• DougPiranha42@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    edit-2
    2 days ago

    How can you equate “seize means of production” and “class warfare” (things in OP) with 40 hour work week (not in OP)? Are Stalin’s and Maos bloody dictatorships that terrorized, tortured and murdered millions, hundreds of millions of people, examples of progress of society? I can list a bunch of countries that are relatively free, and have high rates of literacy and strong worker protections, that are not communist (pretty much any developed democracy since the late 20th century). There is literally no communist country where people are acceptably free and don’t or didn’t want to get out to flee to one of the not communist countries. I hate the “its such a nice ideology just every single fucking time its followers came to power they had to torture and murder their fellow citizens to stay there”. You know, “seize means of production” in practice means that the government, or people who have friends in the government, go and take away other peoples shit: farmers, small businesses, house, a pig, anything they want, and all they need to do is call the victim a bourgeois or capitalist. This is how it worked in practice in every socialist/communist country that ever existed, lmk if you have a good counter example. And guess what: people get hurt in the process, lives are ruined.
    Class warfare. Who the fuck wants to live in a society where everyone is a worker? Economically, a worker means someone who doesn’t own anything other than their future ability to work and earn wages. Every society that looks remotely liveable has a strong middle class: people own real estate, business, investments. These would all be crimes in communism. And now you can explain me that no, that’s not what’s so fucking cool about communism, I still get to keep my house and retirement fund, just have to work less and get more free stuff from the government because the only reason I wasn’t getting those things previously is that they didn’t realize how cool communism is. btw I don’t want to read a bit about the ideology, I was born in a communist country and have a pretty good idea what it was like for people living in that system. Edit: removed an offensive statement.

    • QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 hours ago

      There is literally no communist country where people are acceptably free and don’t or didn’t want to get out to flee to one of the not communist countries

      Lmao. Clearly not looking very hard. The CPC even by western sources has an approval rate somewhere between 85 and 98%.

    • wieson@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      I think you got it the wrong way round.

      "Seizing the means of production ", means that every worker is now also an owner and investors into the company he works at. If you like owning and investing, that should sound cool to you.

      Democracy should be everywhere in our lives, not only once every 4 years, that’s why democracy at the workplace is important.

      The workers wouldn’t get “free stuff from the state” they would get to decide what to do with the surplus value the created with their work. Do we have a bigger payout? Do we invest in more production, more research? All these decisions would be held democratically by the workers AND managers.

      Btw did you know, that you are in a class war wether you want it or not? There is one class waging war on you, one class that has class solidarity, and that is the Epstein class, the billionaire class. They steal the value you create any chance that they get. And what do they do with it? Invest it into hospitals? No. In the best case scenario they hoard it. In the worst case scenario they use it to rape and kill.

    • Riverside@reddthat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      tortured and murdered millions, hundreds of millions of people

      You are making up the numbers, proving your ignorance.

      I can list a bunch of countries that are relatively free, and have high rates of literacy and strong worker protections, that are not communist (pretty much any developed democracy since the late 20th century)

      And you’re going to ignore the hundreds of millions of people enslaved and murdered by western capitalist colonial regimes, because you dont apply the same standards to socialism that you do to capitalism

      There is literally no communist country where people are acceptably free and don’t or didn’t want to get out to flee

      Bullshit. The Soviet referendum in 1991 proves otherwise, the vast majority of people in socialism wanted to stay in socialism.

      I’ll stop reading because you’re just repeating western anticommunist propaganda and you haven’t made 1% of an effort to actually get informed on the topic. Suffice it to say that if ir weren’t for socialism in Europe, the Nazis would have won.

      Edit: I see that you were born in a post-Soviet country. You can thank communism for your country to exist as a country and not as a colonized Nazi settlement with you and your family murdered or enslaved :)

      • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 day ago

        Edit: I see that you were born in a post-Soviet country. You can thank communism for your country to exist as a country and not as a colonized Nazi settlement with you and your family murdered or enslaved :)

        That is a super fucked-up thing to say. Go thank Ceausescu for committing genocide in Romania (yea, not soviet, but under USSR’s influence)

        What

        The

        Fuck

        • Riverside@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 day ago

          I don’t know what part seems cruel to you of explaining that the Nazi project, which the Soviets stopped, included the enslavement of genocide of all non-German peoples between Berlin and the Urals, Romania included (sooner or later). Since you’re Romanian, the Soviets also literally saved you from your own fascist regime. I do not wish harm on you or your family, rather the opposite, I’m thanking the Soviets for saving them.

          Go thank Ceausescu for committing genocide in Romania

          Literally not a thing, stop manufacturing nonexisting genocides. There was repression under Ceausescu, but there was absolutely no genocide. Can you please link me up to what you’re referring to as “genocide”?

          As for what the Ceausescu government did in Romania, per data from the Romanian Statistical Review: Between 1950 and 1989, Romania’s GDP grew by 850%. The country went between 1950 and 1989 from being composed of 86% agricultural workers (essentially a feudalist state), to being an industrialized society with 46% of the population working in the industrial sector. This industrial revolution literally turned a nation of starving peasants into a rather modern and industrialized country with infrastructure, guaranteed housing, free education, universal healthcare and guaranteed jobs with no unemployment.

          Look at what happened to the population of Romania after Ceausescu:

          4 million in population losses… It’s really no wonder that even after 3+ decades of anticommunist propaganda, the majority of Romanians still view Ceausescu as a good leader and believe that life was better in socialist Romania.

          • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            20 hours ago

            Romania’s GDP grew 550% from 1989 to 2026. See? I can do that do.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Romania

            By 1989 Romanians were starving. Supermarket shelves were empty. Money meant nothing.

            And, hey, where were all the disabled people? Can you find one? You can’t. He put them away, like the nazis. One of the “disabilities” the regime treated in their institutions? Not being white. That’s right. Being part of an ethnic minority was considered a disability. Remind you of a certain Adolf? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1044207311394853

            Political opposition? Freedom of speech? None of that. My uncle can attest to that. Oh wait, he can’t. He spoke ill of the regime while in compulsory military training and they “took care” of him. But maybe my grandfather can tell you about his career as a police officer-ohnowait he got canned for not being loyal enough to the regime and had to move his family from the city to a remote village.

            Healthcare? Let’s ask my aunt. Oh shit, wait, we can’t. She died at 5 of pneumonia cause there were no doctors in her village and no medication at the hospital.

            How about that housing? Did you know people had wood burners in their apartments cause there was no heating? What about the blackouts? Power went out daily for hours.

            Industry? Pollution. My parents worked in a coal-burning power plant. Romania’s energy was 47% renewable last year.

            Fuck you know. You know nothing. You’re just some propagandist on the internet. My parents lived through it themselves and I live in Romania today. I moved back to it from London. Cause that trend of people emigrating is reversing now thanks to investments from the EU. What you’re seeing there is Romania joining the EU. You see those last few dots there? See how flat that line is? You don’t know shit. Ceausescu’s isolationism has nothing on that.

            EDIT: Oh and one more thing. Just cause the soviets fought the nazis doesn’t make them good. They didn’t do it out of the kindness of their hearts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_occupations_by_the_Soviet_Union You may recognize some of those territories as territories Putin is currently trying to regain. I don’t suppose you like him too.

            Your arguments are so weak I didn’t even get mad. I’d call it ragebait but it’s not even that. It’s like you got high, listened to a really trashy music album and thought it was the best thing you ever heard. In fact, I resent you for wasting my time, making me type up all this stuff that other people know or don’t need to be told.

            EDIT 2: This is how you know the left is better than the right. Even our extremists are higher quality. Theirs are unintelligible. At least ours write full paragraphs instead of ragebait catchphrases

            • Riverside@reddthat.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              16 hours ago

              Romania’s GDP grew 550% from 1989 to 2026

              So half the growth rate lmao. About 4% yearly during the socialist period and 2% during the capitalist period. Not looking great for your argument, especially when you consider that the distribution of wealth is abysmally worse now and the poor people get fucked while the rich take 90% of the wealth.

              By 1989 Romanians were starving. Supermarket shelves were empty. Money meant nothing.

              You’re confusing the post-communist inflation period with actual socialism. You know, the point when people lost their jobs, when the industry of the country was dismantled, when the rural infrastructure was left to crumble, and when people had to massively start leaving the country!

              And, hey, where were all the disabled people?

              That’s good and honest criticism, thanks for bringing it up. I wasn’t aware of the treatment of people with disabilities in socialist Romania, and it’s good that you showed me the article about it. You see, that’s how you do criticism, not by making up nonexistent genocides.

              Political opposition? Freedom of speech? None of that

              Dude, I live in Spain. There has recently been a plot that destroyed the leftist party Podemos in Spain by cops manufacturing false documents of funding by Venezuela and Iran, and leaking those fake documents to all media, which echoed it incessantly for years until it was proven fake. Before that, we had the GAL, a secret paramilitary corps of the ministry of internal affairs that was murdering pro-independence Basque activists and tossing their corpses in lye to melt the evidence.

              My uncle can attest to that. Oh wait, he can’t. He spoke ill of the regime while in compulsory military training and they “took care” of him.

              Wow, almost as if that’s the history of countries with a fascist past! My great grandfather got murdered by the reds behind the frontlines on the civil war, and I’m not praising Franco for killing the reds. You know what? Because my great grandfather was fascist scum and he likely deserved it! Romania also has a fascist past, and it was necessary to rid the country of fascist elements.

              But maybe my grandfather can tell you about his career as a police officer-ohnowait he got canned

              Oh, your grandfather got canned for having a dissenting political opinion in the police, something that totally doesnt happen at all with modern police in Europe aye? Ffs my cousin is a cop and he’s constantly harassed for being a leftist, and communists are systematically purged of public life and employments for the sin of being reds. Get off your high horse and look at the current reality.

              Healthcare? Let’s ask my aunt. Oh shit, wait, we can’t. She died at 5 of pneumonia cause there were no doctors in her village

              Surely she would have survived her pneumonia if the USSR had allowed the fascists to remain in government in s fucking backwards peasant country, huh? Dude, you’re blaming communism for the lack of medicine in a fucking village in 1970, in a country they industrialized themselves. If it weren’t for the communists, your aunt wouldn’t even have been born because the Nazis would have ethnically cleansed your homeland!

              Industry? Pollution

              Oh you’re right, Romania should have invented solar photovoltaic modules in 1955, totally communism’s fault that they didn’t! You’re ridiculous! You can also thank Chinese communism for Romania’s 47% of renewables, I bet half of that is achieved with solar panels, of which China manufactures 95% of the world’s supply! And likely another significant part of that 47% comes from hydroelectric stations from the communist times of Romania ;)

              My parents lived through it themselves and I live in Romania today

              So capitalism literally uprooted your family from your homeland for 30 years and you’re still licking the boot? That’s absurd levels of cognitive dissonance! Your family literally had to leave the fucking country because of the horrifying 1990s capitalist crisis, and only now can you move back to a somewhat stable Romania (likely highly educated and in a high paying service sector job of the top 10% of the population, correct me otherwise) being one of the few wealthy people enjoying the fruits of someone else’s labor in capitalism.

              • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                12 hours ago

                If you do more research you may have one or two more revelations when it comes to Romania

                The wealthy are not taking 90% in Romania. If the far-right and right keeps growing though… maybe. Same goes for the MAGA-friendly socially conservative kleptocratic social-democrat-in-name-only party we have here. There’s a new green social-democrat party that’s the real deal. It’s growing. Fingers crossed. I don’t think we need communism to keep things in check. A solid social-democrat party with a few democratic socialists here and there should do just fine. If the country goes far-right though… we’re fucked.

                The thing about supermarkets being empty is real. That was literally one of the things that triggered the revolution. People tend to stay put if their basic needs are met, which is exactly what the communist regime promised to do and did not. Ceausescu sucked at socialism, basically, if you wanna put it that way. He ran the country like a business and didn’t care about the employees. He only cared about himself and his oligarch friends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_austerity_policy_in_Romania

                My uncle was not a fascist. Far from it. Look at who MAGA calls terrorists and “radical far-left lunatics” these days. It was like that. If you disagreed with them, you were a “fascist”.

                What my grandfather did was he refused to beat up a guy for information. He was just a regular cop in a small city. Just a guy who needed a job. He didn’t want to play a part in political oppression. That’s how he got fired.

                My family didn’t leave Romania. I did. And they’ve been fine. I left for university. I did Film & TV in the UK cause I liked English-language entertainment. As for other people being uprooted… People didn’t leave Romania in its communist years because they weren’t allowed to, not cause they liked communism. Plenty escaped. Much like North Korea today.

                Also, you keep using socialism and communism like they’re synonyms. They’re not. I’m down with democratic socialism. I am not down with the clusterfuck of oppression and poverty that was the Ceausescu regime. If you feel the same, I’d kindly suggest you don’t associate with it either, cause it is a bottomless can of worms. The more you read, the more shocking it gets. And that goes for plenty other figures of the 20th century. This new generation of progressive democratic socialists is a completely different and much better thing.

                (Edited a thing or two for clarity)

                • Riverside@reddthat.com
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  11 hours ago

                  The wealthy are not taking 90% in Romania

                  Brother the gini coefficient in Romania is 34 and in Russia it’s 35, you are at Russian levels of kleptocracy…

                  There’s a new green social-democrat party that’s the real deal. It’s growing. Fingers crossed

                  Keep them crossed lmao those parties are de facto forbidden in Europe. Mark my words: the party will be disintegrated in 10 years. It happened in Spain with Podemos (type of party you’re supporting), it happened in Greece with Syriza… You’re 10 years late to the party, the EU will literally not allow for anything left of corrupt socdems. Mark my words for when in 5-10 years your party is all but forgotten. Electoralism does not work.

                  The thing about supermarkets being empty is real. That was literally one of the things that triggered the revolution

                  Sure, the supermarkets got empty in all of the eastern block at the same time, thats why all countries abandoned socialism. I’m aware of the austerity policy in the 1980s, but that’s not because of oligarchy, it’s because Romania took on debt to further invest on its industrial sector, and had to pay back the debt. It caused inflation, but the real shit happened in the 1990s, because capitalism destroyed the economy. Wealth inequality skyrocketed, you complain about oligarchs but it’s literally an order of magnitude now than before. Please, since you speak Romanian, try and find numerical information of wealth inequality in 1975 vs 2025.

                  What my grandfather did was he refused to beat up a guy for information. He was just a regular cop in a small city

                  That’s literally cops everywhere. ACAB exists in the west, too. The good souls are kicked out of the police or corrupted.

                  • Seth Taylor@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    10 hours ago

                    Your brain is washed squeaky clean

                    Enjoy your “revolution” that you will defo do from your mom’s basement