• ComradeRat [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    The China chat on the discord really made me understand this. Like Cuba, for example, has democracy, on a local level. It's more democratic than the US. Debate is allowed, and most speech is free, except, to paraphrase Castro, speech that supports the US. All of this is within one political party. Now the US might have two parties, but we all know that, in reality, there's only one party; the bourgeois party. Dunno where I'm going with this, I'm pretty drunk.

    • CoralMarks [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      And if you stray too far from accepted speech or accepted practices, you're ostracised or even persecuted as well.
      I'm not a big fan of Chomsky, but I like this quote:

      “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”

      • sunlit_uplands [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        I'm reminded of the adam curtis answer from the chapo interview

        https://twitter.com/seanonlyskin/status/846486654344974337