Socialism

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Curious about socialism (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by MoonlightFox@lemmy.world to c/socialism@lemmy.ml

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Hi! I am a stranger on this instance, I have read a lot of warnings about the "tankie triad", but wanted to see for myself and keep an open mind.

I watched this video, and it made me want to take a deep dive into socialism/communism, with as much objectivity as I can. https://youtu.be/BeRjTtKFlVM

I understand how capitalism works, and I have doubts that it is a sustainable system for society long term, but social democracy has been a good way of keeping capitalism in-check in Norway. So even if capitalism is not ideal, it is in theory possible to tax the rich more and keep the whole thing going in the future. I also understand the exploitation and the extraction of surplus value, rent seeking etc.

Other capitalist countries such as the US is currently struggling with basic human needs. And that is "the shining beacon of capitalism".

In Norway it has for a long time been common to use the US as an example of what not to do.

What I am interested in learning is how society would operate and function under socialism / communism. More about the differences. Preferably from less dry sources than The Capital from Marx. Where can I learn more? Preferably a bit entertaining.

It is important to me that it is historically accurate and factually correct.

Look forward to your replies 😊

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[–] REEEEvolution@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago

Tankie is a perjorative word, but it refers to those who support authoritarian communism. For instance by denying documented historical events, or support or defend repression from authoritarian regimes.

Multiple problems with this paragraph alone.

There is no non-authoritarian communism.
Then most liberals would be "tankies" because they still think the 1928 famine in the ussr was a genocide and the june 4th incident in China was a massacre. Historians widely disagree with both notions.
Communists do not deny anything, we just care a lot more about the reasons for events to learn from them. This leads us to learn that the liberal, anti-communist naratives of such events is always bs and leads us to much more reasonable discussions about them.
"Authoritarian" is a meaningless word. All states are authoritarian, because they use their authority and state violence to uphold their laws and defend their existence. Thus there are no "non-authoritarian" states, ergo "authoritarian state" being a trueism. The term is part of the liberal propaganda toolkit, scary terms for states that are not based on liberalism.
"tankie" refers to britsh communist who supported the intervention of the Warsaw pact to put down the Hungarian counter-revolution. By now it is a mix of a liberal version of "woke/SJW" and red scare "commie", with the intention of both.