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

Thanks for the detailed response.

This doesn't mean that communism is good, of course, but it's bad for entirely different reasons than the ones liberals list.

What's the difference between the anti-communist arguments used by liberals vs the right?

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

It depends on who you ask. I am a lot more economically left than most so I go quite far. Generally, however, most people on the right can agree that materialism is the real problem behind communism, not this or that system of economic management or at least not just the system of economic management. As you may know, Marxism reduces everything to a progressive arc of economic development, meaning that things like ideals, creeds, causes, nations, religions, the family, cultures, institutions and values are all just economic tools designed with the purpose of extracting "surplus value". Marxist materialism does not even recognise the consciousness in any meaningful way. To many, many people, that is an utterly abhorrent, put aside inaccurate, worldview.

There can also be disagreement on the nature of the economic problem, but again, it depends on who you ask. A lot of people double or triple down on the liberal argument about "communist misery". There is certainly some truth to it in certain respects and especially during certain times. The early Soviet industrialisation and urbanisation had some very disgusting side effects, for example. Similarly, while the "bread lines" argument is a total joke for almost all the existence of the USSR, during and immediately after the civil war and the second world war there was genuine starvation and profound misery. Food shortages were also troublesome during the final years of professional idiot Gorbachev's leadership, although ironically the phase of liberalism that followed was far more destructive than anything even he could achieve.