this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
1502 points (79.0% liked)

Memes

44907 readers
2663 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I mean there is, but all of the major nations fall somewhere in the middle of the capitalism / socialism spectrum.

China, a communist nation, has private businesses. The US, a capitalist nation, has public infrastructure and social safety nets.

It’s a gradient, and very few nations are 100% on the edge of the spectrum.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (13 children)

I am from Eastern Europe and I share this sentiment when I see anyone from the West defending communism. The issue is complicated but, to put it bluntly:

No, Timothy, communism didn't fail in Eastern Europe because it was implemented wrongly. This is a very complicated topic but the tldr summary is "It is a broken idea, it did not work and it will never work. The natural and logical outcome of any attempt at Marxism is a bloodbath followed by autocracy."

That being said, communism isn't the only way to achieve a more equitable society. You have social democracy (in Lennin's words - communism's greatest adversary); organized labour movements; collectivist anarchism; communitariasm, etc.

Communism, as applied in the 20th century, violently fought against or oppressed all of these movements and is incompatible with any of them.

Not to mention that in most countries nowadays orthodox communists have been hugely discredited for excusing the Russian war of annihilation against the Ukrainian people.

In conclusion, if you live in the USA or Western Europe and you are unhappy with how corporate greed has ruined society, don't look to communism for answers. There are many other proposed solutions out there - go and research these. Communism is very well known, which makes it easily accessible to people who want change - but it is never, ever the solution.

load more comments (13 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well capitalism is about making a selfish choice. We have no significant capital, so maybe they cut us in or don't be surprised when some don't care for the system.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

though most brainwashed USAians seem to think having basic shit like Sweden/UK/Australian style healthcare system is some kind of evil communism.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Making this meme took longer than opening a book to understand what communism actually is.

What everyone points to as "communism" shares more in common with capitalism than anything else. They had authoritarian rulers and a small wealthy class that lords over the rest of the populace.

There is nothing "worker owned" about these examples and it only serves to spread FUD about moving away from capitalism towards a more human centric economy

[–] TopRamenBinLaden 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The Red Scare is still working it's magic I see. I don't think many people think that communism is the perfect system. Even the ones who support it. It's just that after living in a capitalist hellhole our whole lives and watching the world burn, some of those ideas start to look like they are worth trying.

Star Trek is a good example of what the endgame of communism is supposed to look like. It's just the process of getting there that is hard to figure out.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Oh man, Lemmygrad will not like this one bit.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (8 children)

At this point neither of them have seen how it was in Soviet union.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Redditors try not to froth and post anticommunism for 120 seconds challenge (impossible!!!)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I am quite certain that there are proportionally more communists in post-socialist countries than in Western countries. According to the results of the "Rendszerváltás 30" public opinion survey conducted in 2020 by Policy Solutions, Závecz Research, and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 52% of the Hungarian population believes that the relative standard of living was better during the Kádár era, while 31% think it was worse. (Page 24) Of course, this doesn't mean that 52% of the respondents are communists, but the results significantly contradict this meme. Is there any source to support the claim that there is a higher proportion of communists in Western countries compared to post-socialist countries?
I cannot speak for other countries, but here, the Kádár-era remains popular for many people even to this day, particularly among those who lived during that time.

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

I wonder, are people advocating for a system similar to the USSR or North Korea? Or actual communism?

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›