Think of how good life would
be if socialism had been allowed to flourish and not smothered in the cradle by the US.
http://beelineblogger.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-supermarket-v...
I bet this author thinks Russia isn’t where it is today because of capitalism and the US. Or Putin isn’t a result of US intervention of capitalism in Russia.
The Soviets and Socialists are anti-capitalists. How are you defending OP/OP's link that attempts to show the evils of socialism/Soviets but don't know the Soviets and socialists are anti-capitalists?
> Besides, given how expansively I've seen "capitalism" defined on the internet by its detractors, conservation of energy qualifies as capitalist oppression.
Capitalism is the means of production being owned by private individual capitalists. Think private property. There's one basic definition of capitalism. None of this was difficult to learn once I did some reading. Or even just watching some non-mainstream and non-right wing videos. Just like I've done with media from the mainstream and the right to see where they are coming from.
Russia was dirt poor in 1917. They became a super power in 30-40 years moving an enormous amount of people out of poverty and lack of modern niceties.
China changed in 78 enough already. How do Cuba or Vietnam survive? How did they survive when heavily sanctioned and attacked by capitalist westerners? We have yet to see a capitalist country do that.
I can't speak for grandparent, but when I say "communist" disparagingly, I speak as someone who was born and raised in communist Czechoslovakia, who remembers actual communism.
I remember being in kindergarten, learning how there was a great, kind man Lenin who loved children. And I was already somehow thinking, something is off: this shit shouldn't be taught to kids like us.
So you kids can crumple that up in your woke pipes and smoke it. Pardon me, vape.
People mistake oppression and basically incompetence of the soviet union as proof that communism will never work, but it wasn't communism. During the Lenin era, industrial output actually far outpaced western countries, millions were lifted out of poverty. Same in China, Mao's madness with the great leap forward plunged the country into famine. These weren't communism.
There has not been a real communist society in human history. It'll require the population to change its mindset first from greed, ignorance and blind faith, towards critical thinking, socialism (care for others). These are pre-requisites for any ideals, even democracy.
The falacy of the neoliberal order is to think greed, excess consumption and the paramount right of the individual will magically bring a prosperous society, where in fact it sets up an exploitative system where the vast majority toils for the tiny minority and stays poor and stupid.
Your argument is a typical one. See this 18 min video for why that isn't necessarily true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkMDb1jJCw