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Communism. Yay or Nay?

You brought up North Korea as an example of why communism is bad but that's a totalitarian regime with communist origins. There's really no country that is Communist in a pure sense.
 
derekiscool said:
Ok, a different list said it was. But totalitarianism is pretty much the same thing as communism.
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Not at all. Not in theory anyway.

But there's not much point in arguing about Communism except in a theoretical sense because there really are no purely Communist governments anyway.
I guess the closest thing to successful Communist countries we have are Vietnam and Laos. But I'm not so familiar with them so I can't argue for or against their governments.
 
Debating the merits and demerits of communism is something of an anachronism today. As pointed out, true communism doesn't currently exist, and probably never existed, at least not as Marx would think of it.

I think much of the antagonism against communism stems from the idea that communist revolutionaries would declare that eventually workers everywhere would rise up against their capitalist oppressors in revolution. In other words, they basically said that communism and capitalism are completely incompatible, and they need to actively work to help overthrow capitalist societies elsewhere.

And don't forget that even the USA is not a pure laissez faire capitalist country, either. And neither, in my opinion, should we strive to be. If my parents didn't have Social Security and Medicare, I don't know where they would be today (well, my mother now anyway). Certainly not living in the house they bought those many years ago.

(Edited to fix a typo)
 
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Mikawa Ossan said:
Debating the merits and demerits of communism is something of an anachronism today. As pointed out, true communism doesn't currently exist, and probably never existed, at least not as Marx would think of it.

I think much of the antagonism against communism stems from the idea that communist revolutionaries would declare that eventually workers everywhere would rise up against their capitalist oppressors in revolution. In other words, they basically said that communism and capitalism are completely incompatible, and they need to actively work to help overthrow capitalist societies elsewhere.

And don't forget that even the USA is not a pure laissez faire capitalist country, either. And neither, in my opinion, should we strive to be. If my parents didn't have Social Security and Medicare, I don't know where they would be today (well, my mother now anyway). Certainly not living in the house they bought those many years ago.

(Edited to fix a typo)
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I mean, google says differently. Not that I completely trust google, or ai, (Siri said Tom DeLonge was 52 but he's actually 48, LOL) but I'm more inclined to trust what google says in this matter. I've learned that when it comes to political parties, google is more trustworthy of mere human beings.
 
What does Google say differently? The second sentence says that those countries haven't achieved pure communism. But it's true that they are considered to be communist countries. Just like we are considered to be a democracy which is not fully true either.
 
You looked up "true communist countries" but the response didn't claim that they are pure. Anyway the Google response is based on the Wikipedia article. If you want a deeper understanding you should read that article.
 
I agree with the posts saying that there's little merit in having a discussion about communism, because:

1) There's a big overlap between communism and totalitarianism.
2) Very few countries are purely communist and there's no sign of a resurgence in communism, despite what right-wingers would have you believe (see next point).
3) The word has been so devalued that it is virtually meaningless, having been used as a catch-all term of abuse by Republicans and their allies to describe any policy that suggests doing something about the obscene levels of inequality in Western countries so that ordinary people have access to a reasonable diet and healthcare and affordable rent.
 
Communism jokes aren't funny, unless everyone gets one.

Little known fact. Karl Marx had a sister, Onya, who could have been an Olympic track runner. In her honor, her name is invoked at the start of every race.

"If you don't get these at first, you're really just stalin."
"But when I do, I'll be l'mao."

A man is in Moscow, holding a sign "The President is an idiot".
The police arrest him, saying, "You can't insult Putin like that."
"No," the man says. "It says President. I was talking about Zelensky."
Police: "You can't fool us, we know who the idiot is."
 
1. Why don't communist countries have any sports teams?
Because everyone is always Russian to get food.

2. How many communists does it take to change a lightbulb?
None - the lightbulb contains the seeds of its own revolution.

3. What do you call a communist sniper?
A Marx-man.

4. Why did the communist cross the road?
To get to the bread line on the other side.

5. A capitalist and a communist walk into a bar.
The capitalist orders a drink.
The communist says, "I'll have what the people are having."
 
johnnyG said:
Communism jokes aren't funny, unless everyone gets one.

Little known fact. Karl Marx had a sister, Onya, who could have been an Olympic track runner. In her honor, her name is invoked at the start of every race.

"If you don't get these at first, you're really just stalin."
"But when I do, I'll be l'mao."

A man is in Moscow, holding a sign "The President is an idiot".
The police arrest him, saying, "You can't insult Putin like that."
"No," the man says. "It says President. I was talking about Zelensky."
Police: "You can't fool us, we know who the idiot is."
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L'mao is actually hilarious
 

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Derek,

Since you are a Christian, you will find it interesting that, if you stand on a street corner in Communist China and hand out Bibles, they will throw you in jail.
 
derekiscool said:
Throwing people in jail for it. Gods word deserves to be spread, not to proselytize or anything
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That's a matter of debate - most other religions don't feel the need to convert others (nor do most of the committed Christians whom I'm friendly with for that matter). I know that spreading the good news is thought to be an integral part of your religion, but handing out bibles in a non-Christian country seems an extraordinarily ham-fisted way of going about it. And with the views that conservative US Christians hold regarding abortion and their support of a politician whose behaviour rejects the values of Christianity in every way (while making money from selling bibles!), I think China's behaviour was an overreaction rather than fundamentally wrong.
 
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