• davel@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Under socialism overall the total amount of wealth is less.

    Are you serious?

    I think “what we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy.https://redsails.org/anticommunism-and-wonderland/

    In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis. During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.

    If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.

    • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      One simple statement followed by a question; I worked hard for over a decade, sacrificed and learned so I could retire in my 30s, under socialism or communism, why would I work that hard if I would have not gotten rewarded for my sacrifice of time and labor?

      • davel@lemmy.ml
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        9 months ago

        You’ve really convinced yourself of this just world fallacy that it was your hard work and sacrifice rather than privilege and dumb luck, huh? Nobody but white boomers still believe in the American dream.

        I also made enough to retire in my 30s, by being in the right place at the right time: a software developer in the ’90s San Francisco dot-com boom. But I’m not kidding myself that it was my hard work that “rewarded” me with stock options whose value went through the roof when the company went public. And honestly I didn’t even work all that hard.

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          Cool, well I was in small town Oregon, and it was done by hour after hour of work, not being in the right place at the right time. So that brings me back to my question; under socialism or communism, why would I work that hard if I would have not gotten rewarded for my sacrifice of time and labor?