Im not sure how to properly quote here (pls educate me) but regarding this:

“A viewpoint being closer or fartger from the median viewpoint in society has no bearing on its correctness or incorrectness.”

This is inherrently correct. This of course applies to both the middle or the edges of the political and economic spectrum. I think what they and I are arguing is that the “median” tends to be more acceptable for a majority, which is sort of the point.

I for one think that the state should own and exercise control over necessities or “key” industries as you describe them. But I also think it has no business sticking it’s ugly nose in the property I own. Sure - tax the shit out of me if I’m super rich, but that is it.

Of course there is a middle ground. I just posted it as a reply in one of the other comments. This polar view of either or is utter nonsense. It doesn’t matter how you change the rules of the system. Being it “capitalism” or “communism” intelligent people will always find ways to navigate thourgh the current mode (whatever it is)l to their advantage - which in the long run will result in an un-equal society. The goal is to set the rules in a way that benefits as many people as possible. You think that in the past regime there weren’t any “privileged” individuals? Now people usually say “yes but his family is rich, so he has an advantage”. Back then it used to be “yes, but his cousin is the regional secretary of XYZ so of course he won that competition”.

Contrary to what you say the current regime here is democratic not just for a privileged few. Everyone can vote.

Although I am not happy about the law you mention, it doesn’t ban communism as you say. It just added communism on the list of regimes that threaten human rights and should not be promoted. Which I kind of get given the number of… executions and political prisoners we used to have here a few decades ago.

It isn’t perfect what we have, but it is better than it was ten years ago. And that in turn was better than what we had 20 years ago. And that in turn was better… (you get it by now).

This is the way in my opinion. Proper anti-monopoly laws, solid progressive taxation, public (state) control of the “necessities” such as electricity and water, a working social security system, free education and healthcare while maintaining private medical practicioners and schools as an co-existing paid alternative.

I too find the gender rift in the study really surprising. I wouldn’t immediately draw the conclusion from it that Czech Republic has become more socially regressive than in the past. My feeling is the opposite when it comes to how many women I see in managerial, political etc roles. Although there is still a lot of improvement to be made. Not to rely solely on my feelings i did pull up the newest Gender Gap index which is available here: https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2025.pdf

The index is calculated for individual countries which enables to compare the Czech Republic to China for example. I did this out of curiosity and funnily enough - we have the same exact index down to the decimal. So both china and Czech Republic have a lot of progress to do. The entire study is pretty detailed and allow for comparison in various sectors such as income, education, health etc. One interesting aspect I did notice in the European region is that eastern European (read ex-communist) countries, tend to have a lower index. But enough about gender parity.

The educational aspect of popularity of the communist regime you are mentioning could be explained by a lot of factors. From a blunt “Only uneducated people think communism is a god idea.” to a more economical approach such as “People with lower incomes tend to prefer regimes that re-distribute wealth in a significant way”. That seems logical and doesn’t surprise me at all.

But we really don’t throw people under the bus. There are differences in income, privilege, education, etc. The society isn’t homogenous and never will be. But these differences aren’t extreme compared to countries with “true” capitalism.

What we have here probably isn’t the “capitalism” you have in mind. It is a democracy with a mostly free-market, with some regulations and checks, some subsidies, somewhat progressive taxation, free healthcare and education for everyone. There is a decent social security “net” as we call it too. It’s actually not bad at all.

As you mention capitalism I would like to declare that I in no means want to defend unchecked capitalism such as we see it in the US. I believe this extreme example is the reason why many people tend to find communism - the other extreme - so attractive. Turns out moderation is key, who would have thought?

Yes sorry about that. I replied on my own comment instead of yours, so I wanted to delete that reply, but deleted the parent comment instead by accident. So I had to repost it and then move the comment reply under your reply again. That was a mess :-)

Other states may have different experiences no doubt. But I will not comment on those because I don’t know the background there. I will leave that to residents of those states if you don’t mind. I am interested in your own real life experience with communism especially as you go through a lot of trouble to promote the system.

Why I am commenting here is that your statistics just happen to contain a set of data which I do know a lot about and it is used to “prove” a point it can’t prove.

The point it tries to prove is that “The majority of people that lived in the Soviet Union want it back.” (this is literary the title of your article). However any Czech statistic can’t be used to prove this as Czech Republic (or Czechoslovakia back then), was never a part of the USSR. The USSR just occupied our state with its army.

The article linked to that statistic and its poll is from 2011 and talks about the popularity of the past communist regime. I find the results not representative of reality and try to contest them by presenting election results.

Additionally to that I now actually went through the trouble to find a more recent statistic on the subject. It is from 2022. You’ll need to auto-translate it: https://www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/domaci-zivot-v-cesku-mame-se-lepe-nez-pred-rokem-1989-polovina-lidi-o-tom-neni-presvedcena-219206

52% of respondents say they are better off than in the past regime vs 24% who say the opposite.

There is an interesting breakdown of the statistics as well (differentiating respondents by sex, occupation, education etc) too if you are interested.

Based on the steady decline of the number of votes for the communist party in the past 35 years and the difference between your statistic from 2011 and the one above from 2022 I believe it is not incorrect to consider the following statement true:

“A majority of Czech citizens do not want the communist regime to return to their country.”

So if I now go through the trouble to find a more recent statistic from the Czech Republic than the one you have from 2011 you will agree that the idea of reviving the communist regime isn’t popular here? Right?

What exactly makes this a cliche? Is it because a lot of people who experienced communism keep saying it? I wonder why that may be.

This isn’t a game. This is reporting personal experience. If you have a better experience with communism - lucky you. A lot of people here also had a positive one. Mostly these were communist party officials. Or people who secretly told the authorities about their neighbor’s “subversive” and “anti-regime” activities.

I’d like discourage anybody from trying to use communism as a system in their country. It may seem like a good idea, but it isn’t.

Sadly this is only true on paper. Communist reality is not that good. This is probably why the meme targets the US audience who never experienced any of it.

It is not nonsense. I am merely saying that a gradual 35 years long decline in the number of people voting for communists in my country since the fall of the previous regime indicates that the claim “a majority of the people want the USSR back” is false in my country.

Also that this steady decline of 35 years which resulted in 0 seats in the parliament for the communist party is more indicative of the feelings that the poeple hold towards communism than a 14 years old poll conducted on 600 residents.

Is that too far fetched?

It is even weird to include the poll in an article about the people wanting the USSR back because (drumroll) we were never part of the USSR. We were just occupied by it.

(And noone wants foreign occupying soldiers back.)

People here seem to enjoy being able to travel again. They do not experience shortages of goods. And no one is sacking them from their jobs or preventing them from studying because they arent members of the communist party. The above mentioned phenomena were common in the last regime.

I have the benefit to compare both the communist era in my country as well as what came after the revolution. And so has my entire generation. Which is the reason why communists have 0 seats in parliament here.

I must agree with the simple fact that this isnt a shitpost and shoukd be removed. I still think this is cool if true and am happy i saw this post.

See this is why I didn’t want to throw polls at each other. Now I made you click one link deeper into your article and suddenly the graphic in the first poll where it says 45% people say they are better off now and 39% say they are worse now turned into a statistic where 28% say they were better off in the past regime and 23% say they are better off now.

Which one is the irrefutable one you are talking about. I’m confused.

Maybe its better to stick with the election results they aren’t as easily misrepresented.

Only really naive people from countries that never experienced the “beauty” of communism can support it.

See this is why I didn’t want to throw polls at each other. Now I made you click one link deeper into your article and suddenly the graphic in the first poll where it says 45% people say they are better off now and 39% say they are worse now turned into a statistic where 28% say they were better off in the past regime and 23% say they are better off now.

Which one is the irrefutable one you are talking about. I’m confused.

Maybe its better to stick with the election results they aren’t as easily misrepresented.

Only really naive people from countries that never experienced the “beauty” of communism can support it.

What of the soviet union? We were never part of the Soviet Union. We were just occupied by it’s soldiers. (Oh no, did they really do that? That was not nice.)

There is no Soviet Union to bring back for Czech people. The poll is refering to the communist regime in Czech Republic.

Turns out only ca 3% of the voters wanted the communist party to have a say in how the country should be run and didnt win any seats.

Sad trombone noises

I cant speak for the chinese, but the data presented in the first article for czech republic is wrong.

I do not mean to discredit any poll in that article as i am sure we could be throwing polls at each other all day and it would be pointless.

Instead lets have a look at our parliament who the people actually voted for:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_the_Czech_Republic

Communists dint make it into the government. But oh look. There arent even any communist MPs in the opposition.

How is this possible that there are no communist MPs when there are 200 seats in the parliament? Odd. It must be because there isnt a communist party.

Weird. There is one.

It just didnt score a single fucking seat. How is that possible when a majority of the people want the regime back?

Seems like “a majority of the people want it back” claim is simply incorrect. Despite what your little article says.

I just hope you tried to mislead people accidentally.

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Now do this meme with any country in Eastern Europe that actually has experienced communism after ww2. Bonus point if you pick one where the USSR has placed their troops to “prevent regime change instigated by foreigh agents and protect the people from a civil war”.

Slavic brothers came to aid us with their tanks. Lol.

What is the difference between this and the DC clients (Like Strong DC ++)?

Redditors?

About diplomacy 101 My country has diplomatic relations with russia for example. We do however not cooperate in most aspects. In fact we are on the list of their enemies.

My country also has diplomatic ties with israel. And we do cooperate. Mostly in education. My country is also a NATO member without a single US soldier or base present. Also opposed to current Gaza events.

Vermin psycho state is a bit too much for me. I’d just stop the discussion here.

Well if you count decades old recognition of a state as a support of what is going currently in Gaza, i will not spend time to find any examples because on that premise you would be factually correct, but your premise is wrong. Past recognition of a state does not automatically mean support for its actions, which you seem to imply.

Coopertation on anything else with NATO not really adressing the point, as we are discussing the situation in Gaza specifically, not Israels ties with NATO in general.