Cowbee
@Cowbee@lemmy.ml
- Comment on No more fucking dooming 4 weeks ago:
Average Vaushite opinion
- Comment on Is Lemmy an effective alternative to Reddit? 4 weeks ago:
It helps that Lemmy is developed and maintained by Communists, so Leftists have a stronghold on Lemmy that won’t be able to go away.
- Comment on Is Lemmy an effective alternative to Reddit? 4 weeks ago:
Depends on the instance. Lemmy.world is liberal, ie right leaning, Hexbear.net is leftist, it depends on which instance you pick.
- Comment on Is Lemmy an effective alternative to Reddit? 4 weeks ago:
If you pick a good, internally stable instance, it’s great. Local can be more curated to your tastes, All can be more general.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
Where’s that Parenti quote? Oh, found it! Evergreen quote:
“During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.”
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
No worries!
Essentially, Social Democracy is a Capitalist system with larger social safety nets, usually as a concession to prevent revolution. Marxist criticism of Social Democracy is that the Nordics, for example, fund their safety nets via brutal exploitation of the global south, and see sliding worker protections and eroding safety nets, because the bourgeoisie is still in control.
Socialism is, generally, a transitional state to Communism. Socialism is categorized by public ownership and central planning of industry as the primary mechanism of the economy (in Marxist terms, there are other forms of socialized production that aren’t marxist, like cooperatives). Examples of Actually Existing Socialist (AES) states include the PRC, USSR (pre-dissolution, obviously), Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, etc.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
They defederated from Hexbear “as a last resort-” before federating with Hexbear.
In the Lemmygrad defederation thread, there’s unsupported claims of hate speech and calls to violence, which we have to fill in the blanks - the mods are anti-Marxist and anti-revolution, so any Marxist instance is going to fail that test.
The Hexbear defederation thread is somehow worse when they list why instead of leaving it to the imagination. Real spooky scary zingers listed like “The West’s role in the world, through organizations such as NATO, the IMF, and the World Bank - among many others - are deeply harmful to the billions of people living both inside and outside of their imperial core.” This statement is 100% obvious to anyone not stanning the US Empire.
Another example listed is “These organizations constitute the modern imperial order, with the United States at its heart - we are not fooled by the term “rules-based international order.” It is in the Left’s interest for these organizations to be demolished. When and how this will occur, and what precisely comes after, is the cause of great debate and discussion on this site, but it is necessary for a better world.” Yet again, they are defederated for being revolututionary. This is just because they are authentically Marxist, not because posters were mean.
The mods of Lemmy.world are Liberals. Not just any liberals, but “true believers.” Marxism is dangerous to them and so they shut it out, they spelled it out plainly.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
Actually Existing Socialism, “Communism” as a stage in development hasn’t been achieved by any AES state.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Different AES countries have different stances, the DPRK has always recognized Palestine and never Israel as an example. There’s a difference between just following AES and coming up with solutions to problems.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
I’m a Marxist-Leninist, I’ve read over 2 dozen books on Marxism, you can check my comment history if you want. The lead developers of Lemmy are Communists.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
Please show any sources for this garbage, these are all bannable offenses on Grad, Hexbear, and .ml.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
This is false. Anti-AES anarchists are banned.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
This is correct, though, liberals are right wing and Lemmy.world is a liberal instance.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
Lemmy.world? Left? The mods are anti-Marxist and defederated from the Marxist instances, they are liberal.
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 5 weeks ago:
.world runs into issues because it’s overwhelmingly liberal and the mods are anti-Marxist on a platform built by Communists and dominated by leftists in general. Lemmy.world is largely a replication of Reddit as well, so people leaving Reddit also don’t necessarily want that either.
Plenty of people like Lemmy.world, you’ll get different answers if you asked on another community like Lemmy.ml’s AskLemmy.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Sorry, can’t respond here, the moderators here remove comments with facts that don’t fit their anti-Marxist narrarive. I never denied that the Great Chinese Famine existed either.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Sort of. The PRC constantly takes the least confrontational stance possible. The correct Marxist take is the One State Solution, but the PRC will always take diplomacy over conflict.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Sure, but it provided a reason why the previous attempts of it failed, and in my opinion it’s only a part of the equation.
No, AES worked. It provided a reason why AES states weren’t and aren’t perfect paradises that only exist in imagination.
Socialism can not care, as it’s is not a conscious entity. Socialism can only “care” about whatever the people that are trying to implement it care about. And it failed every time in large part, IMO, because people didn’t care about things like self-serving people.
Socialism works, it just isn’t a magical wonderland. That’s the point.
Proven correct by whom? Soviet Union which fell apart? North Korea that haven’t collapsed yet only because it’s propped by China? China which had Mao starve tens of millions people to death and is currently successful only because it’s full blown capitalist and “communist” in name only?
USSR did work. PRC does work as well, and is Socialist, not Capitalist. Read Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism and Blackshirts and Reds Cuba works, Vietnam works, Laos works too.
Mao didn’t “starve a bunch of people,” Mao ended famines in one of the poorest countries in the world, something Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism proves.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Thanks for linking the article. I like most of its points, but I don’t agree with this materialistic outlook that the economic development is the be-all and end-all solution to implementing “true” socialism.
There’s no such thing as “true socialism,” that’s part of the point of the article.
I believe that the root cause of all attempts of it failing so far is that humans are selfish assholes. Unless everyone bar none starts caring about their brethren and sistren at least as much as they care about themselves, the system can’t work. It’s simply too prone to being overtaken by bad faith actors who will inevitably abuse it for self serving purposes in the name of “socialism”.
Why do you think Socialism cares about thinfs like self-serving people?
Well maybe these two guys were a product of their time and had some not-so-good ideas, so not every word of theirs should be taken as a gospel.
Not as gospel, sure, but they have been proven correct.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Because the PRC is Socialist, and following Marxism.
It has a Socialist Market Economy. Marx and Engels repeatedly stated that Private Property cannot be abolished all at once in lower-stage Communism (which modern Marxists call Socialism). The economy of China is over 50% publicly owned and centrally planned, and there is a cooperative sector as well, meaning the Private Sector is a minority. On top of this, the Private Sector is still centrally planned.
The PRC employs a “birdcage model,” where competition in the markets eventually leads to monopolization into large syndicates, which the CPC then folds into the public sector steadily as it increases control by degree.
This is exactly why I linked you the article Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism. If you aren’t going to read Marx and Engels, and you aren’t going to study Historical Materialism, surely you can read a 20 minute article, right?
I’ll leave you with an excerpt from The Principles of Communism:
Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke?
No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society.
In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.
I bolded the section where Mao made an error in judgement and socialized the economy dramatically before the productive forces were developed enough.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
That’s fine too!
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
No, it has not. Read Blackshirts and Reds, which I already linked. Communist movements served the Proletariat, not the Bourgeoisie. They also were by no means perfect “worker’s paradises.” Another good article is *Why Do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?” if you can only spare 20 minutes and not read a whole book.
Y’all should focus instead on how socialism is incompatible with authoritarianism
You should read On Authority, Marx and Engels were constantly hounded as “authoritarian” for advocating for central planning.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
It isn’t, it has a Socialist Market Economy. Marx and Engels repeatedly stated that Private Property cannot be abolished all at once in lower-stage Communism (which modern Marxists call Socialism). The economy of China is over 50% publicly owned and centrally planned, and there is a cooperative sector as well, meaning the Private Sector is a minority. On top of this, the Private Sector is still centrally planned.
The PRC employs a “birdcage model,” where competition in the markets eventually leads to monopolization into large syndicates, which the CPC then folds into the public sector steadily as it increases control by degree.
This is exactly why I linked you the article Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism. If you aren’t going to read Marx and Engels, and you aren’t going to study Historical Materialism, surely you can read a 20 minute article, right?
I’ll leave you with an excerpt from The Principles of Communism:
Will it be possible for private property to be abolished at one stroke?
No, no more than existing forces of production can at one stroke be multiplied to the extent necessary for the creation of a communal society.
In all probability, the proletarian revolution will transform existing society gradually and will be able to abolish private property only when the means of production are available in sufficient quantity.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
I mean, depends on the day. I see tons of very socialist/leftist memes and content posted to world.
Leftist messaging is increasingly popular as Capitalism decays, but that doesn’t mean everyone has read theory. Lemmy.world is largely populated by liberals sympathetic to an idealistic form of Socialism that is pure fantasy, and denounce AES as a betratal of Socialism. Blackshirts and Reds has an entire chapter dedicated to western “left” anticommunism.
That being said, how many times do you need to circle jerk about socialism in the comments section on Lemmy?
I’m a Marxist-Leninist, I believe Marxism to be correct and try to get others to read theory. I get deep satisfaction whenever someone changes their mind or reads theory because of what I comment and post.
It’s not like anyone is actually going to do a proletariat revolution
On what grounds do you say this? Revolution is happening all around the world every few years in different states, as Capitalism decays more people become sympathetic to leftism. It will likely happen latest in Imperialist countries like the US, where living standards are inflated by hyper-exploitation of the Global South, and happens all the time in the Global South. Trends exist, systems aren’t static, Capitalism cannot last forever. That would be like believing water could be continuously heated and never boil.
At this point, it would just be Marxists “ackshually”-ing each other. I’m super bored of the lack of progress made in the discussions.
To be clear, most Marxists don’t need to “ackshually” each other, just towards liberals. Liberals often have the same misconceptions, that doesn’t mean they aren’t changing their minds individually.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Read Blackshirts and Reds, Socialism and Fascism are entirely incompatible and serve entirely different classes.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Maoists are ultraleftists, they generally deviate from Marxism to an idealist, rather than a materislist degree. I recommend checking out my comment responding to them.
The Vanguard concept isn’t flawed, it has real basis in materialist understanding. The idea that AES states have “devolved into Capitalism” is wrong as well (except the USSR into the various post-Socialist states). I recommend reading both Why do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?” as well as Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism. The Dengist reforms were a reversion back towards Marxism, Mao had tried to achieve Communism through fiat without enough development of the productive forces and as such there were struggles and recessions.
Public Ownership and Central Planning works best on monopolist syndicates aquired by the State, that’s the entire reason why Marxists say Capitalism creates Socialism and that the bourgeoisie produces its own gravediggers first and foremost, this monopolization into internally planned syndicates makes Socialism a natural evolution on Capitalism, not a “better society” to force into existence.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Yep! You got it. Cuba, PRC, the USSR (pre-dissolution), Vietnam, Laos, etc.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
Ultraleftism, found in the author’s Maoist leanings, is also dogmatic. I really like the articles Socalism Developed China, Not Capitalism as well as Why do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?” as both help recontextualize AES from a materialist lens, specifically from the frame of Historical Materlaism.
Blackshirts and Reds is a fantastic book, but the othet 2 articles are 20 minutes each and Blackshirts and Reds is a full book.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
That’s fine, like I said! If someone wants an Anarchist server and doesn’t really want Marxists, dbzer0 is probably pretty comfy. Marxists tend to be on Lemmygrad.ml, Lemmy.ml, or Hexbear.net, which is also good. If someone wants to avoid Marxists, it’s better to be on a different instance, one that isn’t federated with them.
- Comment on Absolutely nothing happened June 1989 5 weeks ago:
I wouldn’t describe it as “neutral,” it’s definitely Anarchist dominant and the admins and users tend to be anti-Marxist. That’s fine for its audience, but if someone wants a Marxist instance dbzer0 isn’t really it.
