this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The answer is to join revolutionary org

Why? When is the revolution going to happen? Where and when are we supposed to gather?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I already answered the why. The where and when depends on organization, right now orgs aren't as strong as they need to be, hence the importance of joining. The where is wherever your local org gathers, the when is whenever they meet and based on what they need you to do.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

These organizations have been around for decades, yes? Seems like there's never going to be a when.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

That's the same logic as saying there's never going to be a cure for cancer because research has been done for decades.

As Capitalism gets older, it trends towards monopolization, increasingly complex production methods take increasing amounts of investment to compete, killing the ability of smaller competitors to exist. The Rate of Profit shrinks the less human labor is involved with production, which is only temporarily countered by consolidation, even further monopolization! Wealth concentrates in fewer and fewer hands, Capitalism reaches a moribund stage.

What is undeniable is that this disparity is increasing further and further, and monopolization is increasing further and further. The revolutionary potential of the Proletariat is held at bay through further exploitation of the Global South, which appears to be weakening over time.

While nobody can name a date, I find it even harder to believe that someone could meaningfully believe that the trends I listed are going to reverse themselves and have Capitalism last forever.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Except lots of cancers now have cures, and there are vaccines for others, so no it isn't.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Yes, and there have been successful Socialist revolutions, you're only weakening your point.

Do you believe the remaining cancers will never be cured because they currently aren't?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Successful ones? Which country is currently a socialist one? Where do the workers control the means of production?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The PRC, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and a few others are currently Socialist and run along Marxist lines.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The workers do not control the means of production in any of those nations. You're just lying now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

What do you think Marxism is? When you say "workers controlling the Means of Production," what specific vision are you talking about, where majority publicly owned and planned economies are not Socialist?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Well for one thing, such countries don't have billionaires and and a stock exchange with private corporations like in Vietnam, China and, I am guessing if I looked, in the other countries you listed too.

If a handful of people or just one person owns a bunch of factories, a few individuals control the means of production. And do it to gain capital.

Someone remind me what an economy is called when there's an elite group of wealthy people who get rich off of their capital gains...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Well for one thing, such countries don't have billionaires and and a stock exchange with private corporations like in Vietnam, China and, I am guessing if I looked, in the other countries you listed too.

Marx never once said that Communism could be established through fiat, by decree instead of degree. Engels, in writing The Principles of Communism, makes it quite clear why this cannot be:

Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke?

No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.

Marx describes the process of private industry forming monopolist syndicates ripe for public planning in Manifesto of the Communist Party:

The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.

Socialist states with minority private sectors are fully in line with Marxist analysis. As these private sectors monopolize and develop the productive forces through competition, they make themselves ripe for public planning. A good essay on the subject is Why Public Property? if you have need for further detail.

If a handful of people or just one person owns a bunch of factories, a few individuals control the means of production. And do it to gain capital.

Yes. In the private sectors of Socialist States, this indeed happens.

Someone remind me what an economy is called when there's an elite group of wealthy people who get rich off of their capital gains...

Depends on the overall composition of the economy, and what class is in control. Cuba has 77% of the economy in the public sector, for example. Hardly sounds Capitalist to me. The PRC had 50% in 2012, and roughly a tenth in the cooperative sector, and the Public sector has only grown since then, and state power over the Private Sector has only increased with time.

Is your argument that an economy that is not fully socialized cannot be considered Socialist? I think, for similar reasons that you wouldn't call the US Socialist for having the USPS, that that's a silly argument. Is your argument that not having a fully socialized economy is against Marxism? I think the quotations have helped hammer that Marxism is about progression to socialization, rather than forcing socialization without the necessary infrastructure. Is your argument that Marxism isn't Socialism? That's a hard sell as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 59 minutes ago (1 children)

Your whole argument was that they were successful socialist revolutions and now you're like, "yeah well capitalism exists in socialism, so..."

Hilarious.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 48 minutes ago (2 children)

Can you please respond in good-faith? My point is that market economies can exist within a broader Socialist economy, and that as the private sector develops into monopolist syndicates, it makes itself ready for public ownership and central planning, a strategy we can watch in real time in AES states.

Can you please explain your interpretation of Engels here?

Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke?

No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 44 minutes ago (1 children)

It's Flying Squid, I don't recommend engaging.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 41 minutes ago (1 children)

I know, but it's useful for liberals to see someone so adamantly argue in clear bad-faith against someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Flying Squid normally gives up and walks off.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 41 minutes ago* (last edited 40 minutes ago) (1 children)

someone so adamantly argue in clear bad-faith against someone who actually knows what they are talking about

To be fair, it is working really well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 38 minutes ago

It did last time as well, in my opinion. I'll likely never convince Flying Squid, but indirectly they will help me convince others.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 47 minutes ago (1 children)

Market economies? The thing you said need to be gotten rid of, but not via democratic means?

So if a socialist revolution doesn't get rid of the problem of capitalism, what does?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 45 minutes ago (1 children)

Market economies can be rid of by degree once a Socialist state is established. The Socialist revolution is the mechanism of this process.

Can you explain the Engels quote?

Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke?

No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society. In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 43 minutes ago (1 children)

I don't really care about the Engels quote. I want to know exactly how long you expect this to take. Because Earth isn't getting any cooler, so if this takes any more than 4 or 5 years, it isn't going to matter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 39 minutes ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 38 minutes ago (1 children)

That's not an answer. Will it take more than 5 years to end the use of fossil fuels through this revolution?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 26 minutes ago (1 children)

I can't see it happening under Capitalism, that's for sure!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 22 minutes ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 minutes ago (1 children)

I really don't see what your point is with this, first you claimed Socialist states aren't Socialist because they are Marxist, but that you don't care about Marxism, and now you're asking for a guarantee of climate action within 5 years. You're all over the place. What's your goal?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 minutes ago (1 children)

This began with me asking you when and where the revolution would take place. You couldn't tell me. I explained to you that if it doesn't happen within the next five years, it won't matter and asked you if it will. You won't tell me.

You have given me zero good reasons to join these revolutionary groups that you have named to join, which have not achieved anything and apparently have no actual plans to stage a revolution.

The revolution had better both happen within the next five years and end our dependence on fossil fuels or it won't make a difference.

You don't seem to get that. You seem to think there's some sort of long-term future where capitalism slowly disappears and thus we slowly stop burning oil. That's not how civilization is going to go. It will collapse long, long before that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 minutes ago (1 children)

Are you a nihilist? I can't make a guarantee that we can establish Socialism and get rid of fossil fuels within 5 years. I can say that AES countries have been far better than average on meeting climate goals.

What exactly was the point of you claiming AES states aren't Socialist? Are you just looking to argue?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

I didn't ask if we can. You know what I asked. I asked if it will happen.

Funny that you accuse me of arguing in bad faith and yet you won't answer a simple question. Instead, you answer a question that wasn't asked.