I don’t mean to be only negative. There are great things about places like the USSR, China, Cuba, and probably North Korea too. However, I think that is due to the benefits of Platonic Aristocracy, not Socialism.
It reeks of chauvanism
You keep saying that I can’t expect non-western countries to have “western” democracy. It sounds like you’re saying only white people can have democracy. While there are plenty of non-western liberal democracies, I agree with the criticism that they aren’t that democratic. I would look to more radical forms, like DAANES, and urge the continued research into possible undiscovered strategies.
and “left” anti-communism.
I didn’t realize Lemmy was so anti-left.
parties should be able to expel corrupt or poorly-performing members. You can’t have your cake and eat it here too, either parties have to be open and thus vulnerable to the corruption you keep hinting that they may have, or they need mechanisms for preventing such problems and dealing with them as they arise. Again, “left” anti-communism.
This is why you kept getting quoted Gramsci’s teardown of Bordiga
I’d never read Bordiga’s writings before, but I find his critique insightful:
The same process will take place in Italy as in other capitalist countries. Against the advance of the working class, a coalition of all the reactionary elements will form, from the fascists to the Popular Party and the socialists: actually, the socialists will become the vanguard of the anti-proletarian reaction because they know best the weaknesses of the working class.
That is exactly what happened. Mussolini himself was originally a socialist, and members of the Popular Party joined his government.
If there were a bunch of anti-slavery memes, would having a pro-slavery meme be justified in the name of “balance?”
The pro-DPRK memes aren’t anti-slavery, they are pro-slavery.
your critique is “sterile and negative,” it offers no solutions and only spreads doubt and division.
Challenge accepted, I will try to make a meme that offers solutions, and I expect no negativity in response, as that isn’t comradely.
Read…what pro-socialist groups are saying.
Pro-socialist, or pro-DPRK? If a group is critical of the DPRK do you consider it to be not socialist?
The problem here is that you are assuming the opposite, that a socialist state is anti-democratic and is oppressing its citizens for no reason.
Making a democratic state is hard. All the (limited, biased) evidence points toward an oppressive state in North Korea. Forgive me if I suspect there might be some grain of truth in it.
I understand what control is, I have yet to see you make a compelling argument for why we should abandon the Marxist understanding of class. You kept trying to invent the idea of an administrator class, but experience shows that the Marxist understanding of class is correct, that the state is representative of the ruling class in society, and not outside of that.
It is such a great tragedy that Marx never finished “The State”. So many Marxists’ understanding of political power is skin-deep.
I stand corrected, you can learn about it through official channels. I did not attend Chinese university. However, its mention is filtered by the firewall.
The image is misleading, but the CPC itself acknowledged at least 241 deaths. Also, you cannot find information about the incident while in China. Can personally confirm.
Yea, candidates are generally chosen from a broader group than this implies
Candidates can be selected from non-party members, but they are absolutely selected by the party members, and after nomination are assigned a party.
your meme puts a negative twist on literally every aspect for no reason whatsoever.
The reason is humor. That, and I feel negatively.
membership of political parties isn’t private and locked down, you can join political parties.
You can join any political party you want in the same sense that you can work for any company you want in a Bourgeois society. That is, you can join if they want you to.
I don’t know what your deal is,
My deal is that I’m interested in how a bunch of Communists convinced themselves to support undemocratic political structures. I have read some Lenin and Mao, but its not the same as engaging with people who really believe in it. We’re all people, and ones with ostensibly similar political aims, and yet we came to such different conclusions.
you keep making vaguely targeted memes
there have recently been so many pro-DPRK memes, will you not begrudge me a few critical memes?
after getting called out for the same error of taking your personal fears of mishandling and turning them into percieved reality.
From where am I to learn about “reality”? Not personal testimony, not by reading legal documents, not by thinking about the consequences of consolidated political power? Am I to assume that a state doesn’t oppress its citizens and is democratic merely because it purports to be inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx?
Same with your repeated idea of a “political class,” where you erase the concept of class as it relates to ownership of the means of production and twist it into meaning “type of job.”
Either you do not understand what control is, or you refuse to acknowledge a class not mentioned in the writings of Friedrich Engels.
Copying over a comment I gave for you
Yes, I read the book. Thank you. It was a little out of date, but overall informative.
The claims being so extraordinary also means we need extraordinary evidence to believe them
There’s nothing extraordinary about a state oppressing it’s people. The existence of a state that doesn’t oppress it’s people should require extraordinary evidence to believe.
Not all discourse has to be so hostile my guy. It’s ok to have questions, hesitations, and confidence levels in-between 0 and 100. It’s not hard to find testimonies. As I’ve said I genuinely don’t know how to determine which, if any, are unbiased.
I’m still learning about it, but it seems to be based, similar to the USSR and China, in trust that the government will take into consideration the opinion of the masses, as opposed to a direct lever of control.
Expats like Yeonmi Park?
I have seen her speak, and she is obviously pulling stories out of her ass. But she is far from the only person with stories of oppression.
The democratic structure doesn’t appear democratic, the aforementioned policies are typically unpopular in other countries, and there are countless of expats who tell horror stories. I acknowledge that there is an incentive for them to make shit up, but I don’t know how to find neutral sources.
I was referring to blocked articles specifically about the incident on the internet. I did not know about the curated version taught in universities.