4 ms·
stalin was a right wing monarch. tell me, what part of "we elites eat caviar while the poor starve" is remotely communist? common, commune. community. communi
by hootbootscoot 7y ago
stalin was a right wing monarch.
tell me, what part of "we elites eat caviar while the poor starve" is remotely communist?
common, commune. community. communion.
the native-english-speaking-world could do with a bit less sanctimony and a bit more etymology.
- TheOtherHobbes 7y agoI'm not sure why you're being downvoted, because the reality is that the so-called left-wing dictatorships were literally nationalistic empires with a strong monarchic slant. Just as Nazi Germany was. (If Hitler had won WWII, Germany would have become an imperial monarchy within a couple of generations at most.) And North Korea still is. The pseudo-Marxist imagery is just a wrapping. Politically, North Korea is a semi-industrialised feudal monarchy. Just as the USSR was an industrialised nationalistic proto-monarchy controlled by an emperor. If you want millions of deaths, promote nationalism and imperialism. They always deliver.
- mopsi 7y ago> I'm not sure why you're being downvoted Because it's wishful thinking. Frantic anti-nationalism in both words and actions was a cornerstone of life in the USSR, from Stalin's deportation of millions of "unreliable nationalities" to Brezhnev-era "friendship of peoples". A "new Soviet man" (superhuman) was expected to emerge from that, with no nationality, no religion, no traditions, completely selfless, loyal only to the communist party, and devoted to work. This is as far from nationalism as one can get in practical terms. This was not only ideological matter, but nationalism presented a fundamental threat to the Soviet Union, it enabled people in the USSR to self-organize and eventually break free. Nationalist movements that rallied people for self-government and democratic freedoms were a key factor in the collapse of the USSR.
- mcguire 7y agoLeft wing totalitarianism is hard to distinguish from right wing totalitarianism.
- someguydave 7y agoYeah but “communism was never tried” ;)
- chrisseaton 7y ago> tell me, what part of "we elites eat caviar while the poor starve" is remotely communist? It’s what communism is like in practice. You can’t say ‘that’s not true communism’ when that’s how every communist state ends up.
- vertex-four 7y agoIt’s actually not how every communist state ends up, for a sufficiently broad definition of communism that includes more anarchic organisation. The problem in a lot of anarcho-communist states is that they were crushed by the Soviet Union and its allies.
- chrisseaton 7y ago> It’s actually not how every communist state ends up Do you have some counter examples?
- vertex-four 7y agoRevolutionary Catalonia was not perfect by a long shot, but didn’t have quite the same set of problems.
- chrisseaton 7y agoWeren’t thousands of people summarily executed in extrajudicial killings?
- skrebbel 7y agoSeems to me like it wasn't perfect by a long shot!
- claudeganon 7y agoSounds like the Western “frontier” of the United States.
- rayiner 7y agoMillions of people starved in the Soviet Union because they transitioned farms into "community" ownership. Sounds pretty "communist" to me.
- Supermancho 7y agoAll forms of socialism have an element of corruption and coersion. Political-socio-economic stratification occurs in every implementation, as part of the human condition (the applicable pareto curves). Humans are predatory and no set of social contracts will upset that behavior. There will be "elites" with more resources than others.
- dang 7y agoPlease don't take HN threads further into generic ideological flamewar. It's tedious and we don't want it here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html