Having actually lived in USSR, and experienced both systems I can tell you that living under capitalism is far worse than living under Soviet style socialism. However, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s what other people who got to enjoy both systems have to say.
All anarchists do is perpetuate the horrors of capitalism because of their fear of “authoritarianism” necessary to mount an actual effective resistance. All the suffering that’s perpetuated, and our potential extinction at the hands of capitalists is squarely on you lot.
I did, and that’s why I take a lot of offense when people slander it. People lived there just fine, and things were a hell of a lot better than they are today under capitalism.
All the suffering that’s perpetuated, and our potential extinction at the hands of capitalists is squarely on you lot.
Playing blame games is not gonna help anyone. It would be much more effective if anarchists and communists could find ways to work together. Sure there are a lot of disagreements between both groups, but also a lot in common, and its better to focus on the latter.
I’m all for anarchists and communists working together, but the idea that capitalism is preferable to any form of socialism must be challenged forcefully. Soviet style communism may have had problems, but it was a far better system than capitalism in practically every way. Millions of lives were ruined when USSR fell, and my own family suffered greatly. It is incredibly frustrating to see people from the imperial core glibly claim that they prefer the devil they know. People saying that are invariably those who are personally benefiting from capitalist system, and have comfortable lives built on the back of the exploitation inherent in it.
What I disagree with is specifically the quoted sentence.
On a side note, I dont really understand this obsession with the Soviet Union. Sure it was a good place to live, and you probably have many positive memories from there. But the USSR hasnt existed for 30 years, and it wont come back. So it would be much more useful if we thought about how to improve things in our workplaces and neighborhoods, instead of arguing about our interpretations of history. If you are trying to unionize your workplace, what difference does it make what your coworker thinks about the Soviet Union?
The problem is that misinformation about USSR and China is used to propagandize people against effective methods for combating capitalism. The idea isn’t to bring USSR back, but to convince people that the methods advocated by communists are valid and that a state modeled on USSR results in a tangible improvement over the current state of things.
Doing things like unionizing your workplace or building community aid networks are coping mechanisms for existing within the capitalist system. Doing such things is necessary, and this does lead to tangible immediate benefits. However, we also need a real vision for a post capitalist world and how to achieve it.
So far, Marxist-Leninist approach has been pretty much the only effective formula for overthrowing capitalism and establishing a socialist society. We’re literally running out of time as the climate crisis continues to escalate. We have a few decades left to turn things around, and we simply don’t have the luxury to fuck around anymore. We need to use methods that have been proven to be effective while there is still time to act.
People who talk about authoritarianism to scare people away from communism by saying that they’d rather stick with the devil they know are actively working against change that we desperately need.
The Soviet Union was formed in 1917, over a century ago. Sure we need to learn from their successes and mistakes, but its not possible to simply repeat their methods, because society today works completely differently.
Marxism-Leninism has been successful in some places, but in the west it has been a complete failure so far. Blaming others for that failure is not going to help, again we need to learn from the successes and mistakes. Panicking because of climate change isnt helpful.
And people talk about authoritarianism because thats what they have been told all their live, and they worry about it. Its important to take such concerns seriously. Talking down to them and dismissing their concerns means that they will definitely ignore what you have to say.
I completely agree that we live in a very different world today, and the methods used need to be rooted in the current conditions. This is basically the whole premise of the dialectical approach. We must look at the material conditions and adapt our methods based on these conditions as opposed to acting dogmatically.
I understand where you’re coming from. Ideally, we should all be focusing on finding common ground and working together while putting our differences aside. This is basically the idea of left unity, and unfortunately we haven’t seen this work well in practice. There’s also a bigger picture here to consider as well. The reality of the situation is that both communists and anarchists are niche groups in the west right now. My view is that the focus needs to be on the people who aren’t politically active currently, but are starting to realize that the current system isn’t working in their interest. This is a far larger demographic than all the western anarchists and communists combined, and it would be far more productive to focus on steering such people towards effective methods of resistance.
Hence my view is that it’s important to challenge critiques of communism and to provide good answers to people who have reservations but haven’t yet formed strong opinions. Combating dishonest portrayals of USSR is important precisely because the negative image of USSR is used to scare people away from communism. The typical argument that we see is that capitalism is bad but USSR was worse and therefore doing nothing would be preferable to building a communist state. This is precisely the line of argument @poVoq@lemmy.ml is taking.
My view is that anarchist approach is fundamentally flawed and it’s been proven to be ineffective at combating capitalism. However, I’m perfectly fine working with anarchists when there is common ground to be found. On the other hand, I don’t think there is much to be gained trying to change minds of anarchists who are firmly set in their ideology. My experience is that people who’ve already formed strong views aren’t going to be swayed because they’ve already seen the arguments you present and found their own rationalizations for them. So, the focus needs to be on presenting a better argument to those who haven’t yet formed such strong opinions. That’s the real audience for such discussions.
I’m also not suggesting panicking over climate change, but rather noting that it is a huge immediate problem facing all of us. I don’t think people fully appreciate the scope of this disaster or its urgency. For example, Antarctic ice shelf the size of Britain could collapse within 5 years leading to significant sea level rise. This would obviously be devastating for coastal communities, but it would also have an incredible impact on global supply chains as all the ports would become inoperable. Countries that rely on shipping for their economies to function would be plunged into chaos overnight. Climate change will be an increasingly destabilizing factor in the world, and as it progresses it will also impact our ability to deal with it in any sort of organized fashion. The severity of the problem cannot be overstated.
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Having actually lived in USSR, and experienced both systems I can tell you that living under capitalism is far worse than living under Soviet style socialism. However, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s what other people who got to enjoy both systems have to say.
All anarchists do is perpetuate the horrors of capitalism because of their fear of “authoritarianism” necessary to mount an actual effective resistance. All the suffering that’s perpetuated, and our potential extinction at the hands of capitalists is squarely on you lot.
You lived in the USSR? Fuck, that’s awesome.
I did, and that’s why I take a lot of offense when people slander it. People lived there just fine, and things were a hell of a lot better than they are today under capitalism.
Playing blame games is not gonna help anyone. It would be much more effective if anarchists and communists could find ways to work together. Sure there are a lot of disagreements between both groups, but also a lot in common, and its better to focus on the latter.
I’m all for anarchists and communists working together, but the idea that capitalism is preferable to any form of socialism must be challenged forcefully. Soviet style communism may have had problems, but it was a far better system than capitalism in practically every way. Millions of lives were ruined when USSR fell, and my own family suffered greatly. It is incredibly frustrating to see people from the imperial core glibly claim that they prefer the devil they know. People saying that are invariably those who are personally benefiting from capitalist system, and have comfortable lives built on the back of the exploitation inherent in it.
What I disagree with is specifically the quoted sentence.
On a side note, I dont really understand this obsession with the Soviet Union. Sure it was a good place to live, and you probably have many positive memories from there. But the USSR hasnt existed for 30 years, and it wont come back. So it would be much more useful if we thought about how to improve things in our workplaces and neighborhoods, instead of arguing about our interpretations of history. If you are trying to unionize your workplace, what difference does it make what your coworker thinks about the Soviet Union?
The problem is that misinformation about USSR and China is used to propagandize people against effective methods for combating capitalism. The idea isn’t to bring USSR back, but to convince people that the methods advocated by communists are valid and that a state modeled on USSR results in a tangible improvement over the current state of things.
Doing things like unionizing your workplace or building community aid networks are coping mechanisms for existing within the capitalist system. Doing such things is necessary, and this does lead to tangible immediate benefits. However, we also need a real vision for a post capitalist world and how to achieve it.
So far, Marxist-Leninist approach has been pretty much the only effective formula for overthrowing capitalism and establishing a socialist society. We’re literally running out of time as the climate crisis continues to escalate. We have a few decades left to turn things around, and we simply don’t have the luxury to fuck around anymore. We need to use methods that have been proven to be effective while there is still time to act.
People who talk about authoritarianism to scare people away from communism by saying that they’d rather stick with the devil they know are actively working against change that we desperately need.
The Soviet Union was formed in 1917, over a century ago. Sure we need to learn from their successes and mistakes, but its not possible to simply repeat their methods, because society today works completely differently.
Marxism-Leninism has been successful in some places, but in the west it has been a complete failure so far. Blaming others for that failure is not going to help, again we need to learn from the successes and mistakes. Panicking because of climate change isnt helpful.
And people talk about authoritarianism because thats what they have been told all their live, and they worry about it. Its important to take such concerns seriously. Talking down to them and dismissing their concerns means that they will definitely ignore what you have to say.
I completely agree that we live in a very different world today, and the methods used need to be rooted in the current conditions. This is basically the whole premise of the dialectical approach. We must look at the material conditions and adapt our methods based on these conditions as opposed to acting dogmatically.
I understand where you’re coming from. Ideally, we should all be focusing on finding common ground and working together while putting our differences aside. This is basically the idea of left unity, and unfortunately we haven’t seen this work well in practice. There’s also a bigger picture here to consider as well. The reality of the situation is that both communists and anarchists are niche groups in the west right now. My view is that the focus needs to be on the people who aren’t politically active currently, but are starting to realize that the current system isn’t working in their interest. This is a far larger demographic than all the western anarchists and communists combined, and it would be far more productive to focus on steering such people towards effective methods of resistance.
Hence my view is that it’s important to challenge critiques of communism and to provide good answers to people who have reservations but haven’t yet formed strong opinions. Combating dishonest portrayals of USSR is important precisely because the negative image of USSR is used to scare people away from communism. The typical argument that we see is that capitalism is bad but USSR was worse and therefore doing nothing would be preferable to building a communist state. This is precisely the line of argument @poVoq@lemmy.ml is taking.
My view is that anarchist approach is fundamentally flawed and it’s been proven to be ineffective at combating capitalism. However, I’m perfectly fine working with anarchists when there is common ground to be found. On the other hand, I don’t think there is much to be gained trying to change minds of anarchists who are firmly set in their ideology. My experience is that people who’ve already formed strong views aren’t going to be swayed because they’ve already seen the arguments you present and found their own rationalizations for them. So, the focus needs to be on presenting a better argument to those who haven’t yet formed such strong opinions. That’s the real audience for such discussions.
I’m also not suggesting panicking over climate change, but rather noting that it is a huge immediate problem facing all of us. I don’t think people fully appreciate the scope of this disaster or its urgency. For example, Antarctic ice shelf the size of Britain could collapse within 5 years leading to significant sea level rise. This would obviously be devastating for coastal communities, but it would also have an incredible impact on global supply chains as all the ports would become inoperable. Countries that rely on shipping for their economies to function would be plunged into chaos overnight. Climate change will be an increasingly destabilizing factor in the world, and as it progresses it will also impact our ability to deal with it in any sort of organized fashion. The severity of the problem cannot be overstated.
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