The same is true of many implementations of communism. The problem isn’t the system, the problem is people, and people try to corrupt the system to their benefit.
How has what I said got anything to do with liberal ideology? If anything, the implication of what I said is that we need more authoritarianism, in order to stop people fucking around.
You didn’t ask a question besides “can you stay on topic,” which was already bullshit because @Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml was responding to your “we need more authoritarianism, in order to stop people fucking around” comment.
My question was how me saying people are the problem has anything to do with liberal ideology? My statement about authoritarianism was to point out that what I said before was definitely not liberal.
What would be liberal would be to say it’s a good thing that people can fuck around and twist things to their benefit, as if that was the system working as intended. I’m not saying that. I’m saying systems aren’t working, and the problem is people.
If you keep framing the problem as caused by the system, then you’ll be blind to the people problem in whatever system you implement to replace it.
The same is true of many implementations of communism. The problem isn’t the system, the problem is people, and people try to corrupt the system to their benefit.
People everywhere have always been exactly the same since the dawn of time. Mitochondrial Adam and Eve were literally McDonald’s franchise owners. I am extremely intelligent.
I mean, not to be glib. It does look like we are functionally then same as our recent ancestors. Like, hundred thousand years ago on the plains of Africa the homo-sapians there would be indistinguishable from any person off the street today after a wash and shave.
It’s not a question of of similarity in terms of how we look, or our intelligence. It’s a question of whether “human nature” is an immutable thing that exists. Marxists say that it doesn’t, it’s merely a consequence of material conditions, and that changing material conditions would change what people call human nature
No, that wasn’t invented till like the 1600s. There were signs of extensive and complicated trade networks as far back into prehistory as we can look. They simply didn’t form the moral basis of society like we see in capitalism
You said that communism can’t work because of human nature, thereby implying that everyone everywhere has always been exactly the same, ignorant of the fact that the concept of private property was invented about five thousand years ago in a few isolated places. For hundreds of thousands of years and for the vast majority of people who have ever lived, they never knew anything about private property and probably would have considered the idea absurd (which it is). No private property = communism. If we can say that anything is human nature (nothing actually is, since human nature changes depending on context), it would actually be communism. Capitalism is not only collapsing right now because it’s a terrible idea, it’s collapsing because of its fundamental contempt for human beings and even nature itself.
I didn’t say that communism can’t work. I’m just saying people try to fuck it up for their benefit, whatever it is.
Maybe people will get better over time and be less likely to do that. Really though I think it’s just something we have to account for, by developing robust social systems that can’t easily be abused, not without being caught.
People are self interested yes. Eliminating rent seeking behavior that is enabled by private property makes the social system harder to game for helping themselves at the cost societal good. Communists want to eliminate private property for this reason. Does this mean that all anti social behavior will be eliminated? No, but most crime is committed due to lack of economic opportunity. Politicians not doing what is in the interest of the people that elected them is often due to capitalist funded lobbying firms. Not having private property addresses those problems and other problems that are caused by those problems.
Marxism has an answer to the idea of people getting better. “Human nature” as you see it is a result of material conditions. If we change the material conditions we change “human nature”
I didn’t say that communism can’t work. I’m just saying people try to fuck it up for their benefit, whatever it is.
The same was true of capitalism when it was getting started in rural late medieval England, but here we are.
Maybe people will get better over time and be less likely to do that. Really though I think it’s just something we have to account for, by developing robust social systems that can’t easily be abused, not without being caught.
Democracy in every home and workplace (also known as communism) should take care of this.
“Maybe people will get better over time”—it’s certainly a choice people have. We can kill ourselves with capitalism or build a better world for everyone with communism.
People, particularly the wealthy, try to fuck things up for their benefit because capitalism has so deeply engrained in them a sense of rabid and egocentric individualism, and has taught them that having more than others makes them good, and if they have more than others it’s because they’re good.
The poor are “abusing” social systems because many of those systems lock them into poverty, where they’re forced into a game of economic limbo, which withholds any/all benefits if they earn too much (which is still not enough to live on), or they do things to receive more support than what the state says they are owed with the goal of having an acceptable standard of living, if they can even achieve that.
Neither of these problems will be solved by people “getting better over time”, and in fact,
we are all observing these things getting worse and worse. Reforming social safety nets can maybe provide a solution to the latter problem, if they’re drastic enough. But, imo, communism provides the solution to both.
The same is not true of implementations of communism. Socialist states at their best implement systems that encourage the natural human drives for cooperation and compassion, and in the two largest cases, China and the Soviet Union, it led to the fastest gains in quality of life in history
To look at its best you’d have to look at individual moments. Just like looking at the successes of communism you’d have to look at individual moments, rather than the overall state of the country now. The people problem is endemic everywhere, so instances where things haven’t been twisted are rare.
I don’t really have an opinion of any country being the best example. You’d probably be better off looking at individual transactions to find good examples - Capitalism is all about transactions at the end of the day.
An example of things working as they should could be found in microprocessors. ARM design almost all of the processors in our phones, but they don’t actually manufacture them. They license their IP to Qualcomm, Samsung and others who use and modify the designs to create the devices we buy. The end consumer price of the phone is definitely over-inflated, but the supply line transactions for those components work in a novel yet reasonably fair way.
Granted, there are many more examples of things not working as they should. That’s because people fuck around and do things they shouldn’t, because it benefits them somehow. Capitalism doesn’t prevent that, but it isn’t the cause of that, people are.
Can you give me a good B2C example of a good transaction in capitalist societies that benefits consumers?
Selling food discounted at or around its cost price just before its about to expire. Or any situation where a reasonable price has been haggled, however this has gone out of fashion.
An example of things working as they should could be found in microprocessors. ARM design almost all of the processors in our phones
This is especially hilarious because the whole reason RISC-V has been developing rapidly is because the ARM monopoly isn’t an example of things working as they should, and companies want an alternative
Just jumping in here to say, look up the concept of ‘commodity fetishism’. The value of everything is distorted because capitalism is commodity producing society. This is explained in the first three or four chapters of Capital Volume I.
Yes. Basically, any time someone tries to do something nice for everyone and introduce communism, some people or other come along and fuck it all up. Then they call their fucked up monstrosity “communism” to further damage the credibility of any meaningful progress.
Those people are the same people who fuck up capitalism and distort it for their benefit. Maybe it’s easier for them to do under capitalism, maybe that’s just what they’re used to and they don’t want to change, but if all you do is deal with capitalism as the problem then you’re still going to have a people problem with whatever comes next.
I think you are missing some necessary historical context to follow along with what they’re saying here. Capitalists (through military, CIA, NATO etc) have routinely engaged in mass killings of communists around the world. One specific instance being the murder of 1 million+ people (communists) in Indonesia between 1965-1966 all organized and funded by the US. There’s a great book about this called The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World that I think everyone who isn’t familiar with the incident should read.
Cna you show me an example of where capitlaism has worked? The system has failed every time it has been tried. It is so bad that being around it is bad for other systems. If the systems they touch always fair it is time to consider why they are so toxic.
The same is true of many implementations of communism. The problem isn’t the system, the problem is people, and people try to corrupt the system to their benefit.
lib
How has what I said got anything to do with liberal ideology? If anything, the implication of what I said is that we need more authoritarianism, in order to stop people fucking around.
So… you’re a fascist?
Communism provides a solution to capitalism by being a more democratic system, both politically, and economically. Not by being more authoritarian.
No I’m asking how what I said had anything to do with liberal ideology. Can you stay on topic?
Most communist nations have not been very good when it comes to democracy. Not that they couldn’t be, but it obviously isn’t an inherent property.
Do you know what liberal means or do you think it just means Democrat?
Again, that isn’t an answer to my question. And no I do not think liberal means Democrat, I’m not in the US.
You didn’t ask a question besides “can you stay on topic,” which was already bullshit because @Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml was responding to your “we need more authoritarianism, in order to stop people fucking around” comment.
My question was how me saying people are the problem has anything to do with liberal ideology? My statement about authoritarianism was to point out that what I said before was definitely not liberal.
What would be liberal would be to say it’s a good thing that people can fuck around and twist things to their benefit, as if that was the system working as intended. I’m not saying that. I’m saying systems aren’t working, and the problem is people.
If you keep framing the problem as caused by the system, then you’ll be blind to the people problem in whatever system you implement to replace it.
Authoritarianism isn’t a real thing and your belief that it is cements you as a![LIB LIB](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/f737e650-47c9-4d1b-b03c-0d75e5a4f692.png)
I didn’t realise you were the arbitrator of what is and what isn’t. Obviously, I defer to your judgement.
I’d tell you to read a book but I don’t think libs are capable
I tried to get a meaningful argument out of you, but it’s very apparent you aren’t capable.
you come into my house, drop lib shit all over the floor and then dare talk down to me? I’ll have you know that I![PIGPOOPBALLS PIGPOOPBALLS](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/57e302c5-6368-4884-abb1-40ed173fc0be.png)
I didn’t shit anywhere, you just found a mess and started rolling around in it.
I have something I think you should check out
The belief in “human nature” that people’s ideas and beliefs and nature shape the world, and not material conditions is a core part of liberalism
yup. Human nature as an absolute and static thing is garbage philosophy. Marx had it right in Theses on Feuerbach and Capital. https://www.marxists.org/archive/fromm/works/1961/man/ch04.htm
People everywhere have always been exactly the same since the dawn of time. Mitochondrial Adam and Eve were literally McDonald’s franchise owners. I am extremely intelligent.
I mean, not to be glib. It does look like we are functionally then same as our recent ancestors. Like, hundred thousand years ago on the plains of Africa the homo-sapians there would be indistinguishable from any person off the street today after a wash and shave.
It’s not a question of of similarity in terms of how we look, or our intelligence. It’s a question of whether “human nature” is an immutable thing that exists. Marxists say that it doesn’t, it’s merely a consequence of material conditions, and that changing material conditions would change what people call human nature
I mean, we do have some nature. It just isn’t as pronounced as people like to talk about. And it specifically isn’t what capitalism calls it.
Did capitalism exist at that time?
No, that wasn’t invented till like the 1600s. There were signs of extensive and complicated trade networks as far back into prehistory as we can look. They simply didn’t form the moral basis of society like we see in capitalism
And if capitalism had a beginning, that would mean that it could also have an end?
God yes, it has long outlived it’s usefullness.
Nothing to do with what I’ve said, but ok.
Yes, you are!
You said that communism can’t work because of human nature, thereby implying that everyone everywhere has always been exactly the same, ignorant of the fact that the concept of private property was invented about five thousand years ago in a few isolated places. For hundreds of thousands of years and for the vast majority of people who have ever lived, they never knew anything about private property and probably would have considered the idea absurd (which it is). No private property = communism. If we can say that anything is human nature (nothing actually is, since human nature changes depending on context), it would actually be communism. Capitalism is not only collapsing right now because it’s a terrible idea, it’s collapsing because of its fundamental contempt for human beings and even nature itself.
I didn’t say that communism can’t work. I’m just saying people try to fuck it up for their benefit, whatever it is.
Maybe people will get better over time and be less likely to do that. Really though I think it’s just something we have to account for, by developing robust social systems that can’t easily be abused, not without being caught.
People are self interested yes. Eliminating rent seeking behavior that is enabled by private property makes the social system harder to game for helping themselves at the cost societal good. Communists want to eliminate private property for this reason. Does this mean that all anti social behavior will be eliminated? No, but most crime is committed due to lack of economic opportunity. Politicians not doing what is in the interest of the people that elected them is often due to capitalist funded lobbying firms. Not having private property addresses those problems and other problems that are caused by those problems.
Marxism has an answer to the idea of people getting better. “Human nature” as you see it is a result of material conditions. If we change the material conditions we change “human nature”
The same was true of capitalism when it was getting started in rural late medieval England, but here we are.
Democracy in every home and workplace (also known as communism) should take care of this.
“Maybe people will get better over time”—it’s certainly a choice people have. We can kill ourselves with capitalism or build a better world for everyone with communism.
People, particularly the wealthy, try to fuck things up for their benefit because capitalism has so deeply engrained in them a sense of rabid and egocentric individualism, and has taught them that having more than others makes them good, and if they have more than others it’s because they’re good.
The poor are “abusing” social systems because many of those systems lock them into poverty, where they’re forced into a game of economic limbo, which withholds any/all benefits if they earn too much (which is still not enough to live on), or they do things to receive more support than what the state says they are owed with the goal of having an acceptable standard of living, if they can even achieve that.
Neither of these problems will be solved by people “getting better over time”, and in fact, we are all observing these things getting worse and worse. Reforming social safety nets can maybe provide a solution to the latter problem, if they’re drastic enough. But, imo, communism provides the solution to both.
The same is not true of implementations of communism. Socialist states at their best implement systems that encourage the natural human drives for cooperation and compassion, and in the two largest cases, China and the Soviet Union, it led to the fastest gains in quality of life in history
And capitalism at its best does not distort the value of everything. Yet the people problem is so endemic that the value of everything is distorted.
Which state current or historical shows capitalism at its best in your opinion?
The USA? Netherlands? Colonialist Britain?
To look at its best you’d have to look at individual moments. Just like looking at the successes of communism you’d have to look at individual moments, rather than the overall state of the country now. The people problem is endemic everywhere, so instances where things haven’t been twisted are rare.
Yes, that’s why I mentioned historic as well. Which country in which period of time would you say best exemplified capitalism at its best?
1980s social democratic Sweden? 1990 miracle of Han South Korea? Current Singapore?
I don’t really have an opinion of any country being the best example. You’d probably be better off looking at individual transactions to find good examples - Capitalism is all about transactions at the end of the day.
An example of things working as they should could be found in microprocessors. ARM design almost all of the processors in our phones, but they don’t actually manufacture them. They license their IP to Qualcomm, Samsung and others who use and modify the designs to create the devices we buy. The end consumer price of the phone is definitely over-inflated, but the supply line transactions for those components work in a novel yet reasonably fair way.
Granted, there are many more examples of things not working as they should. That’s because people fuck around and do things they shouldn’t, because it benefits them somehow. Capitalism doesn’t prevent that, but it isn’t the cause of that, people are.
Okay, let’s talk about transactions then. You mentioned a good B2B example of a good transaction that benefits business entities that engage in it.
Can you give me a good B2C example of a good transaction in capitalist societies that benefits consumers?
Selling food discounted at or around its cost price just before its about to expire. Or any situation where a reasonable price has been haggled, however this has gone out of fashion.
This is especially hilarious because the whole reason RISC-V has been developing rapidly is because the ARM monopoly isn’t an example of things working as they should, and companies want an alternative
Just jumping in here to say, look up the concept of ‘commodity fetishism’. The value of everything is distorted because capitalism is commodity producing society. This is explained in the first three or four chapters of Capital Volume I.
Lmao, I literally read this exact same “argument” from a different user in a different thread five minutes ago.
You guys really need to come up with some new material.
Got a link? I’m interested who’s been ripping off my ideas.
Your idea? Its a core belief of liberalism. Maybe take it up with Rousseau?
Proud centuries old liberal tradition of not reading, 300 years and ticking.
Libs never realize they have an ideology, and schoo on![zizek-ok zizek-ok](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/893ccedf-243b-41b1-933c-dac92841ed0c.png)
Yeah, you definitely came up with this groundbreaking idea all by yourself![miyazaki-laugh miyazaki-laugh](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/adb8ad33-cc88-4ee5-89d2-7a26f2ab6087.png)
There’s no such thing as human nature. What you call human nature is the result of material conditions
I mean, in the the liberal west used violence to replace comunism with a right wing dictatorship. Yes.
However that isn’t really a flaw in comunist theory
Yes. Basically, any time someone tries to do something nice for everyone and introduce communism, some people or other come along and fuck it all up. Then they call their fucked up monstrosity “communism” to further damage the credibility of any meaningful progress.
Those people are the same people who fuck up capitalism and distort it for their benefit. Maybe it’s easier for them to do under capitalism, maybe that’s just what they’re used to and they don’t want to change, but if all you do is deal with capitalism as the problem then you’re still going to have a people problem with whatever comes next.
Those people who come along and fuck it up are capitalists.
You call them capitalists because they were successful at fucking up capitalism.
I think you are missing some necessary historical context to follow along with what they’re saying here. Capitalists (through military, CIA, NATO etc) have routinely engaged in mass killings of communists around the world. One specific instance being the murder of 1 million+ people (communists) in Indonesia between 1965-1966 all organized and funded by the US. There’s a great book about this called The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World that I think everyone who isn’t familiar with the incident should read.
that makes no sense
Cna you show me an example of where capitlaism has worked? The system has failed every time it has been tried. It is so bad that being around it is bad for other systems. If the systems they touch always fair it is time to consider why they are so toxic.