant anything, beyond you hating humanity and deepthroating Capitalist boot.
Yes I'm misanthrope, what are you gonna do about it? Spout more bullshit that makes me hate you even more?
Colonial insects are the only ones who made communism work and that's because they're insects, goodluck with this knowledge.
Bad form, troll. It's weakness to let your mark know that you hate them
You don't actually have any points, though. Your whole thing is that "good thing bad because it hurts my feelings," lmao.
You're the one whose feelings get hurt every time I tell you that the only ones who implemented communism successfully have no feelings. They don't even have a brain, ants and bees are more like machines, unlike humans who have hopes, dreams, and aspirations, and some humans aspire to rock the boat which is why goymmunism will never ever work in our species.
What would a human who has hopes, dreams, and aspirations do to rock the boat in Communism? Why do you think Communism is based on requiring everyone not have hopes, dreams, and aspirations?
You don't actually know, your feelings are just hurt and so you lash out.
Anything other than what the democratically-decided master economic plan says they should be doing.
So same as Capitalism, but without the democracy. Sounds like Communism is better.
Contribute nothing and receive everything, according to everyone's needs of course.
Yea, so you don't actually understand Marx, and I'm correct. Glad you could prove me right!
I'm fine enough merely understanding the actual world I live in and not your commie pipe dream.
Man, I thought you said yesterday that your parents raised you right? The more I see you, the more it's clear that they mostly just raised a cynical asshole. I guess that's par for the course for a troll picking fights on obscure social media
I'm just laughing to myself about the thought of Reddit being primarily capitalist. Lol
It's a for-profit, Capitalist business that runs it, ergo its Capitalist. The user base is largely liberal, which is still pro-Capitalism. You tend to see more Anarchists and Communists on Lemmy by proportion.
This community is on lemmy.ml, which explicitly leans hard left. Maybe a memes community on another instance would be less like this
how old were you when the USSR fell? Did you experience communism, or the capitalist takeover after communism fell?
Because they hate the system they live in and communism is the only modern alternative that has ever existed.
When someone comes up with an alternative to both, humanity will move forward.
Shut the fuck up, colonizer.
What ? Why do you have need to bring hostility to a peaceful conversation, where did he say that his father had slaves ?
My parents grew up in communism, and its true it did ruin some countries but it helped out too, its important to not keep this conversation black and white and use communism or capitalism as the ultimate solution to very difficult problem.
What Country?
Grass is greener on the other side
We have never seen an actual communist country. USSR for example was a fascist dictatorship which runs directly counter to the first property of communism, it must be stateless.
Facists like the Nazis like to claim they are for the people and sadly the only "communism" we've seen so far has been carried out by their hands. This is similar to how Nazis were supposedly progressive... Hopefully we can agree that is obviously not the case.
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-double-genocide-theory
Don't call communists fascists please. This is an article from a mainstream holocaust historian that explains why a related equation between the two is harmful.
I would also recommend reading "economy and class structure of german fascism" so you have a better idea of what fascism actually means.
I'd say the fact that leftist socialist or communist movements keep decaying into authoritarian dictatorships is a pretty big weakness of communism, actually. I think Western capitalist countries are not perfect by any means, but they're winning the quality of life game, even of poor people.
Not decaying. The Nazis were always fascist they put on a front of being progressive to ganrner support which worked quite well as we can tell from history. By the time it became obvious they weren't really progressive they were already in power.
The Cuban people literally joke that the government should be less democratic because of how much they consult the people, I dont think it is an authoritarian dictatorship and it is under immense pressure as it is 70 miles away from the imperial core and has been effectively blockaded for 60 years or so.
Sure, different ones have different levels of dictorshipness. To be clear, democratic and authoritarian are not opposites at all. Chattel slavery in the US was extremely authoritarian and awful, yet it was democratic. Abolition was a minority viewpoint until around the time of the Civil War.
You need to tell your story more, and include the feelings, and include how the communist policies did that destruction.
People like communism because they don’t know your story.
"Communist Party of Kampuchea" look up yourself and the horrible thing they did