7 ms·

Its scary how much communism is affecting our daily lives, even if we live far away from it...

• ajmurmann 7y ago
  Is it really communism at this point? There definitely is a lot of capitalism and fascism happening there. It's really about the party and it's leaders and they'll adopt whatever economic or social policy to further the party and its leaders' power and riches.
  • kzzzznot 7y ago
    “State capitalism” is a term I’ve heard used which makes sense to me.
    • quotz 7y ago
      propaganda is a term i've heard too
  • Kaiyou 7y ago
    Isn't that what communism in practice is? Or are you on the "real communism has never been tried" side of things?
    • ajuc 7y ago
      USSR and its sphere of influence was communism in practice. You couldn't create a company, you weren't allowed to do anything for money without state permission (and mostly there was no permission). Prices and number of things produced were decided by the ruling party. It failed almost universally. China today is less "communist" economically than most of EU.
      • ncmncm 7y ago
        Capitalism, communism, fascism, they are all distractions from facts on the ground. Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia resembled nothing so much as one another.
        • netsharc 7y ago
          Yeah, distraction indeed. In the end people argue about which "ism" it is and not the fact that some people are being oppressed, with varying degrees of horribleness.
        • bogus_323423 7y ago
          This is not a coincidence, given fascism was a mutant heresy of syndicalism (which itself is one of the many marxist flavors). Look into D'annuzio and the various other ideological influences on Mussolini and it's not hard to figure out why Fascists loved totalitarianism and central planning as much as the mainstream marxists in Russia did. The story is not much different in Germany. Same fruit of a poisoned tree.
      • repolfx 7y ago
        China is still kinda like that. To make an internet company you need a license (not allowed without state permission) and that company is still in reality owned by the state. It may do whatever it likes to it at any moment, like insisting party members sit in the officers and control decisions ... and does. It will often also be literally owned by a state bank too. Yes, China has less economic planning than the USSR did, that's true. But communism isn't defined by that, trying it out is just a natural consequence of Communist beliefs. Indeed Marx laid out almost nothing of how actual communist states were meant to operate. Communism is ultimately about building a totalitarian system in which the ruling classes must be loyal devotees of Marxist social theory. China certainly qualified.
        • ajuc 7y ago
          > But communism isn't defined by that [central planning] > Communism is ultimately about building a totalitarian system I really don't want to be advocate of communism, but it seems to me you're cherry-picking the defining characteristics of communism to suit you. After all: > Indeed Marx laid out almost nothing of how actual communist states were meant to operate So why demand it must be totalitarian? Also > Communism is ultimately about building a totalitarian system in which the ruling classes must be loyal devotees of Marxist social theory Communist party in Poland at least certainly wasn't that. They were the first to become devote capitalists in 1989.
          • repolfx 7y ago
            Marx didn't specify many details about how a communist society was meant to be run, but he did specify quite clearly how it was meant to be created. See the numbered list at the bottom of the Communist Manifesto: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-m... Observe that he prescribed: 1. Abolition of private property 4. Confiscation of property of all rebels and emigrants 5. Centralisation of all credit in the hands of the state 6. Centralisation of all communication and transport in the hands of the state 9. Forced mass population transfers out of cities into the countryside How can anyone implement such drastic policies? Marx was under no illusions about this and spelled it out quite clearly, which is why the fact he's not perceived as being as evil as Hitler is an unfortunate stain on our society: Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads ... So he literally stated in his manifesto that creating a communist state would require despotism, or in more modern language, totalitarianism. That was just one of many calls Marx made for violent revolution rather than democratic means. Given this starting point it's not a huge surprise the Soviets tried to implement a fully planned economy. Marx didn't specify that as an end state per se, but he specified very similar things as a means to get to communism. China still has a largely planned economy despite successfully whitewashing itself as "capitalist", hence all the stories about staggering piles of non-performing debt, zombie banks kept alive by government fiat (centralise all credit in the hands of the state), and massive overproduction of things like steel. As for Poland in the late 80s, yes, by the end of the 20th century a lot of committed communists had realised how foolish they had been. But did they really understand the true root cause of the problems? Or did they mistakenly conclude the root cause was central planning? Sometimes when I look at the behaviour of the eastern European states I have to wonder.
      • martin_bech 7y ago
        EU today is less “communist” economically than most of the US.
  • me_me_me 7y ago
    China is as Communist as North Korea is democratic.
• point78 7y ago
  That not communism, it's dicratorship