this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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Socialism

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I believe in socialism, but I feel Stalin shouldn't be idolised due to things like the Gulag.

I would like more people to become socialist, but I feel not condemning Stalin doesn't help the cause.

I've tried to have a constructieve conversation about this, but I basically get angry comments calling me stupid for believing he did atrocious things.

That's not how you win someone over.

I struggle to believe the Gulag etc. Never happened, and if it happened I firmly believe Stalin should be condemned.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You're suggesting you de-develop companies and make them less efficient, rather than folding them into the public sector and further improving their efficiency. Once markets have done their job and left centralized, internally planned structures, the answer isn't to break them up and repeat the process of misery and squalor, but to further develop by folding it into the public sector. It's like you want to regularly pick up a race car and put it backwards on the track every time it gets close to crossing the finish line.

Competition naturally trends towards monopoly, there is no benefit to perpetually trying to move the clock back. Moreover, even with such laws, your country is still getting more centralized over time, only without worker control.

You need to seriously reconsider why you believe markets to be better than central planning at all stages in development.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think some corporate shareholders and other private owners might not be too keen about their super profitable property being taken from them.

What you're describing is similar to the situation in china, where the government is able to claim property of random companies. Unfortunately for the chinese government, the world is bigger than china, and shareholders do run off with their stuff.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes, the shareholders therefore need to be subject to Proletarian supremacy. Revolution is required to advance.

As for China, part of the reason why it works is because Capitalists can't just up and take their factories, the government can sieze them, plus the size of the market and allowance for the existance of wealthy individuals stems brain drain, which proved to assist in the USSR's downfall.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Proliterian supremacy? You mean worker unionization or something? That's the kind of losing battle currently being fought in the usa.

I suppose we'll see the fall of China soon ish, then? They're not particularly small.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean revolution and instating worker supremacy, as has happened in AES states like the PRC, USSR, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, etc.

As per China, I specifically stated that they learned from the USSR and are doing the opposite of what contributed to its downfall. The USSR had very low wealth inequality, and suffered from brain drain where skilled individuals could be paid more in the US. The PRC is not yet developed enough to avoid that same fate if they cracked down even harder on their wealthier individuals, it's a gamble that has so far proved correct.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you really believe that, you might want to watch the news for a change.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Rather than pulling a groundless act of superiority, can you actually address what I've said? Which part are you skeptical of? Rather than watching the news alone, you should read theory and history.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What china is doing right now, I recognized the similarity in their behaviour from the news. Then you claim they're doing the exact opposite?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The USSR had low wealth inequality by design, and was more publicly owned and centrally planned. This led to numerous benefits, but also drawbacks such as brain drain.

The PRC took the opposite approach. They allow billionaires to remain in the PRC, investing and developing Capital there and not elsewhere. They maintain a balancing act between capitilation and domination so there isn't the same Capital flight and brain drain, because you can still go to China to get extraordinarily rich.

The Chinese path presents a difficult contradiction towards their Socialist goals, but their method of "boiling the frog" has set it on course to continue surpassing the US while remaining entangled in the global economy, rather than isolated like the USSR was.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That makes a lot more sense, thank you for clarifying! China has been doing quite well in certain developments recently.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago