11 ms·
A Wonderful Socialist Life
- JoshMnem 8y agoStrange design. That looks like an official Dropbox blog post.
- lylecubed 8y agoIt's worth noting the author of this piece keeps getting kicked off of twitter for talking about his personal experiences in Communist Romania.
- coldtea 8y agoWhich shows why letting a single country's private companies, with their single (anglosaxon, pro-market, puritan, pro-US-national-interests) point of view, to dominate the internet is a problem...
- UncleEntity 8y agoOne would think that anti-communist ranting would be in the best interest of the "anglosaxon, pro-market, puritan, pro-US-national-interests". The more reasonable explanation is people abusing the abuse button or whatever twitter uses to flag posts.
- lylecubed 8y ago> single (anglosaxon, pro-market, puritan, pro-US-national-interests) point of view Can you show me proof that any web single company actually has this point of view? If anything, most tech companies are anti-puritan, anti-anglo-saxon and anti-US national interests. Had you bothered to read the link, you would know the author has the exact point of view you just described and yet he's been kicked off of twitter thrice.
- coldtea 8y ago>Can you show me proof that any web single company actually has this point of view? If anything, most tech companies are anti-puritan, anti-anglo-saxon and anti-US national interests. From CEOs getting cozy with presidents and declaring their patriotism (while running a globally important web services), cutting off people like Assange, or even directly working for the State Department or various agencies (e.g. Bezos), to the censorship that's always based on what a US-person would tolerate (e.g. nudity) or find offensive, and so on... Their whole mission statements reek of Californian ideology as well, but that's another story.
- mikeash 8y agoI suspect the author got kicked off for other reasons (related to his rampant misogyny, perhaps?) and these tales are unfortunate collateral damage.
- lylecubed 8y agoHave you got proof of those allegations?
- mikeash 8y agoThe misogyny is evident from browsing their tweets. As for it being the reason they got banned, no, that’s why I said “suspect.” Do you have proof of what you said?
- lylecubed 8y agoSo you mentioned it solely as a method of character assassination, then? proof: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1020755555978162176.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1020755555978162176.html
- mikeash 8y agoNo, I mentioned it as an alternate explanation. I don’t see anything in your “proof” which shows why he got banned. Did I miss it?
- lylecubed 8y agoYes. Willingly, if I had to guess. You've been stinking up this whole post with misinformation.
- mikeash 8y agoReally? Because I did find this: > No reason given, other than the standard “you broke the community rules, here is the link you click if you want to appeal”. Does he contradict this elsewhere and give the reason?
- wuschb 8y agoMissing the point. We need Empathy
- jeffdavis 8y agoBut is a national government the best way to express that empathy? Or maybe there are other solutions. I think we have too much of a tendancy to think hierarchically, i.e. Trump/Obama is the boss of America, so if something is wrong anywhere then look to them for help.
- toomanybeersies 8y agoThe question is how is it possible for the Scandinavian countries (as well as many other developed countries) to run robust social democracies, yet not Venezuala, and apparently not the USA (according to Sanders' detractors)? I mean this as a genuine, rather than rhetorical, question. Also, I can see the email address of everyone who's viewed this document, along with their name.
- pinewurst 8y agoI think you may have answered your own question. :). There’s a big difference between social democracies (Denmark) and socialism (Cuba, Venezuela). My personal take is that those who were instrumental in the creation of these had very different ideas about the desirable endpoints. Certainly, hearing my local “democratic socialists” (Seattle), I get a strong impression that Scandinavia is not their model. Why can’t we respect Clement Attlee more than Comrade Gonzalo?
- door4 8y agoThe difference is that Denmark won't face U.S. aggression for attempting to take care of its poor, but poorer countries in the global south have and will. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change#Cold_War_era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...
- candiodari 8y agoThen why did Venezuela do so well facing essentially the same pressure before the current socialist "revolution" ? And by the way, why does equality for all mean this ? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3192933/Hugo-Chavez-s-ambassador-daughter-Venezuela-s-richest-woman-according-new-report.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3192933/Hugo-Chavez-... Apparently, can't have socialism without Justin Bieber. Not for sharing, of course.
- door4 8y agoThe Daily Mail is a tabloid and not worth responding to. Extreme poverty halved under Chavez. The most vulnerable citizens in Venezuela (poor, indigenous Venezuelans) are the strongest supporters of the socialist government. Venezuela has had economic problems, relating to their over-reliance on oil revenue (which has always been a problem and has nothing to do with socialism), and bad monetary policy (which again, is not at all related to socialism) Meanwhile, the US continues to levy harsher sanctions aimed at forcing regime change (ie, so their country is run by a puppet state friendly to US capital), which only makes the crisis worse.
- mikeash 8y agoYet another in a long line of articles using the example of the Soviet Union or its satellites to criticize Western Europe and those who seek to emulate it. I’ve yet to see one that actually contains any argument for why the version found in Western Europe must inevitably decline into the Soviet or Venezuelan model, but they’re always absolutely sure that it must. This one just declares it to be so and insults those who disagree. The result is not convincing. It’s like a burn victim arguing against fire. Yes, fire can be bad, and I’m sorry you got burned, but I’m not going to give up cooking or heating because you’ve been traumatized.
- candiodari 8y agoThen why did ALL of them evolve into those hellholes ? Let's not pretend Soviet satellite states are the only examples. Far from it. It's not like this happened in one place. This happened in Cuba, in Venezuela, in Soviet Union. ... and the utter disaster that those were were actually still superior to what happened in China, Vietnam and other South Asian nations. This is the best, not the worst, that socialism has brought: > “The third tier socialized healthcare is for everyone else. Yes, it was free. But it also was a disaster of epic proportions. Truly horror movie like. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. Countless people died because of lack of medicine, filthy operating rooms,…” > “…lack of heat in the winter, broken down ambulances, overcrowded emergency rooms and last but not least doctors who were so poorly paid that they had to accept bribes in order to give proper attention to patients. This situation remained a disaster for another decade after…” The worst, of course, was outright mass murder. And that's ignoring that both Cuba and the Soviet Union, which, again, are the better examples, did cause famines to eliminate populations. But again, a famine is far preferable to the "cultural revolution".
- mikeash 8y agoFrance, Germany, Sweden, and many others seem to be doing fine, so it doesn’t look like “all” of them, not even close.
- candiodari 8y ago
- _notreallyme_ 8y agoIronically, guess what party currently runs Romania... The social democratic party, you name it. His point of view doesn't seem to be representative of his fellow countrymen. Although, everybody that doesn't benefit from corruption hates it, but that's another problem...
- mikeash 8y agoBrowsing their mirrored tweets, he doesn’t seem to like the current government of Romania either.
- door4 8y agoRomania was an extremely poor country, and that has nothing to do with socialism. It was poor before socialism, and slightly less poor under socialism. Comparing it to living conditions in the U.S. is disingenuous. If this is what Bernie Sanders wants, is Bernie Sanders also planning on somehow destroying 95% of America's wealth, establishing a secret police force and enforcing one-party rule before attempting universal healthcare? Then maybe it'd look like Romania under Ceaușescu. We have more than enough resources to provide a good living for everyone in this country. Capitalism does not do that, and never will. Only socialism will.
- thecolorblue 8y agoThis was my understanding of Cuba as well, that it was a poor country when it started. I am having trouble finding Cuba's GDP before, or arround, the revolution in 1953. So take this comment with a grain of salt.
- door4 8y agoGDP growth under socialism was always comparable with capitalist countries. And even despite being a relatively poor country and being under embargo from the US for nearly 70 years, Cuba has a higher literacy rate and life expectancy than the United States. Compare the development of China, which is responsible for nearly all of the poverty reduction of the last 30 years, and India, a similarly situated but more market-oriented economy victim to western Imperialism. It's night and day. I'm not defending any of these regimes (they all certainly had problems), but the argument that socialism "doesn't work" in terms of creating a functional, growing economy is simply not consistent with the historical record. Again, despite controlling most of the global economy and being the wealthiest country in the world, the U.S still doesn't have affordable housing, livable infrastructure, reasonable work environments, and enough food for all its people. Because capitalism never has and never will provide those things.
- toomanybeersies 8y agoCuba's literacy rate apparently went from ~70% to 96% [1] after the revolution due to a concerted push for literacy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Literacy_Campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Literacy_Campaign
- gremlinsinc 8y agothe author's use of 'snowflake' repeatedly made me stop reading. It's obviously a hit piece, and has no substance from a right wing nut job, who has an agenda. Not worth my time to address or read alt-right commentary.