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With the word itself? Nothing, really. With the ideology which traditionally uses it? Plenty. The same goes for that black fist they're using, in itself it is b
by hagbard_c 5y ago
With the word itself? Nothing, really. With the ideology which traditionally uses it? Plenty. The same goes for that black fist they're using, in itself it is but an image but it happens to be the image which has been used and continues to be used by the same ideology which is known for using the word 'comrade'.
The better question to ask is what went wrong in the education departments which did not only fail to teach the lessons of failed Marxism-inspired ideologies but actively promotes them, leading to a remarkable resurgence of what was written of as terminally wounded after the fall of the Soviet Union - socialism and communism. They failed to teach history of communism and socialism in its many guises, the bloody trail it has left behind and continues to produce and the untold number of lives lost to these ideologies. Instead, they just hitched a ride on the revolutionary bandwagon which got started in 1968, promoting the virtues of yet another Marxism-inspired ideology - critical theory. They managed to lower the academic standards, especially among those groups in society who they claim to want to protect. Instead of teaching students the basic tenets of their disciplines they taught them the ever-changing strictures of their ideologies.
What happened is that a student of this system ended up working for the Internet Archive and thought the symbolism employed by Stalin and Mao would be just the thing to use to promote the essence of western liberalism: freedom of thought and freedom of expression. She probably never realised the contradiction between what she thought this symbolism represents versus what is has represented in the past.
- loloquwowndueo 5y agoWow you sure are reading a lot into a word which is otherwise correctly employed.
- hagbard_c 5y agoNope, I just realise how it came to be that people think these symbols represent 'good intentions' while in reality they should b relegated to the history books right next to those employed by their ideological cousins of Fascism and National Socialism. Would you react in the same way if they had used a fasces [1] instead of a clutched fist? The term comrade was employed by both National Socialists (the 'Horst Wessel' song starts with 'Comrades, the voices...') and Fascism so it has a rich history in oppressive ideologies. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_symbolism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascist_symbolism
- Dracophoenix 5y ago>Would you react in the same way if they had used a fasces [1] instead of a clutched fist? Oddly enough, the fasces had been minted onto the Mercury dime (the dime preceding the current Rooseveltian dime) and is a feature of several statues in the Capitol, Lincoln and Washington among them. If Edward Bernays is to be believed, symbols take the meaning people are convinced they have. And there's no better proof than 4chan's (particularly /pol/'s) sense of irony/humor with regards to the OK hand sign.
- NineStarPoint 5y agoI think it’s a completely fair assessment to view the word that way. Dog-whistles aren’t just a thing neo-Nazi’s use, any unpopular political groups has words they use to indicate what their true side is to others of the cause. The only point against comrade in that light is that it’s so heavily tied to communism in the collective consciousness that it might be too obvious. That said, how negatively we should view that particular dog whistle is a separate conversation.
- wutbrodo 5y ago> What happened is that a student of this system ended up working for the Internet Archive and thought the symbolism employed by Stalin and Mao would be just the thing to use to promote the essence of western liberalism A lot of usage of the word is tongue-in-cheek. This seems entirely plausible to me
- yesenadam 5y ago> a remarkable resurgence of what was written of as terminally wounded after the fall of the Soviet Union - socialism and communism Genuine question - could you tell me more about this "remarkable resurgence"? What are you referring to here?
- SyzygistSix 5y agoMany opponents of the social programs common in Western Europe consider their popularity and support among younger generations in the US a sign that communism and socialism are popular.
- yesenadam 5y agoAh ok, thank you!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hagbard_c 5y agoThose social programs are unrelated to socialism and communism - social democracy is not socialism-light as some people seem to think. Socialism, the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and its supposed destination of communism, the "classless state" centre around state ownership of the means of production. Social democracy makes no such claims, it aims to spread the gains of the economy over a larger part of society. That economy tends to be some form of controlled capitalism. In other words there is no contradiction between supporting European-style social programs and the insight that socialism and communism should be put in the same corner as fascism and national socialism for being destructive and dysfunctional ideologies.
- hagbard_c 5y agoTake the example of a party - Vänsterpartiet in Sweden - which' up-and-coming politicians openly state their aim is to create a communist society [1] gaining close to 10% of the vote, nearly doubling their size. They are the biggest party among young women (18-29) [2], gaining ~24% of the vote. These women are voting for a party which is fine with their up-and-coming party elite aiming to make Sweden a communist state. It is written into their program, not just some quote from a random person. [1] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/ung-vanster-vart-mal-ar-ett-kommunistiskt-samhalle https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/ung-vanster-vart-mal-ar-e... [2] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/svt-novus-tjejerna-valjer-v-och-killarna-valjer-sd https://www.svt.se/nyheter/inrikes/svt-novus-tjejerna-valjer...