It’s lemmygrad, we’re the spectre. I’d bet at least half of the other instances out there block us, there’s only like 300 dedicated users on this instance, and they still can’t stop complaining about lemmygrad/tankies

  • Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    1 year ago

    It's an instance for Communists, specifically Communists who support AES (actually existing socialism). In short, we think that the USSR and PRC (among others), while not perfect, were legitimate attempts at building Socialism and better than Capitalism as it exists in the West.

    Other people don't like that because, to them, Stalin was just Red Hitler and Xi Jinping is literally committing a genocide right now. Neither are true.

    • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
      ·
      1 year ago

      Ah okay I can see how that's controversial, given China is heavy on censorship and control, and in reality they're just another form of capitalism run by a rich oligarchy. Plus with the way the world has changed, I think a new system is needed because we're heading towards enough automation that not everyone should need to work.

      I don't know much about the USSR so I won't comment on that

          • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            1 year ago

            Ok but in all honestly, just because there are rich people in China doesn't mean it's a 'capitalist ogliarchy'. Sure, there are billionaires in the party, but they have just as much power as any farmer or worker, no more and no less.

            • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              That's not true in the slightest though? I mean the very fact that there are different wages, there's poverty, China invests heavily in foreign companies (both the government and private Chinese corporations), that's all capitalism. The farmer doesn't have any say in what tencent or the China Evergrande Group does. The CCP controls the media and limits free speech, and makes decisions for everyone. Even if you're to somehow convince me that the people who control the CCP aren't rich oligarchs, they're absolutely still in control of the CCP, and it's not communism.

              • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                Oh my god there are companies, guess there's no more socialism guys!1!1!!1

                Just because there are companies does not mean that China is revisionist. And Tencent and China Evergrande have nothing to do with the government. Why would they?

                edit: What do different wages have to do with socialism? Also it's CPC, not CCP.

                  • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    I'm confused. Do you expect China to be instantly fully communist without money or class? Do you know that China started as a poor and feudal country and has constantly been under pressure and sanctions from the west?

                    It's like giving you control of an island full of people with almost no food and enemies thirsting to attack at any moment. Go on, build communism.

                    • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
                      ·
                      1 year ago

                      No, I'm saying China is a capitalist oligarchy. Currently, right now. I don't believe it can ever become communism with the current people still in power. That can be debatable, but what they are right now is definitely not communism, and that's all I was saying

                      • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                        ·
                        1 year ago

                        Yes, it's not communism right now. But Xi Jinping is not a 'capitalist oligarch'. And China has pulled millions out of poverty, build an advanced public transport system, given massive amounts of aid to third-world countries while helping them develop, and has cracked down on corruption. If this is a 'capitalist oligarchy' then I will gladly support it.

                        • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
                          ·
                          edit-2
                          1 year ago

                          I mean, I would also call the US a capitalist oligarchy, wouldn't call Biden an oligarch, and would say they've done the same in the past, so yeah I would still call it that personally. That's generally how industrialisation under capitalism goes. I'd even go as far as to say the US and UK had a lot of influence on it getting where it is in the first place, and it's very difficult to do trade with the west in this world without shifting towards capitalism. (Not impossible, but difficult)

                          Edit: In the definition of oligarchy, a small group of people hold power. I take that as relatively small, so maybe I'm mis using the term. Aristocracy might be a better term, but it's somewhere in the middle

                          • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                            ·
                            1 year ago

                            The US has not eliminated poverty. Where did you get that from? In addition, the US has done nothing to help 3rd world countries at all, only to exploit them for resources. Before you say that's what China is doing too, it's not.

                            • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
                              ·
                              1 year ago

                              I did not say the US eliminated poverty and you didn't say China has eliminated poverty?

                              The US has indeed exploited countries for resources, but that does mean they haven't also helped in some cases, even if it's a minority of cases

                              • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                                ·
                                1 year ago

                                China has eliminated poverty. And China helped in every case, while the US exploited in every case. I don't see how those two are similar.

                                  • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                                    ·
                                    1 year ago

                                    How is that "splitting hairs"? If I go to your house and help you build it, is that really the same as blasting it down with explosives?

                                    • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
                                      ·
                                      1 year ago

                                      No, I'm saying you took one small piece of what I said and latched on to it. Let's say the US has never helped another country before for sake of argument. It doesn't change the fact that I see both countries as capitalist aristocracies

                                      • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                                        ·
                                        1 year ago

                                        Even if China is a capitalist aristocracy, it's done mostly good for the world. Besides, having rich people does not make a country an aristocracy.

                                        • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
                                          ·
                                          1 year ago

                                          I did not say having rich people makes a country an aristocracy, not did I say China has done no good for the world. You assumed that.

                                          • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                                            ·
                                            1 year ago

                                            Alright, so your point is that China is run by capitalists, therefore it is revisionist and not true communism?

                                            Show

                                            here

                                            • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
                                              ·
                                              1 year ago

                                              My point is that China has a capitalist market economy, and therefore it's not communism. Nothing to do with revisionism. Li's definition of capitalism seems to be narrow, I know it as the ability to own the means of production. If you can own a private company in China, and if that company can profit off of the work of people working for wages, I consider that capitalism. Xu Jiayin of Evergrande Group absolutely benefits from the work of people below him, and they are exchanging their labor for less than it generates. If you consider that to be a feature of communism, then we must have different definitions of communism

                                              • commiespammer@lemmygrad.ml
                                                ·
                                                1 year ago

                                                It's not communism, yes. But China is on the way to communism, and with what has happened already I am confident it will carry through.

              • IntoDaLagoon@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                The CCP controls the media and limits free speech,

                In my country like three completely unnacountable megacorporations control the media and limit free speech. The CPC at least gives a shit about public health and safety

                and makes decisions for everyone

                I don't remember being consulted on the decision to invade Iraq, continue the illegal blockade of Cuba, send missiles to Nazis in Ukraine, make food twice as expensive, have the sky turn blood red from fire every couple years, be watched by police snipers at a football game, live in an endless pandemic, or drink microplastics for the rest of my life.