I am paying attention

submitted by useless_aether from i.redd.it

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[–]useless_aether[S] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (20 children)

tell that to the hundreds of millions of victims of the communism with a straight face

[–]Tom_Bombadil 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

Victims of authoritarianism.

The naive americans were also victims of imagine authoritarianism. The genocide wouldn't have occurred of they could vote, etc.
Nazi Germany: Jewish community didn't have a vote.

Franchised voters typically encourage others to help vote against genocide.

I don't think that I'm making an outlandish claims, my friend... ;-)

The origins of the free market concept are social-capitalist. It worked for decades before it was hijacked...

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (10 children)

yeah, but they were communists. they called themselves communists. they used, applied the teachings of marx, engels and lenin. marxism was taught in the schools and universities. only the members of the communist party could get ahead. the very reason it should be called by its name is, that it can be precisely identified as a murderous ideology for all times.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

And the Nazis were... Socialists...? (Fascists)

And the DPRK (Democratic Republic of North Korea) are democratic...?

Western capitalist democracies also have murderous intent (slavery, Iraq, Cambodia, Laos, etc.)

Authoritarian clubs all with murderous intent. I think we are making similar arguments with nuanced differences.

The common thread in my assessment is the authoritarian nature of the ones committing the atrocities.
I'm not aware of any grassroots events that compare.

Edit: I would argue that justice is a grassroots value.
Justice does not serve power.

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

i agree with all of that, but

And the Nazis were... Socialists...? (Fascists)

--> any socialist is communist in the long run; the goal of socialism is communism (lenin)

And the DPRK (Democratic Republic of North Korea) are democratic...?

still commies. they cant be democratic without free elections. in marxist terms, they have a so called democratic dictatorship. its an oxymoron, but they are explaining it saying demos is for people, so the dictatorship is by the people (demos) who form the majority, therefore it is justified and the free elections are simply 'untimely' because reactionary forces would take advantage of it. so its better for the time being to stick to communist dictatorship.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (7 children)

There's plenty of excellent socialist programs in the US.

  • Police force don't send you a bill (subject to circumstances).
  • Fire fighters don't send you a bill (that's recently changed in blighted areas for some fraudulent reasons).
  • Sewer services are largely socialized with a monthly fee.
  • Roads and bridges are generally socialized.
  • Utilities are controlled for socialist principles.
  • Water is generally socialized (for better or worse, Flint :-0).
  • Land line phone service.

These were all implemented during times of new deal social-capitalism. No one complains about these programs (excluding the police, for understandable reasons).
That's a list of sweet social-capitalist benefits. Proven, functional non-totalitarian, socialism.. Let's keep it. :-).

Had these others been introduced we probably would benefit similarly

  • Cell phones.
  • Cable tv.
  • Internet service.
  • Heath care. (Instead of spending trillions on nukes. Do it like Japan does... They can't be that much smarter than the West!?! They're definitely not commie's!).

What do you think? ;-)

[–]HeyImSancho 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think in the USof A, we've met the definition of socialism, and actually communism for a very very long time. It's more so authoritarianism masked, but still.

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot_and_stick#/media/File:Europe_Boardman_Robinson.jpg

[–]Tom_Bombadil 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

"But... what country is going to want carrots...? Even if there's like a million tons of carrots?"

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

and a million tons of sticks?!

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That video is hilarious!

I love the scene where he asks one of the former secretary's "if Hillary drank from the furry cup".

[–]Jesus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Land line phone service

I complain and the monopolies on rural phone services and utilities spying on my in home behavior through smart meters and then sending that data to corporatists and marketers.

[–]happysmash27 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

I'm pretty sure that's state capitalism. Just as the USSR masqueraded state capitalism as communism, the US masquerades a mostly inverse-totalitarian, over-regulated (but in the pro-corporate, harmful way) state as a liberal capitalist democracy.

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

cccp, china, etc was governed by communists according to communist ideology, using communist methods and principles. the education and indoctrination was based on marxism and lenininsm. and they were/are genocidal

[–]happysmash27 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Marxist/Leninist and Maoist, specifically, if I understand correctly. There are other, less harmful forms of communism though, such as my version, Anarkikomunismolando (or, at least hopefully it is much less harmful!), which attempts to bring about a gift economy simply by not charging taxes (which causes people to need to make money), and, in the resulting state, manufacture lots of things to give away for free. To be fair, my idea was inspired by the open source community rather than any previous ideas of communism, so perhaps it doesn't count!

Communism, by itself, is the idea that people should own the means of production and give things to each other for free, without state intervention; the problematic ideologies are those that try to achieve this in totalitarian, authoritarian ways. Sadly, the less authoritarian varieties have not, generally, succeeded on a large scale anywhere other than the digital realm; in the digital realm, however, open source projects like Linux and Wikipedia have embraced the gift economy in full. I hope that Anarkikomunismolando can help create at least a partial gift economy in the physical world, and hopefully help let people contribute to open source digital projects without worrying about bills too.

[–]useless_aether[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

i find your version agreeable.

Linux and Wikipedia

they both sold out, linux to microsoft and many other silicon valley players, wikipedia to..., well i am not even sure but its obviously controlled.. they started well and ended badly

[–]Tom_Bombadil 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Also, yep.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yep.

[–]Jesus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's mainly personal and collective ideaologies that get in the way of moral and /isms.

[–]Jesus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I agree, the Soviet Union had a form of collectivization. But I do not think they were communist per say.

US masquerades a mostly inverse-totalitarian, over-regulated (but in the pro-corporate, harmful way) state as a liberal capitalist democracy.

The US masquerades as faux-inverse-totalitarian, in that they pretend to not be totalitarian, when clearly they are. With the passing of the NDAA (Act of War - legalization on domestic soil), calling laypersons belligerants within said legislation, and implementing an invisble surviellance apparatus when the economy collapses, as well as th passing of the Patriot act -- it is fair to say the US is indeed heading towards a form of totalitarianism, imposed and implemented by intelligence agencies and corporatists.

You're right, we are a inverse-totalitarian, oligharcic-plutocrate-technocratic-feudalist like corporatocracy that runs on cronyism, and over regulation of the layperson and middle class and deregulation of creditors, and corporatists.

In fact one of the goals is to rid of the middleclass. Slowly of course.