4 ms·
Because Communism is cancer.
by drops 9y ago
Because Communism is cancer.
- etplayer 9y agoWhy do you say this?
- drops 9y agoBecause I live in a country that was under Communism for almost 90 years and actually experienced how bad it is first-hand.
- etplayer 9y agoYou lived in a country that was under Party rule of an emulation of a Marxist-Leninist vanguard state which operated on the functions of private property, money and was clearly a class society, I'm guessing, unless you lived in revolutionary Catalonia. I am currently living in a country that's still under capitalism and I'm experiencing how bad it is right now.
- janus28 9y agoExplain to me how bad it is and compare it with statistics on poverty from the best communist country you can find me.
- etplayer 9y agoJust to take you up on this, I do not think that Cuba is a Communist country, but it reports very highly on poverty and especially in comparison to other countries in South America. >Despite this, the poverty level reported by the government is one of the lowest in the developing world, ranking 6th out of 108 countries, 4th in Latin America and 48th among all countries.[0] Further, I see it as bad for private property is tyranny, the labourer is deprived of the full value of what he creates, and the class society creates artificial necessity to provide wage labour or accumulate sufficient capital just in order to survive. For these reasons I see the system as barbaric, as with our resources it is clearly enough to do better. To say nothing of the horrendous exploitation of those in Bangladesh for example, this only being the most visible example of the exploitation Marx tells us about. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index#Complete_list_of_countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Dev...
- janus28 9y agoThank you for pointing out how Cuba has regressed relatively to its peers. Cuba used to be the second wealthiest country in the Western Hemisphere. Also that you need to lie about what your source says is sad. It's 68th among all countries.
- etplayer 9y agoThe quote I used happened to be incongruent with the source I linked, so I'm sorry for that - I wasn't trying to be disingenuous. That said, you asked for statistics and I have provided them - Cuba in terms of poverty isn't as bad as most of its peers in South America.
- janus28 9y agoCuba's poverty is only relatively good (ie not actually good) when you restrict its peers to the countries of South America. But when you consider that when Cuba transitioned to communism it was a fully developed economy not a developing country you can understand how badly they have regressed.
- atom058 9y agoAnd of course, this regression has nothing to do with US sanctions during the period. The world is probably not as black and white as we might think at first glance.
- friedman23 9y agoOh yeah, Cuba definitely regressed because of the US embargoes. What's the excuse of every other communist country in the world again?
- s_kilk 9y agoI've lived under Capitalism for over 30 years, and have first-hand experience of how bad it is.
- janus28 9y agoSpeak for yourself. Also you have the option to move to socialist/communist countries whenever you see fit, they exist. Don't force your horrible ideology on the rest of us (which communism literally calls for).
- etplayer 9y agoThe idea that "if you don't like it, leave" can be used to excuse any injustice, such as against the Jews in Nazi Germany. What's your point, exactly? It's a farcical notion and I hope you can see that it is counter to the idea of human progress to expound it. >Don't force your horrible ideology on the rest of us (which communism literally calls for). No, it doesn't. Communism calls for the liberation of people via the abolition of private property, itself a concept which is forced on everyone, including the owners of private property. This is like saying that the abolition of slavery "forces an ideology" on everyone because now nobody can own slaves. Again, it's farcical. Oscar Wilde and Kropotkin have explained the individualist nature of Communism.
- janus28 9y ago> The idea that "if you don't like it, leave" can be used to excuse any injustice, such as against the Jews in Nazi Germany. That you need to bring up the Nazis shows how bad your argument is. Please just move to Venezuela or North Korea. > No, it doesn't. Communism calls for the liberation of people via the abolition of private property 1. It calls for the forced confiscation of private property. 2. Explain how someone can be liberated by having their economic freedom removed?
- etplayer 9y agoThe fact that you're telling me to move to Venezuela (capitalist economy) or North Korea (a country that doesn't even call itself Communist or even Socialist any more) shows just how bad your argument is. It was perfectly valid for me to bring up an example of a repressive regime as an immediately understood example of injustice. However I could have just as easily used the example of Bangladeshi sweatshop workers. Should they just shut up or move away? Moving is irrelevant, too - everywhere has become private property, everywhere is rented or taxed. One cannot escape capitalism. >1. It calls for the forced confiscation of private property. Yes. What about it? >2. Explain how someone can be liberated by having their economic freedom removed? People's economic freedom is not removed, rather, it is provided in the first place - higher stage Communism is the refined ideal of the free association of people as producers and labourers in the economic sphere.
- BeetleB 9y ago>Because I live in a country that was under Communism for almost 90 years and actually experienced how bad it is first-hand. That's as silly a reason as you can give. You don't think I can find a capitalist country that's as bad?
- dang 9y agoYour account seems like it's teetering on the edge of using HN primarily for political and ideological battle. That's destructive of what HN is supposed to be for, so if you would please (re)-read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and walk back from that brink, we'd appreciate it. The same goes for any other account in this position, regardless of their politics.
- dang 9y agoThis breaks the HN guidelines badly. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and refrain from posting like this here again. Somebody opening the gates of hell a crack is no reason to fling them wide open.