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Comment by immibis | Hacker News Reader

Totalitarian dictatorships are not communism.

Point us to a "real" communist country, either existing or in the past.

That's the point, isn't it? There aren't any. But what was the point of asking?

The Church of Scientology's site promises to "bring Man to total freedom and truth". But in practice, all it does is separate its adherents from their money, and generally make their lives and the lives of those around them worse.

As such, True Scientology has never been tried! Maybe we ought to try it, so that we can have total freedom and truth?

What's the point again? He did put the word "communism" in quotes, so I don't understand your ultra-pedantic remark.

The point is that Communism always leads to totalitarianism

China operates an almost entirely capitalist economy. Who's ever heard of new billionaires under Communism? In fact no country remotely implements "communism," yet you say it always leads to authoritarianism. Why and how would an economic system only create totalitarianism? I think it more likely has to do with complex historical and political factors that leads to despots taking power under the guise of communism. I think it's fairly antiquated and disingenuous to make this red-scare blanket statement in 2024

So what you’re saying is that communism is such an unworkable ideal that nobody has achieved it on even a small-nation scale?

It’s cool in principle. It doesn’t actually work at scale. It barely works with 100 people. Still a fan?

It wasn’t tried at scale is what’s being argued. Maos china was not really communist even though they called themselves the communist party. Maybe something like totalitarian state capitalists

Oh, I get that. I’m saying, it barely works at even small scale, like 100 people (there are innumerable failed communes in the US), let alone a small state of a few million. I don’t think the Chinese under Mao implemented communism in any meaningful way, but that’s not proof of communism being unworkable. Its manifest failure on any scale beyond a large family is why I think it’s just not workable for society.

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