Hacker News Reader

Comment by weberc2 | Hacker News Reader

Here's the comprehensive list of capitalist countries that wiped out 50 million of their own citizens in a couple decades:

Glad we cleared that up.

View on HN

Ahistorical. Revisit 20th century Central and South America. This is a silly thread and one I'm not eager to perpetuate, but I can't not take this bait.

No bait here. The ideological death toll of capitalism is far, far lower than communism, full stop.

That's not the argument you just made.

It's exactly the argument I made, even if my rhetoric was silly or not quite precise. Nitpicking is boring.

Sure. A Guatemala here, a Rwanda there, who's really counting?

I mean, none of that is related to capitalism, but why not make believe?

Both were directly related both to anticommunism and to extractive, commercial colonialism, so, no, I don't think that's a solid rebuttal.

You're saying that if it takes time for the effects of a capitalist mode of production, which does not cater for those at the bottom of society, which creates wars for profit and plunder then therefore these countries are not guilty? Are you aware of how capitalism came about, through the forceful and violent enclosure of the commons in Western Europe, and the invasions and famines caused by the redirection of supplies and food for where it would be profitable elsewhere (Bengal famine), rents enforced by landlords (Irish Potato famine), etc.? If you are unaware of how capitalism came about, Marx does a good job explaining it through the laws in the country in which he lived, England[0].

[0] https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch31.htm and https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch26.htm

No, those are not the claims I'm making. In particular, there's nothing particular about capitalism that predisposed itself to wars, even for-profit wars relative to other economic systems (such wars predate history in many places).

But even if everything you say is true and capitalism is a sort of slow killer, I would still prefer it to communism, which is efficient only in murdering those it governs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com