4 ms·

This exchange reads to me like one commenter saying "not a true communist!" and one commenter saying "not a true capitalist." I won't call it either way, becau

by rland 7y ago

This exchange reads to me like one commenter saying "not a true communist!" and one commenter saying "not a true capitalist." I won't call it either way, because I've seen this argument play out many many times and it never seems to be satisfactorily settled.

rayiner 7y ago
That’s a facile and shallow response, and buys into a popular Marxist trope. You could fairly say that if we were talking about whether healthcare in the US is a “free market.” It’s not a gray area like that. You have one example that flows directly from the central principles of Marxism (the failure of centrally planned agriculture) and one example that contradicts the basic principles of free market capitalism (slavery and colonialism). You can’t have a “free” market with forced labor, or where a colony is forced to sell raw materials to the colonizer and forced to buy finished goods from the colonizer. Pinning colonialism and slavery to capitalism is like criticizing filesystem performance in microkernels based on the Linux kernel as an example. Whatever shades of gray may exist in the definition of microkernel, Linux’s filesystem access does not fall into that debatable area.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  You're against colonial extraction of raw materials? Congratulations on your keen insight! Have you considered USA's recent misadventures in Latin America? A CIA-backed coup with this very purpose has so far succeeded in Bolivia. [0] Fortunately the one in Venezuela has up until now just embarrassed us. [1] Where will we try this next? Stay tuned! [0] https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-foreign-support-fernando-camacho/ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-fore... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opinion/international-world/trump-guaido-venezuela.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opinion/international-wor...

by rland 7y ago

rayiner 7y ago

That’s a facile and shallow response, and buys into a popular Marxist trope. You could fairly say that if we were talking about whether healthcare in the US is a “free market.” It’s not a gray area like that. You have one example that flows directly from the central principles of Marxism (the failure of centrally planned agriculture) and one example that contradicts the basic principles of free market capitalism (slavery and colonialism). You can’t have a “free” market with forced labor, or where a colony is forced to sell raw materials to the colonizer and forced to buy finished goods from the colonizer. Pinning colonialism and slavery to capitalism is like criticizing filesystem performance in microkernels based on the Linux kernel as an example. Whatever shades of gray may exist in the definition of microkernel, Linux’s filesystem access does not fall into that debatable area.

jessaustin 7y ago
You're against colonial extraction of raw materials? Congratulations on your keen insight! Have you considered USA's recent misadventures in Latin America? A CIA-backed coup with this very purpose has so far succeeded in Bolivia. [0] Fortunately the one in Venezuela has up until now just embarrassed us. [1] Where will we try this next? Stay tuned! [0] https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-foreign-support-fernando-camacho/ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-fore... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opinion/international-world/trump-guaido-venezuela.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/opinion/international-wor...