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Comment by telmo | Hacker News Reader

Hardcore punk is pretty close to left wing anarchism. Is this news to you?

Also: it is possible to criticize the capitalist system without advocating communism. Believe it or not, it is not a binary choice.

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That is a pretty broad brush for hardcore punk. Are there examples advocating communism that are you thinking of specifically?

You don't need to "advocate communism" to "critique the capitalist system".

Anarchists, bohemians, ecologists, distributists, nihilists, existentialists, hippies, traditionalists, some religious groups (including some christian demominations) and several other political or social movements and philosophies do it - in fact, one could also include social democrats in that.

Not to mention that advocating communism is not the same as advocating Stalinism or Eastern Bloc style opression (as is often implied), not anymore than advocating capitalism is advocating for the attrocities made by capitalist countries.

I don't disagree with your points. Returning to the thread, I was curious about the hardcore punk bands that advocate communism, and whether that was too broad of a brush to cover that genre. The person in the video lists Bad Brains, Minor Threat Black Flag, and The Dead Kennedys as prototypical. Do any of these "advocate communism" to "critique the capitalist system"?

I don't think much of hardcore punk advocated communism explicitly. Certainly not Soviet-style authoritarian communism. Nor do I think anyone made such a claim in this thread!

The Dead Kennedys song "Holiday in Cambodia" is critical of both Pol Pot and US capitalist culture, for example.

I completely agree with your point. in reviewing the thread I think I have mis-interpreted the parent comment as a stating that "HC music should criticize capitalist culture without endorsing communism". I was looking for evidence of general endorsement of communism in the genre as I think we agree it is rare.

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