this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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[–] Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca 65 points 1 day ago (11 children)

It doesn’t matter what ideology. If the people running it are rotten, any system can be corrupted.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 day ago (15 children)

So then the solution is to decentralize so everyone is running it.

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[–] RandomPrivacyGuy@lemm.ee 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (3 children)

Yeah, I remember how my grandfather and everyone he knew fought tooth and nail just to stop America from dismantling communism in eastern Europe!

Oh, wait, he didn't. Everyone celebrated when it fell.

[–] F_OFF_Reddit@lemmy.world 24 points 1 day ago (18 children)

Nah communism is shit, same with trickle down economics... you can have a bit of capitalism and a bit of socialism in a healthy mix of free trade economy with regulations.

Like we do in Europe, because if you do not regulate the free market it'll stop being free in a generation. Like it's happened in the US.

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 37 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I don't know if you've noticed, but Europe is sliding into fascism too, just not as quickly. Regulating capitalism treats the symptoms and not the disease, and so it can only ever bring temporary relief. The problems we are experiencing now are not the product of a broken system, they are the inevitable result of capitalist economics, no matter how restrained.

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[–] Objection@lemmy.ml 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (9 children)

Yeah, or like they do in China.

Unfortunately for many parts of the world, it doesn't matter if you're trying to go full socialist or not, if you get in the way of multinational exploitation and neocolonialism, you're gonna get couped. There's no shortage of left-leaning non-socialists who have also been targeted by the CIA. Like Guatemala, where they just wanted to do basic land reform so farmers could work their own land, but Chiquita didn't like that so it became the origin of the term "Banana Republic."

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[–] withabeard@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Needs v wants

Needs: healthcare, utilities, public transport, even a minimal but quality food source. Even to the point of utilitarian but working phones/devices. State ownership where profits are minimal but go back into the state. The services aren't necessarily free, but are run without massive shareholder payouts.

Wants: upgrades and luxuries. iPhones, treat foods, nice cars, silk bedding and those ridiculous marshmallow shoes everyone loves. Regulated but free market.

Now all your basic needs are covered by the community together. You could probably live a simple life with very little income. If you want luxury or fancy, feel free to work too get it.

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[–] merdaverse@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago

Oh boy, another batch of centrists coming in from the Reddit shitstorm... This one oblivious to the fact that far right parties are gaining traction all over Europe.

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 22 points 20 hours ago (17 children)

Seeing some of the zingers in the comments here, now seems like a great time to plug my "Read Theory, Darn it!" introductory Marxist-Leninist reading list. Read up, comrades!

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[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 15 points 13 hours ago

whoops, brazil. we had a budding workers movement that was absolutely crushed by the traitorous brazilian military, in the name of the US of course.

that hasnt stopped syndicalism to take root here and improve our lives a bit, but the communist organizations responsible were all crushed and we see our rights being taken away ever since because no one is left to defend them. we are scrambling rn to see if we can stop fascism.

[–] CalipherJones@lemmy.world 15 points 13 hours ago (6 children)

I wonder if anyone ever said "Democracy would never work, just look at what happened to Athens".

Socialism and communism are relatively new ideas. While I don't believe communism is an effective form of government, it's still kind of silly to write it off so quickly.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

There is a poem in Polish, it goes in fast and dirty translation: "Today you scare us with communists, just as years ago, you scared our fathers with the democrat name".

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[–] Edie@lemmy.ml 13 points 13 hours ago

Someone between 1804 and 1830: Democracy doesn't work, just look at France, it dissolves into an empire

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[–] missandry351@lemmings.world 14 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

When people ask me what communist country was successful I usually say all of them until cia decided to go there and spread freedom 🇺🇸🦅

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[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Luckily the US is dismantling the CIA so that’s good news for communism!!!

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[–] vfreire85@lemmy.ml 13 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (15 children)

you know, i tell you what. i'm fed up with all this gringo self-righteousness when you talk about "oh communism was bad, oh people where killed, oh people had no food, oh people had no liberty, oh people could not buy ataris, oh our countries are so democratic". your countries were democratic during the cold war in the first place because you had people to sort things out for you here in the global south. for each person complaining about how the food rations in eastern europe were not tasty enough, there were 10 dying of hunger or malnourishment here in the global south. for every person complaining they had to wait 5 years in a queue to buy a trabant or an oka, there were 10 who got no school in a range of 50 km. for every person complaining that their 8 hour shifts in state owned factories were overwhelming, there were 10 who were indentured workers. for every person complaining about how the stasi, kgb or the stb had bugged their apartment, there were 10 suffering the most horrific tortures inside black sites of the military of u.s. allies here in the "third world". for every person complaining about dull standard apartment blocks in mikrorayons, there were 10 who lived in mud shacks and slums, and those are just who were lucky enough to have a roof over their heads. finally, for everyone complaining about chinese sweatshops, which are indeed a problem, there are 10 americans who work and yet cannot afford proper housing.

you wanna complain about how communism was bad? go ahead. you wanna complain how your parents lived under communism and could not drink coke? do so if you wish. but there are still millions of people down here who would give an arm and a leg to have a polish ration, an apartment in a russian gray building, or a yugoslav job. and while the chinese maoist red guard was bad, surely it won't be an inch closer to the harassement people endured on a daily basis by our police forces.

again: you wanna complain? be my guest. but for me that's an encyclopedic example of white privilege.

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago (2 children)
[–] Frenchys_prospecting@aussie.zone 9 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

As an Australian I now understand the contempt of the middle east for America.

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