Cowbee

@Cowbee@lemm.ee

This town, in fact, has more than enough room for the two of us

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Cowbee,

Decentralization is far more left than it is right, hence why Lemmy has a ton of leftists. It wasn’t just chance.

Cowbee,

Lack of acceptance for what? Leftism is a group of ideologies, and not necessarily one built around tolerating that which they oppose out of a sense of moral superiority.

I was just asking for what you’ve seen that points to Communism working in theory and not in practice, because so far you’ve explained exactly none of that.

I’ve found a good start for your lack of understanding, though! You completely misinterpret the definition and conflate private property with all property, when it is specifically referring to tools and industry, ie the Means of Production. You absolutely own things in Communism, like your house, toys, games, books, etc. You just don’t own Private Property, like factories, restaurants, etc. The definition of Communism is a Stateless, Classless, Moneyless society, and you make the error of pretending to know what exactly that entails by your own worst imagining of your own worst interpretation of said phrase.

Your next paragraph is also very enlightening, you assume Capitalist Mode of Production with Communist consequences! This is precisely what I’m getting at, you believe things like Companies would exist in Communism, when Communism itself is anti-market, and you’re again making the assumption that we can just turn on the big red Communism button and get there, when it must be built over a long period of time, with structures such as worker councils.

Your question about bullshit jobs has numerous solutions, actually. First of all, you’re assuming Communism in modern society, rather than the future, after lots of automation. Socialism would have monetary rewards, even lower stage Communism as well, for performing this labor. Eventually, it would be like your current life. Who cleans your house? You and your roommates, whether that be your friends, or family. In a Communist society, likely everyone would take turns, for whatever bullshit jobs haven’t already been automated away. In lower stages, they would be paid more money until this becomes possible.

Your points on the USSR and China are also wrong. In the USSR, wealth inequality was magnitudes lower than it is in their current oligarchic hellscape, and the Workers actually had a lot of say over how their life went, assuming they didn’t criticize the Politburo. This was referred to as Soviet Democracy, by which worker councils called Soviets decided things democratically at the local level.

No, I wouldn’t live in the USSR or modern day China, because they are developing countries with authoritarian leadership. However, you’ll find that is true across the board for developing countries. Perhaps if the USSR or China ever fully developed and became more democratically accountable, I would choose to live there, but for now you’ll find that quality of life follows development more than structure.

Both Maoist China and the USSR had far less wealth inequality than they have today, both doubled life expectancy, and the USSR had close to 0 homelessness with fully free education and Healthcare. They also lacked luxury goods and had an Authoritarian party controlling the state, but you’re demonstrably wrong about wealth inequality.

I am not a tankie or a supporter of the ML form of Socialism, if it needs to be restated.

If I point to Hitler’s Germany, Pinochet’s Chile, and Batista’s Cuba, does that mean that Capitalism is great in theory and doesn’t actually work in reality because it results in Authoritarianism? The answer is that you must state the why and how this came to be, so as not to repeat it.

Do you genuinely think the USSR and China are the only forms of Socialism that could ever exist?

Please, just read some leftist theory or watch some YouTube videos. All of your false preconceptions are easily debunked even by looking at historical records and doing some light critical thinking. I know you mean well, but you could genuinely have improvements in your understanding.

Cowbee,

It’s one of the most Capitalist countries on the planet, and is filled with individual Capital Owners that employ Proletarians.

Cowbee,

If Workers democratically and decentrally decide things, it’s central planning, and not only is it central planning, it’s more centralized than if they had no say whatsoever a la Capitalism?

I’m sorry, I don’t subscribe to mental gymnastics like that. I prefer decentralization and democratization over letting the few control everything unopposed except by each other.

Cowbee,

It’s clearly a red scare parody.

Cowbee,

Leftism is about collective ownership of the means of production, whereas Capitalism is concerned with individual ownership.

Supporting FOSS over Capitalism is a leftist take.

Cowbee,

The same way, generally. Work on decentralized, open source software. It’s modern Mutual Aid.

Cowbee,

Why are you surprised that there’s huge overlap between FOSS and Leftist beliefs? They go hand in hand.

Cowbee,

Do you consider drastically improving upon previous conditions to be a miserable failure? Ignoring that Communism has never existed, and only specific forms of Marxism-Leninism have existed, and ignoring that MLism is only a fraction of all of Communist ideology, even MLism drastically improved upon previous conditions.

I’m not even close to a tankie, but I’m genuinely curious what you mean by what you’ve said.

Cowbee,

That’s not really true, in my experience. They see Nazis as Nazis, and Liberals as misguided and naive.

Cowbee,

Is Communism “mainstream” now?

Joking aside, politics are everywhere, and Lemmy is always going to be more political than reddit, as choosing Lemmy over Reddit is almost purely a choice based on political values.

Cowbee,

FOSS isn’t a political ideology itself, no. That’s like saying Mutual Aid or Worker Democracy aren’t political ideologies. Technically correct, but that wasn’t the point, all of those are leftist structures.

Communism is a political ideology, and I don’t think it can be globally considered fringe. Perhaps in the US, but not globally.

Cowbee,

Socialism has existed, that’s what the USSR was. It was an ML Socialist state, but it failed to become a Stateless, Classless, Moneyless society. In other words, it failed to reach Communism. Communism has been attempted, but never reached. It never reached the Communist stage, so Communism itself hasn’t been tried, only the ML form of Socialism.

The Soviet Union doubled life expectancy from the mid 30s to the mid 70s, had constant GDP growth until it liberalized and collapsed, guaranteed free Healthcare and education, and had mass housing initiatives. It had far lower wealth inequality than before or after its existence. This is all freely available information.

Am I a USSR Stan? Fuck no, the Politburo was a corrupt mess and Stalin was a thug. However, you’ve completely misconstrued my argument.

Cowbee,

Everything is political, where do you draw the line? Where it doesn’t align with your views?

Cowbee, (edited )

Wrong on several fronts.

Socialism means workers collectively own the means of production, and it isn’t synonymous with central planning. Concepts like ParEcon, Worker Councils, Mutual Aid, and so forth reinforce this decentralized structure.

Capitalism is similarly not a system of decentralization but of many centralized islands. Each individual capitalist entity is very centralized in structure, more so than a system of Socialist entities, such as Syndicalism or Market Socialism.

FOSS itself rejects the profit motive and markets, and therefore is the antithesis of capitalism. Capitalism relies on private ownership, the profit motive, and IP protections, all of which FOSS abolishes.

Truthfully, the fact that you don’t want some CEO or bureaucrat deciding what gets produced unilaterally is precisely why your views are actually that of a leftist. You desire more democratization of production, a Socialist ideal to the core!

The fact that FOSS is based on non-profit decentralization is the very reason FOSS communities are dominated by leftists.

Cowbee,

There isn’t, the message itself is satire. The audience is precisely who the message is for, it’s making fun of Microsoft comparing FOSS to Communism, parodying red scare propaganda.

Unless I’m misunderstanding you, of course.

Cowbee,

How would it go corporate beyond specific instances? That’s kind of the entire point.

Cowbee,

Because it’s an easy transition to Linux, which is beneficial in numerous ways. If you’re gatekeeping Linux distros, you can kindly leave normal people alone.

Cowbee,

Mint is my first distro! Love it as a nice simple intro to Linux.

Cowbee,

Sure, it’s easy to get into and install for anyone used to Windows.

Cowbee,

Yep, that’s the biggest downside. I look here first, and if nothing, go elsewhere. What it does have is excellent though.

Cowbee, (edited )

Not exactly piracy, but if the book in question is public domain, my favorite site is Standard eBooks! Very high quality books, with proper formatting and translations.

Cowbee,

Second New Vegas video pleaseeeee

Cowbee,

Another New Vegas video would be Hella nice

Cowbee,

Sad yeehaw

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