
Why would anyone ever willingly be a Communist?


I've studied China for quite some time and comparing China to the Soviets isn't entirely correct. The CCP while being Communist, implemented Capitalism under Deng Xiaoping because their economy at the time was on the verge of collapse. In other words, China has a mixed, but command control economy (somewhat similar to the Soviets). Although, with Winnie the Pooh now dictator for life, we're seeing more of a command and control economy than ever and following a near pattern of what Hitler and Stalin did upon their arrival to absolute power. One of the reasons why people continue to think Communism apparently works is because the CCP are masters of propaganda - they've only been doing it for the past 80+ years, so of course they'll be masters at brainwashing the world lol.
Further, with Leftist/Liberal dominance in academic institutions in American universities and the wealth gap America is facing, nearly 70% of millennials favor socialism. Communism, Liberalism, Socialism, and other Leftist ideologies are technically different animals, but they share at least some fundamental commonalities with each other.
In other words, the CCP says "Communism with Chinese characteristics" works or "Democratic Socialism" works, even though true Socialism or Communism are failed concepts.
... It's very appealing when someone in power says I'll wipe out your debt or give you more since all humans dream of a better tomorrow 😎
It is young people who don't produce anything, so they feel they are entitled to the labor of others. No one successful advocates for being a communist. Plus years of liberal indoctrination.
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Given the actual history of socialism and its' one party variant - Communism - it is a more than fair question. However the appeal of the theory, whatever the practice, is broadly understandable. It is an intellectually tidy theory that promises Utopia - and people are seldom willing to look that kind of a gift horse in the mouth. Even when prudence, wisdom and common sense suggest that they ought to.
That said, Socialism was a romantic reaction to the Enlightenment. To wit, the idea of the Enlightenment was that man was a spontaneously rational and social being. That he had rights, rooted in nature. However, man has been corrupted by institutions that evolved over history but that were not inherently rational and therefore not consistent with his natural rights.
The idea behind the Enlightenment then was that man must be stripped of the illogical and irrational/pre-rational sources of his identity - i. e. religion, ethnicity, tribe, etc. - and law made in conformity with his natural rights. When law and natural rights are consistent, man will live in harmonious relationship with his fellows.
The problem. of course, was that man gets his sense of identity from religion, family, tribe, nationality, etc. When stripped of these - as the British statesman and political philosopher put it - man is "reduced to his naked shivering nature."
Into this stepped Marx. In brief summation, he combined man's need for a sense of identity with a "scientific theory." He discerned a dialectic in History - with a capital "H" - in which economics and class was the source of man's true identity and that the clash of owning and working classes would result over time in a stateless utopia where man lived in fulfillment of his nature.
This, of course, was not scientific at all. It greatly oversimplified man's nature and, in practice - and this is skipping over a LOT of important detail - conduced to the concentration of power in an elite whose job, in Marxist theory, was to guide the workers toward that classless utopia that - allegedly - History was moving toward anyhow.
Pursuant to this, as a matter of economic policy, the government would own the means of production, private property would be abolished, and the economy - all levels of production, consumption, etc, - would be centrally planned. Suffice to say, such concentrations of power and planning with no intermediary institutions between the government and society conduced to brital tyranny.
That, in brief compass - and again skipping for reasons of space a LOT of detail - is where Marxism comes from. Suffice to say, most Marxists are not aware of the pedigree of their own ideas any more than most Americans or Canadians understand the origins of their own ideals.
Rather, they are content to listen to the siren song of the promise of Utopia - the seeking of which Russel Kirk called "the primal madness of the species. To which they add its' psuedo-scientific premises, which gives to Socialism the patina of modernity. Thus does the Marxist - of all stripes - convince himself that he is not listening to fairy tales and is just one step away from perfection.
I sometimes think their lives are so shit that they're willing to bring everyone else into hell just to say that, now, everyone's life is shit.
I once chatted with one online and he just seemed clueless about the adult world. He wanted to be a lead video game designer and director while working 4 hours/day and, what seemed to throw him off is that I've actually worked in that role. You can't ship a game working 4 hours/day on your own, and you can't replace designers to compensate. They have a vision and it's very specific to them and in a tech-rich field like computer gaming and graphics, it's tick-tock. You aim for Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 comes around before you know it.
One of the biggest tendencies I see in Marxist types is a tendency to associate incompetence with leadership. And of course, lots of leaders leave lots to criticize about them. But as a software dev, I've seen my more ambitious colleagues boast that they could run the company better than the people who actually do, and I'm picturing them as my boss, and immediately it's like, "No way in hell." There's a general overall lacking as I see it in Marxist types to appreciate how difficult it is to manage people, even if people don't do it so well, and how stressful it can be.
... and how important they really are, until they're gone. You don't notice how much a leader is needed to organize a team until you really get the worst of the worst... and then you find yourself missing the iron-fisted one who wasn't so nice, far short of an ideal, but kept things in order, while looking at some incompetent boss second-guessing himself all the time and blaming all his failings on people around you.
They have a romanticized idea of what communism really is. I fail to think why would someone want to work their ass off to receive a minimum % of what they really earn or to have it distributed with people who don't work at all. The system doesn't work and it has been proved through the years. The soviet union, Cuba, North Korea. Now my country is full of Venezuelans because their country has become a shit hole and they have to flee or starve to death.
Chile Uruguay and Argentina are the least "shit-holey" lol
There are some youths who embrace communism because they have a highly romanticized and idealized view of the same. However, there are also those who are at the bottom of society and marginalized beyond the mainstream. For them communism is attractive because in principle communism teaches about equality. Equality of race, gender, caste, ethnicity, etc. Now many in the west who do not understand what this feels like, remember that there are people who belong to the so called "untouchable" caste and you cannot eat with them, from their hands, cannot cross paths, step on their shadow, draw water form the same well, etc. So you have to know the anger of exclusion.
Mental illness, one would have to have a mental illness to think communism would or even could work.
There is often the idea, that it failed because (insert reason) if we just tweak it a little then it would work this time.
1. They are stupid.
2. They are ignorant of history.
3. They are ignorant of human nature.
4. They want to be provocative.
5. They want to get in a girl's pants.
6. They are stupid.
Pick as many as apply.
You stated stupid twice. You should have listed it three times just to cover your bases.
@hellionthesagereborn I debated that, but I have been trying to reduce, decrease and lower my reliance on redundancy and repetition.
I can see that, probably for the best.
They have the same dickhead installed on their shoulders and erroneously believe that once the regime gets instaurated they'll have any kind of privilege for being one of the idiots who voted it in.
Basically, stupidity and a complete lack of contact with reality.
Stupidity and ignorance. Notice, not one communist can tell you how communism is better, cannot define it, cannot define capitalism, and couldn't tell you what nations are or are not socialist/communist and which ones are capitalist. You have to be brainwashed and braindead to be a communist that is why they use propaganda and shut down debates, because if you actually know what is going on you would never support communism.
Well, China owns our big tech, most of the media, celebraties, sports figures, so I think I know who might want this, and it's not Americans.
Yes but they reformed their economic system with market socialism and support of free market. Their economy isn't the typical communist economy system.
@pleasestopthis
Do you live in China?
I know chinese people IRL.
@pleasestopthis
The ones I talk to say they lived a dirt-poor life in China. Why do you think that Hong Kong and Taiwan pose such a threat to communist China?
Who talked about Hong Kong and Taiwan? I am talking about mainland China
@pleasestopthis
I don't blame you for not wanting to answer my question.
Because it doesn't even make any sense
@pleasestopthis
Neither did your post. This question is about communism. Why did you bring China into it?
LMAO did you even see your first comment? you were the one who mentioned it first
@pleasestopthis
LMAO
Why are you so afraid to talk about Hong Kong and Taiwan?
Mainly because they've never lived in it, and probably haven't even been somewhere that used to be.
On paper, it sounds pretty good to people with no perspective, no ambitions, or a general feeling of hopelessness.
I would blame the education system. Many leftists have infiltrated that and preach ideas that are either openly communist or indoctrinate them with the same logic one would use to justify communism. When idiots do the teaching you get a bunch of idiots.
Because they are dumb; communism has a well established track record of failure. What we have now is much worse, a combination of communism & capitalism; the consequences of that will be much more horrible in the long term in my opinion.
The people never actually want it, they only get convinced by those on the top they do because they want the power from the people. Being voted out means you lost power, they never live that down.
No one voluntarily becalmed communist. Communism is spread by takeovers which is what is happening to the US
Because they don't like effort and they don't wanna work
100% I believe communism is the answer to many of America’s problems
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