The process of industrialization has been brutal in every instance. There is no counterexample in history. The Industrial Revolution in England, and particularly in the United States was marked with incredible exploitation and violence, up to and including open warfare between organized labor and the Capitalist state. Industrialization in the USSR and China also brought about incredible hardship. The hardships of Communist industrialization are wielded for propagandistic reasons, while the hardships of Capitalist industrialization lie comfortably outside of living memory. Unless we want to be vulgar luddites about it, a more important question is, what did people get in return? What purpose did this hardship serve?

Perhaps the USSR and China could have industrialized more gently, more humanely, or forgone it completely and driven towards some sort of agrarian Communism. But is that even a realistic possibility? When you have imperialism spreading like a cancer to commoditize every nook an cranny of the globe, when you have industrial and military superpowers doing everything in their power to pull the rug out from under you?

Ideally, Communism would look like what the Hippies were trying to do. Just run some communal farms, vibe, and enjoy life. But what do you do when these fucking guys with nukes, tanks, and aircraft carriers say no? Shit gets a lot more complicated.