this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards
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This is a community in the spirit of "Am I The Asshole" where people can post their own bans from lemmy or reddit or whatever and get some feedback from others whether the ban was justified or not.
Sometimes one just wants to be able to challenge the arguments some mod made and this could be the place for that.
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It's much simpler, I'm a communist, and I try to do what I can to create more comrades. Many people have thanked me for helping change their minds, so I know it isn't worthless.
So what's your end goal here? What's the communist endgame?
Communism, globally.
That does sound attractive, very utopian, I like that. I'm unfortunately more of a realist and believe that human greed is just too inherent in our biology, not to say we shouldn't try, of course.
But the question is how? Through a stateless society?
Once all of production is collectivized, the basis of class ceases to exist, and thus the basis of the state erodes.
Communism isn't utopian, and greed isn't a matter of biology, but expressed to greater or lesser degrees depending on the mode of production.
And how would you prevent a state from forming in a stateless society? We are pack animals after all.
The basis of the state is class society. Once class is abolished through collectivized production, the oppressive elements of society that form the state, ie police, millitaries, etc erode. Administration will continue to exist, as will collective decision making organs, etc, but this is not what Marxists recognize as the state.
Marxists define states and governments as two separate things, you should look into this before you ask this question
Communists as a whole use the original meanings of the terms and not the modern ones.
Communism isn't a deus ex machina that would make all human beings instantaneously happy if they were to simply accept it unquestioningly. For that matter, communism isn't a comprehensive ideology at all, it's more of a collection of theorems regarding the socioeconomic development and structure of society, many of which contradict one another.
It's like a Christian who thinks they are inherently doing good by converting others to Christianity. You are taking a handful of decent theoretical ideas and imbuing them with the significance of divine revelation. Furthermore, you are arrogantly presuming that your flawed understanding of communism is the real communism, and discounting the possibility that other "communists" can easily interpret the ideology in such a way as to justify killing you due to your flawed understanding of communism. It's an incredibly naive position that doesn't withstand the most basic scrutiny.
Think about it like liberalism. The American and French revolutionaries claimed moral authority because they were overthrowing the hierarchical structures of feudalism and replacing them with republicanism, democracy, free trade, etc.
In retrospect, we can easily observe that these ideas and political movements, despite nominally being constructed to protect and enhance the freedom and equitability of human beings, have in reality created conditions which have massively infringed on the self-declared natural rights of human beings in ways that a feudal hierarchy could never have dreamed of accomplishing.
Likewise, even if society were to globally transition to communism, that would simply raise new problems and abuses of power that would need to be combated. In conclusion, "creating more comrades" is a futile and naive goal.
Additionally, there is a very convincing argument to be made that you have potentially pushed more people away from communism than drawn people towards communism, and you would obviously have no way of knowing whether or not that is true. From where I'm sitting, I see a lot more users who have blocked you and your ilk than those who have joined you, and my personal opinion of communism has grown significantly less favorable since I began encountering you people on Lemmy a few years back. But what do I know, I'm a dirty non-communist so therefore all of my thoughts and actions are clearly incorrect and evil in comparison to the enlightened and ethical behaviors of any individual who happens to adopt the moniker of communist.
God, ignorance really is bliss. What I would give to be simple-minded enough that I could ascribe a positive ethical value to something as utterly meaningless as "creating more comrades".
I never once said that communism is something magical that fixes all problems, nor have I placed religious significance on it. This giant wall of text is just you going on and on in flowery language without actually explaining how I fit the strawman you've made of me.
Communism, the ideology, is just the general organization towards collectivizing production and distribution. The process isn't magical, it isn't religious, but it has useful benefits and consistent practical knowledge developed by past communists and socialists to aid in reaching this end. That's what communism is. There's no magic utopia, and I have never said as such, nor have you explained how I misunderstand communism.
It's nice that you top off your comment with an ableist attack by calling me "simple-minded."
It's not a strawman, it's a realistic appraisal of your position based on the evidence of your actions. Just because you prefer to deny it verbally when it's laid out in front of you like that doesn't make it any less true.
If you don't believe communism is anything special or noteworthy, then you wouldn't spend your entire life on a fringe online forum attempting to convert a few dozen edgy teenagers.
You have a remarkable capacity for doublethink, which partially explains why you find communism so attractive as an ideology.
Thank you for calling my language flowery though, it's nice to be appreciated 🙃
You didn't lay out anything, though, you waxxed poetic about a strawman. You're even doing it now, just because communism isn't magical doesn't mean I don't think it's important and necessary. You're outright stating in this doublespeak that if something isn't religious or magical, that it isn't worth anything at all, then you call what I do "doublethink."
Secondly, I have a busy life outside of Lemmy. I like to spend my online time talking about theory and geopolitics, but I don't even moderate any comms except Hexbear's c/theory which I only use to pin and unpin reading threads. You're speaking like a Marvel villian right now without stating anything of substance.
You haven't even responded to my point that you're actively pushing more people away from communism than vice versa.
How can you think it's important and necessary if you can't even define what it is?
Does it? Can you give some examples of these benefits and this practical knowledge?
I'll go first. It is necessary to eliminate opposing political parties and ideologies to ensure the viability of any communist state.
You didn't back up that claim with anything other than vibes, though. Further, politics isn't a tug-of-war, if people firmly disagree with communism, a communist explaining the communist viewpoint with (generally) a level-head isn't pushing them away, it's the communism, full-stop. The fact that the absolute number of comrades has risen due to my interactions means it's a net positive.
Secondly, I can define communism, it's a stateless, classless, moneyless society where production and distribution is collectivized and based on satisfying the needs of everyone.
Edit: to respond to your edit:
Communists have learned good party structure, how to democratize the economy, and the usefulness of implementing controlled market forces in underdeveloped countries as a means to rapidly increase the productive forces. China, for example, is massively improving quality of life year over year, and was one of the poorest countries on the planet only a century ago.
I don't need to, I'm not the one focusing all my energy on converting people to communism without having any evidence of whether my methods are actually effective, or indeed, whether communism itself is effective.
Hahaha it's like when the CCP exterminated all the sparrows in China to protect the crops. It wasn't until millions of people started dying from starvation that they realized sparrows actually play a major role in controlling insect populations, and their idiotic extermination campaign had the opposite effect of what they intended. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree I guess. Shoot first ask questions later mindset.
Oh, or it's also like when the CCP instituted the one-child policy, only to belatedly realize decades later that they had inadvertently created a massive demographic crisis that has only begun to unfold recently. It's almost like blind adherence to ideology to the exclusion of one's ability to dispassionately examine the available evidence causes one to make bad, self-destructive decisions. Who knew? Certainly not communists.
Citation needed
Gotcha, you just wanted a place to practice your poetry and go on a polemic against me devoid of substance.
As for killing the sparrows during widespread weather disaster, it's widely recognized as a critical failure. Is your point that communism is bad if communists ever make a mistake? Life expectancy still managed to double under Mao, that's how horribly underdeveloped China was, and a famine under those circumstances of underdevelopment was something common prior to the communists. It was the work of the communists that stopped famine for good in China.
Not doxxing the users who have thanked me directly in DMs or publicly. You know that it's nonzero, if that's not "good enough" for you then that's your decision.
imaqtpie certainly talked about religion...
Yep, they keep flipping around black and white logic while trying to accuse me of black and white logic, even using Orwellian terms like "doublespeak" and "doublethink."
Having not read much theory, I have found your comments about communism and geopolitics helpful and insightful, thanks.
No problem, thank you so much!
If you want, I actually have an introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list, feel free to give it a look if you want to familiarize yourself more with Marxism-Leninism!
Holy copium batman 😂
A famine on the scale of the Great Famine, largely self inflicted by the federal government, was an entirely singular and unprecedented event. To attempt to portray the Great Famine as a common historical event or anything other than a tremendous black mark against the government which presided over it is clear evidence of bias on your part. Everybody makes mistakes, but the anatomy of the Great Famine was clearly the direct result of decisions made by the CCP that would never have been made under a different, less authoritarian political system.
I'd have to imagine that any neutral party reading through these comments will have gotten plenty of confirmation that my assessment of you is correct, in that your blind adherence to communism as a panacea prevents you from understanding or engaging with reality in objective, rational terms. Good day sir.
It was initially caused by adverse weather conditions in a semi-feudal level of development. Killing the sparrows made it worse, but the communists did the best they could with what they knew, and more importantly, were responsible for developing beyond that semi-feudal level and instead creating cooperative farms that were far more productive. None of this is cope, the famine would have happened under the Kuomintang had the nationalists won the civil war.
Secondly, nobody is siding with you here. Imagine this neutral party all you want, they don't exist at the moment.
Pure, unfettered cope. It's amazing that you know how events would have unfolded in an alternative timeline where the CCP didn't exterminate billions of sparrows. Your mastery of ecological science must be exceptional, I'm sure you've run the numbers on this and come up with a data-driven model that demonstrates the truth of your argument. Surely you wouldn't make such a claim without having copious amounts of statistical/historical/ecological evidence to support said claim.
Smartest thing you've said all day, neutrals don't really exist on this platform. I'm aware of that, discussions such as these are more useful for me to develop and work through my own positions and rhetorical techniques for exposing sophists and ideologues.
The famine started before killing the sparrows, that's why they killed the sparrows. You do realize that, right? And you do realize that communism isn't "kill the sparrows," correct? You have no logical process here, it's pure reaction.
If your goal is practicing rhetoric, then you've failed, though failure is a good teacher.
Global warming began before humanity started burning fossil fuels.
Do you think Planet Earth would be doing just as badly if humans had never started burning fossil fuels?
Because clearly you're implying the famine would have been nearly as bad if the CCP never started killing sparrows.
It's laughably easy to brush aside your counterarguments because your position is inherently irrational and based on emotion.
No, I outright stated that the famine was worse because of killing the sparrows. It was also alleviated by cooperative farming, and famine in general was alleviated by development.
I really think you need to reread this convo, because you keep saying I'm saying things I never did.
Do you believe that communism is only valid if communists have never made mistakes?
do you think capitalists have never made mistakes on the scale of the sparrows issue?
Lmao this is one of those normal people I'm talking about who view your discussions as little stage plays.
We all think you're weird for this stuff. Arp!
You mean the transphobic american nationalist is someone you hold as having well-thought out views?
Dunno, I didn't get any of that from this back and forth, just you being crazy and him spitting facts.
Your response to this is hilarious.
In what way was it hilarious? imaqtpie made the argument that "communism is when you kill the sparrows," when no modern communist thinks that was a good move. They're arguing against ghosts, while you defend zionists and transphobes.
I guess it depends how far your head is up your ass, I think all your responses are hilarious, it's why I bait them whenever I see you going off then spend all the time you reply to me insulting your points.
You're a TV show that's always on to me. You'll always be here blowing hot air into your friends and twisting them into balloon doggies.
Then when you meet and argument that's good and consistent, you ad hominem because your rhetoric is so weak and easily passed through.
You are my favorite thing on this site.
Nice, dehumanizing me, what a great thing to do.
Dehumanizing, you are my favorite human! Only a real person could be this obtuse and silly, I mean you don't stop responding and you're on ALL THE TIME!
It's amazing, I love you, you are my entertainment and you are a real person!
You called me a "thing."
Lmao omg, it keeps coming, you are my special interest, my fave thing. So predictably looking for the linguistic game you can play to turn it around. I love it.
See, you do it again even when it's been pointed out.
If i could cuddle your replies, I would.
This is amongst the most pathetic interactions i have ever seen.
Thanks communist, I agree! At least someone has some brains! Also, amazing job following this thread to the end, I appreciate your dedication to the cause!