Capitalism and socialism are economic models. Democracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship, and communism are systems of government.
🙄 Communism isn’t an economic model?
Comment on The Dangers of Socialism they warned us about...
mechoman444@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Here we go again. This is what happens when people don’t understand the difference between an economic system and a system of government.
Capitalism and socialism are economic models. Democracy, authoritarianism, dictatorship, and communism are systems of government. They are not interchangeable, nor are they mutually exclusive.
You can have democratic capitalism, authoritarian capitalism, democratic socialism, and authoritarian socialism. History has provided examples of every combination.
Mass surveillance, censorship, political corruption, police abuse, and restrictions on protest are all functions of how a government exercises power. They are not inherent features of capitalism or socialism.
Posts like this don’t demonstrate some profound insight into economics. They demonstrate a fundamental misunderstanding of basic political science. The fact that this kind of meme gets shared uncritically is a good indication of just how widespread that ignorance has become online.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
mechoman444@lemmy.world 54 minutes ago
It is in fact not.
a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production
It is a system government. Although the concept of communism is extremely complex. Ideally, it would be a classless society based on shared and equal equity.
Socialism is part of it of course, but one can exist without the other.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
This is a pedantic comment; read “Marxist-Leninism” where you see “Communism” when a lot of people use the latter.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
read “Marxist-Leninism” where you see “Communism”
Marx and Lenin didn’t establish or implement economic models?
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I’m far from a scholar on economics, let alone socialism or communism, but my understanding of the broad strokes would be:
Lenin proposed that a vanguard party implement Marx-described socialism by force. That one-two combination is called “communism” by many.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
100%
The reason why socialism gets stereotyped as authoritarian is that most hyper-capitalist societies are very resistant to becoming much more socialist in short order, so authoritarian factions emerge to make (violent) revolution, which begets an authoritarian system of government when those factions finish the revolution and are in a perfect position to fill the power vacuum.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
The reason why socialism gets stereotyped as authoritarian is
propaganda.
Keep the government out of my Medicare!
mechoman444@lemmy.world 51 minutes ago
Historically, every self-described socialist state has been authoritarian to one degree or another. China is the closest modern exception, but much of its economic growth came after it embraced market reforms and allowed significant private enterprise—features associated with capitalism.
Also, healthcare has nothing to do with whether a country is socialist or capitalist. Universal or government-funded healthcare isn’t inherently socialist. It’s simply a public policy that can exist under democracies, monarchies, capitalist economies, mixed economies, and even authoritarian states. Conflating public healthcare with socialism is a basic category error.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
No.
Not all misunderstandings are propaganda, but all propaganda intends to create misunderstandings.
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
You’re not wrong exactly, but propaganda rsn’t about lies it’s about emphasis.
It would be like saying “people think Mexicans immigrants are violent criminals because they often come from poverty” instead of "people think Mexican iMmigrants are violent criminals because if there is one murder committed by a Mexican immigrant in a day of a thouand murders, Fox News will spend all day talking about that immigrant.” Sure, poverty might drive someone to crime, but the perception isn’t caused by the crime, it’s caused by warping reality to exclude context of all the other crimes–ie, propaganda.
Medicare is socialism. Social Security is socialism. Tri-care is socialism. Yet, when Americans hear “socialism” they think “Soviet totalatarianism”, not those things they rely on. That is the result of propaganda.
Wakmrow@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Democratic capitalism lmao.
Anything can be true when you make shit up
mechoman444@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
O man.
You realize the most successful countries on Earth are Democratic capitalists right?
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
MFW the entire US and most of the western world is imaginary.
Wakmrow@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Here let me help you.
Capitalism is when the people with capital make decisions for society.
You don’t get to vote on what happens.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Here let me help you (by using the same bad faith tactics you’re using against (y)our preferred economic model).
Socialism is when the people in the vanguard party make decisions for society.
You don’t get to decide what happens.