this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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Do we have a Lemmy equivalent to iamverysmart because ffs...
You didn't even come close to answering the question. You didn't say anything about who owns and benefits from production.
Sounds like you're describing authoritarianism to me.
Socialism, Communism, and even Capitalism are not inherently authoritarian.
Also, take a look into the history of CIA intervention on socialist governments. Unless you believe we brought "democracy" to them out of the kindness of our hearts.
Good argument. I yield to you.
(/s just in case)
Didn't answer the question.
This is a terrible definition that could be applied to any form of government the speaker dislikes.
But that doesn't make any sense. Words mean things. When people say "communism", they usually mean something more concrete than whatever you said. Usually it has to do with who owns the means of production.
But you're the one who brought up communism. That's like someone saying "Poison ivy sucks" and you're like "Yeah, well, getting bit by bugs sucks". Like, ok, maybe, but we weren't talking about bugs. And now you won't even tell us what bugs you're talking about.
I feel like you think you're being very clever, and maybe communicating your ideas, but it's not coming across. I've gathered you have an idea of what communism means, and you don't like it, but I'm not getting any specifics. If you're trying to convey what you believe and maybe change people's mind, your current approach isn't working. If you're not, then what are you trying to do?
Ok, this I understand. That's a position reasonable people can agree or disagree on. (Though from earlier posts, I'm not certain we have the same working definitions of capitalism and communism. That's a problem for later)
Personally, I find the model of "I work all day and create $100 of stuff. The boss keeps $90 and I get $10" kind of bad. But that's a whole complex topic with more solutions than just "laissez-faire capitalism" and "communism as attempted by the soviet union".
I would further assume that the original meme was meant to take a shot at how ceaseless profit motive by the ownership class (ie: capitalism) has given us a bad outcome. Isolated, samey, homes with heavy car dependency. Pollution, inefficient, dehumanizing travel. Bland consumerism. Old people left to rot in for-profit homes.
Now, you can rightly say "other systems can lead to the same outcome!". That's true. But, we know that capitalism as implemented in most of the world got us here. Maybe the solution is some other system or combination of systems. I don't know. But the original poster didn't say anything about communism. To reuse a metaphor I made earlier, that's a bit like someone saying "These wolves circling the camp suck" and someone responding "Yeah but bears are worse." Okay. But we're not talking about bears. When someone says "We should bring in bears to deal with the wolves," then sure, bring up bears. But, from what you're saying, I guess you feel like you've seen this song and dance before, and are confident that bears were in the subtext, or were about to be brought up. Fine. I get that can make sense to you, but it can be jarring to anyone who isn't sharing that mental context.
I don't know if there's anywhere on earth that doesn't have some capitalism. I feel confident that unchecked capitalism (which the US favors) leads to worse outcomes than what most of Europe does. Our health care system is pretty bad, in large part because it's run as a capitalist (ie: not owned by the workers) system.
I had more thoughts but someone started texting me, and my train of thought derailed.
Come on, eli5 communism. I want to know what these idiot youth are imagining, not your opinion about it.
Simple question here. No gotcha: Do you believe that people deserve to be ruled by kings?
Should people, in your opinion, be ruled by kings?
I literally did as you asked. There's no gotcha here. I'm just trying to ascertain whether or not you value democracy or not. That's a crucial first step to understand why you have such a fundamental misunderstanding of communism. That's all.