Communism in theory vs in practice

It's very frustrating to me to see people say things like "socialism/communism always ends in a dictatorship" while ignoring that capitalism tends towards oligarchies and monopolies. I'm glad to see someone else pointing out that "capitalism only works on a small scale."
- Yeah, and it's failing miserably
- My comment was a mirror of another user which got removed. And so it doesn't make sense now. Thanks to the great modding team here. He didn't say anything harmful, why censor it??????????
Capitalism only works on a small scale. The second society gets bigger, you require a state with militaristic presence to keep corporations in line.
Wrong. Half of europe relied so much on american protection that they had barely any military spending. Germany at the forefront, we only have ammunition for like 2 days of combat. So ye, that's nonsense.
No matter which country you pick, large ones like the USA or Russia, all of them have developed into a divided oligarchy of “haves” and “have nots”. […]
The US has been democratic for a major part of their existence. There were up and downs, sure, but it was largely a democratic system. So have many other big capitalistic countries by the way.
Russia, while being capitalist, is an authoritarian system - I'm pretty sure that would've also happened if they were communist. But the oil money they got from the west probably tasted too good.
but in the end capitalism is a failed ideology that will never work on a large scale without completely surpressing the market and brutally regulating any sign of market dominance of a few corporations.
Uuuuh, did you use AI to write this? Because it makes no sense. Personally, I wouldn't mind some regulations. Not sure what your point is here.
- I mirrored your comment, because I think it works backwards. From the way it sounds to me, you started with your conclusion/opinion and searched for proof of why it is right. Real socialism and the Soviet unions were deeply, deeply flawed systems from the start, but only because some implementations failed, due to essentially the same problems as capitalism, does not mean the idea as a whole is rubbish. If you read the communist manifesto and "the capital" from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, you will read a brilliant critique of our modern contemporary system. There are some very fine ideas in there, and I think it's dangerous to discard another perspective because some implementations have failed. The USA are the living proof of how two radically different systems can suffer from the same problems and collapse because of them. Why is it such a culture war against some genuinely very fine points that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels have made over a hundred years ago, which are relevant to this day?
  Edit: typo. I apologise for forgetting about Friedrich Engels.
- America had a mostly centrally planned economy during WWII, you couldn't even get more rations without giving your previous packaging back to be recycled.
  this is part of why america became so wealthy, along with imperialism.

This is generally wrong, though. Communist countries have dramatically democratized society, it works better at large scale if we are speaking of Marxian Communism because that's the Marxist reason for Communism to begin with. Competition centralizes, so in the future it must be publicly owned and planned. This is the basis of Scientific Socialism, primitive Communism is not the same as the post-Socialist Communism, which must be large-scale as production increases in complexity.

Pol Pot wasn't even a Communist.

- Competition does the exact opposite of centralization. That’s why I can buy most goods from completely different vendors that differ in price and quality.
  Competitions have winners, and in this case it means the competition goes out of business and dies, leaving you with a near monopoly or outright monopoly.
  That power then gets used to
  lobby (bribe) the government to raise barriers to entry to prevent new competitors
  buy out new competitors
  intentionally price everything lower than competitors, at a loss, to kill competitors in a war of attrition that they can't possibly outlast
  And that's even assuming there's any competition at all, which often isn't the case with certain things like healthcare, internet, electricity, etc.
- The USSR, PRC, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, etc are more democratic than theie previous systems.
  Communism still works, just because the Soviet Union isn't here doesn't mean everything is a failure.
  Competition forces centralization and monopolies over time due to increasinly complex production practices that raise the barrier to entry. It's unavoidable.
  Pol Pot denounced Marxism and focused on an odd agrarian system, and was backed by the CIA.
  
  Read Soviet Democracy, as well as read up on the government structures of the PRC, Vietnam, Laos, etc. They are democratic.
  The PRC is more successful today than the USSR was, and is Socialist. Calling countries in the Global South "shitholes" is wildly chauvanist, along with your unsourced claims about them.
  You didn't really go against competition causing centralization. Even further than companies, there are joinings of companies under single megacorps that share supply chains and interwork.
  Pol Pot did not "follow Communist ideals," though. Moreover, if someone makes a clear deviation from Communism and denounces Marxism, why on Earth include it as a detractor other than clear bad-faith?
  Sure, the Cold War was complicated, but the US was never fighting for Communism and neither was Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge never actually read Marx, and mostly declared any Communist sympathies out of aesthetics and geopolitical support than genuine support for Communism, and the US supported them.
  
  You made a lot of claims here. Do you have any sources to provide support?
  
  Soviet Democracy
  Here's a well-sourced post on China's democracy, but really, read their constitution and government structure if you want more.
  Cuba was under a fascist slaver before Socialism, and now has a democracy.
  The PRC is Socialist, and has one of the largest and most rapidly growing economies in the world, I don't think you need a source for this.
  As for competition and centralization, where do you think the megacorps came from? We are more centralized now than ever before.
  Pol Pot and the CIA, alternatively Blowback lists their sources and they went over it in Season 5.
- Tribal societies existed without classes or trade, they largely pooled together resources.
  
  Primitive Communism isn't something to emulate, but a historical formation of society.
  
  Some did, others didn't. Calling primitive communism "primitive communism" is a judgement on its class character, not a moral one.

Independently of who I side with, I am blocking this community because of the stifling of Realitaetsverlust's comments.

edit: was baffled by the stifling and just researched and learned about Lemmy.ml

it all makes sense now. It is a Socialist Communist instance that censors those not aligned with them. Political leanings don't bother me, but the censorship does so I will be avoiding anything Lemmy.ml in the future. They of course have a right to run their instance how they wish. peace out

They can at least still be read in the modlog

Im sure the uyghurs and tibetans see it differently

EDIT: \s

LOL
The horrible feodal system with serfs/slaves the Tibetans has was sooo much better.
Some CIA poking didn't work to bring that back.
And there was a small minority radicalised terrorists by Turkey and OC again the CIA to cause trouble, which they did.
blew up a plane with civilians, multiple other attacks on busses, trainstations, etc....
The majority never liked them and are glad it's over.
But nice try.
- Im sure they love making iphones until they jump off a roof
  
  What, did a suicide happen years ago in a country you don't like? Quick, use that as a weak excuse to throw mud.
  I'm sure suicide doesn't happen in companies from the fascist US, where they have to pee in bottles.
  Sometimes a known fascist boss demands to keep his Tesla factory open in full covid peak and his slaves get sick and die.
  Plenty of them die homeless or from drugs anyway.
  No paid sick days, universal healthcare, unemployment, etc. Really a pathetic 3rd world country.
  Not to mention no other regime puts more of its citizens in jail.
  This is the embarrassing US banana republic.
  Want to try again?
  
  Ita wild to me that you can see the USs mas incarceration and tell its bad, but when the chinese govt imprisions and entire population based on their religion you act like its a good thing
  
  It's the US who's been killing Muslims for decades, not China, which is why only the white-supremacist countries believe those lies.
  
  "imprisions and entire population based on their religion "
  That is a called a lie, or wild, baseless accusation at best.
  It can be proved the US is the most authoritarian regime because facts and data about their prison slaves.
  You just say stuff out of your unhealthy fixation with communism, which you even need to mention in your bio.
  If that's all you're going to do then go away, not worth it.
  
  Go lie and cry somewhere else, you got no sources for anything just lame slander as all of you sore losers.
  Glad you're on your way out
The Schrödinger’s sarcasm edit 🙄
uyghurs
The US propaganda machine’s “Uyghur genocide” psyop has been debunked six ways to Sunday already. [1] [2]

tibetans
I’m pretty sure virtually all of the Tibetan people are happy to no longer be suffering under theocratic feudalism. Happy to no longer be illiterate serfs and slaves, suffering depredation under a god-king. I doubt many of them are sad that CIA asset Dalai “suck my tongue” Lama is in exile. [1] [2]
- By debunked you mean the leader accused of genocide denied it and then denied journalists and observers access! Your propaganda is too stupid to believe.
  The tibetens were beaten into submission and shown that they will be disapeared for even suggesting that god-king Xi might be wrong.
Not sure what you're trying to say. Uyghurs are systematically eradicated and tibet is controlled by china since their invasion in the 1950s. Not exactly speaking in favor of communism.
So, if you'd like to expand on your point, I might be able to discuss this further.
- eradicated LOL, their population is growing, despite the many some US backed terrorist killed.
  And Tibet doesn't have slaves anymore who literally had chains around their necks suffering under the religious buddhist monks terror.
  Yawn, can you bring up Tiananmen square again to not be original? I'll wait
  
  eradicated LOL, their population is growing
  According to who? The chinese government? Lmao. Ye I would DEFINITELY trust the ones that are performing the killings on reporting accurate numbers.
  And Tibet doesn’t have slaves anymore who literally had chains around their necks suffering under the religious buddhist monks terror.
  Imperialism good when country does bad things?
  Yawn, can you bring up Tiananmen square again to not be original? I’ll wait
  I could, but if you want some originality, I can also bring up one of the other atrocities directly ordered by communist regimes, like the Prague Spring, Hungarian Revolution or the mass executions by the Khmer in Cambodia.
  
  oh, the khmer rouge, that one that the u.s. supported along with britain, china (not so dirty back then, right) and who were toppled by the socialist regime of vietnam?
  
  I already answered that to someone else so I'll just copy and paste it:
  The US never directly supported pol pot. Before 1975, they supported Lon Nol, who was fighting against the communist Khmer Rouge.
  The part that IS true is that the US did support China and Thailand at the time, which in turn used that aid to support resistance groups in cambodia because vietnam invaded cambodia in 1979 - something the US had no problem with since vietnam was backed by the soviets. Also, it is true that the US and other western countries supported keeping the Khmer Rouge as Cambodia’s official UN representative, however, that was mostly done to undermine Vietnam’s rule over cambodia.
  So, yes, by extension, the US supported pol pot, but it’s not the big “gotcha” you think it is - it was the cold war, an extremely complex geopolitical time.
  
  I don't need to prove something that didn't happen which isn't possible, you show me proof of your fantasy eradication that isn't from the sick nutbag Adrian Zenz. Must be easy if it's such a genocide.
  Imperialism good when country does bad things?
  Hypocrisy good in the name of bringing democracy.
- Lol I meant to reply to the main thread, but you could pretend im being sarcastic and it kinda works
  
  Makes sense, I just was kinda confused and wasn't sure.