Been seeing a lot of people coming in here handwringing about 'red fash' and 'muh authoritarianism.'

Figuring that this will be a common occurrence for a while, so wanted to make a collective thread here. The purpose of this is to just have one spot as so we don't fill up the comm with a ton of posts about it.

Post away, comrades!

  • sadschmuck [none/use name]
    ·
    1 year ago

    "Really existing socialism" of course meaning "a system wherein workers have zero effective political power."

    Just because it's true that the ML movement was an essential part of decolonialization, and because it isn't true that the USSR was some evil empire, doesn't mean that the ideologies that underpin(ned) those societies aren't deeply flawed.

    The USSR was not an evil empire, no, but the political structure of a hierarchical, command-based politic lead exactly where critics said it would lead. The "ultraleft", as you call them, including Luxemburg and Anarchist communists warned Lenin exactly what would go wrong in the USSR, and Lenin did not listen.

    That's why Lenin is a counter-revolutionary by deed if not by intent By his actions, the power of the people's and worker's soviets were shattered and replaced with corrupt bureaucracy.

    Also, hey, go tell a Tartar, Kalmykk or other displaced ethnic group who were victim of Stalin's genocide that he wasn't a deranged butcher. Maybe if you survive you can tell me what you learned.

    https://lemmy.world/comment/171791

    From this post

    • TreadOnMe [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      And Lenin warned them that if they didn't adopt a command based politic, their revolution would never get off the ground to even contest with capital. It's almost as if he was absolutely correct too!

      But hey, I too love fighting about irrelevant politics of a century ago.

      Edit: Also, the workers have infinitely more effective political power in any AES than in their comparable capitalist counter parts. Try telling a Guatamalan leftist that Cuba is bad because their workers have 'no effective power'. It is literally just the lack of imagination that a hierarchy can be used to benefit more than just the very top. Literally just transplanting one-to-one the American political experience to other countries with no extra thought.

      • BeamBrain [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        "Anti-authoritarians" when someone doesn't align with western ideological hegemony

    • LeninsBeard [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Also, hey, go tell a Tartar, Kalmykk or other displaced ethnic group

      Anyone who was alive to remember the Stalin years is dead! You won't be talking to someone who was displaced, you'll be talking to their fucking grandson who has heard the history of their ancestors through the lens of an ardently anti communist society.

      "Go talk to someone from one of those countries" is legitimately the most baby brained argument. It's so easily disprovable that I use it as a barometer for whether someone is actually arguing in good faith.

      Edit: Also, yeah, no shit someone who was targeted by a policy that literally every communist agrees was bad would hate Stalin. I have no qualms with that. But what does that have to do with literally anything? Okay, yes, it was bad. Luckily I am far enough removed from the situation to analyze that with the other 40 years Stalin was head of the party and say the good far outweighs the bad.

    • Sphere [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      a system wherein workers have zero effective political power

      Why did they suddenly start describing the USA?