Replace communism with fascism in the meme and sudden suddenly seems stupid.
Free thinking doesn't mean opposing common views by default, it means you reached your views (common and uncommon) by your own
You didn't get the comic. It's a critique of mainstream propaganda. Not an endorsement of the "free thinking" argument.
It's kind of stupid though, most sane people know communism hasn't exactly provided the pinnacle of human existence.
It feels less like a smart comic and more like a propaganda comic; "like communism if you are a smart free thinker".
You're the "Communism is bad" guy. In the lower panels.
The thought that communism has been established in USSR, China, Cuba, etc. and has proven to be horrible for human florishing is the propaganda.
Then show me a place where it worked. Oh there isn't...
I prefer our social democracy.
Then show me a place where it worked.
Define "worked". 1930s Catalonia had a good run. So did anarchist Ukraine. Also: about the majority of the time humanity existed "worked" without private property, money and modern nation states.
I prefer our social democracy.
"Your" social democracy is most likely currently in the process of giving power to fascists (depends on where you live, exactly. But all of Europe for example is pretty much the boiling frog meme of turning fascist.), or preparing to start WW3.
As I said: full of propaganda.
A good run? A few years?
If propaganda is your concern, communism relies on complete altruism of EVERYONE just to get off the ground. And then it is a free for all to who grabs power first and turns into a dictatorship...
And discussions comparing it other systems are useless, because people end up comparing a real system to the ideal theory of communism. Because it's never worked.
If propaganda is your concern, communism relies on complete altruism of EVERYONE just to get off the ground.
Why would you think that? Communism doesn't require "altruism". Yes, the pro-social tendencies inherent in the species is supposed to be used for bringing humanity forward. But in the end, communism is focused on cooperation (rather than competition in capitalism). cooperation and altruism are different things.
And then it is a free for all to who grabs power first and turns into a dictatorship...
Nothing in communism implies that there can't be guardrails against power grabs. Quite the contrary in anarcho-communism, in fact, where the socialeinstitutions are to be set up specifically to prevent these kinds of things.
And discussions comparing it other systems are useless, because people end up comparing a real system to the ideal theory of communism.
So? Why can't you discuss systems in theory? I don't really see the problem.
Because it's never worked.
There have been ample historical and contemporary examples of "it" working. Socialism (i.e. worker ownership of the means of production) and communism (a stateless, moneyless society) has no precedent of collapsing due to internal conflicts. Only through external pressure.
And even if: Let's say he first few attempts at conducting a liberal democracy have failed (not a historian, but it seems very likely that you could argue that was the case). Should humanity have abandoned the project of liberal democracy, then?
Its not an endorsement, is a criticism of those who consider themselves free thinkers but only follow the what they have been fed.
The fact that it can't be reversed (by having the media something correct) shows the bias that "free thinking" is only good when it follows our personal bias.
Ironic how it's flying over so many heads
Tankies bad
Commernism is when John Lennon starved A bazillion people and you have no freedom!
Capitalism is when tiddies burger truck football!
You forgot beer, hell yeah
It's like you were present at every one of my conversations.
TBF there's not a lot of anti-commie music, but there is a lot of anti capitalist music. If you ignore the pro capitalist music we've at least kinda got the music.
True but most of the places people would be inspired to write anti-communism music, they'd be in jail or worse for doing so...
Because the right is completely devoid of creativity
Communism isn't bad. Socialism isn't bad. Capitalism isn't bad. It's what humans do with them that is bad. Don't be a greedy dick and they would all work fine.
Capitalism isn't bad. It's what humans do with them that is bad. Don't be a greedy dick and they would all work fine.
Capitalism demands greed and infinite growth in a finite and resource-limited world. It's inherently contradictory, regardless of your ethics.
They're all just finely tuned creations from whoever is in charge. They can be all of those things, or none of them.
In the end, it's been oligarchs everywhere, so far.
Man is it refreshing to read some good takes on this. Spot on rumba.
Capitalism is definitely real fucking bad.
Not really at its core, the problem, is like most things humans touch, is extremism and twisting it into an excuse to be an evil piece of shit.
Same with communism, it doesn't limit free speech or create dictatorships. It's just every attempt at it so far as ended up there
The overall issue with every system so far. Is they've been completely incapable of keeping the worst humans from rising to the top and ultimately destroying the system.
For some reason you just continue to ignore that capitalism is designed to allow for the worst humans to rise to the top.
And communism isn't? It's much worse in fact, as it provides zero control. There's a reason every attempt at communism so far has turned into a dictatorship before it even got started.
Note, in no way am I saying capitalism is good.
The real issue no system is capable of controlling human greed long term...
Socialism is democracy expanded to the economy. And I hope we can all agree that democracy is better than feudalism / oligarchy. The unchecked power disparities that capitalism creates betray every ideal that democracy stands for
Don’t be a greedy dick
Sure thing... it's not like capitalism is fundamentally designed to empower the pathologically greedy or anything, eh?
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
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When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart
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1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
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The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
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Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
