Good on them for moving somewhat towards plurality, peaceful hand offs of power, etc. Breaking the idea that the Cuba Revolution is tied into a familial Personality Cult is a step in the right direction.
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Yeah, what I heard is economic reforms sans political liberalization (of the kind relating to liberties, rather than bougie shit, if you dig me) is the likely course under this guy. Gotta say, I'm gonna be real bummed if this ends up becoming Capitalism With Cuban Characteristics.
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They've been doing that for a while now. Kind of hard to build socialism when you're encircled by capitalists and don't even have a USSR type at the least helping you out.
The biggest "socialist" role model right now is China and they barely even bother keeping up the ideological facade. I kind of wonder how long before they just ditch it altogether.
The biggest "socialist" role model right now is China and they barely even bother keeping up the ideological facade. I kind of wonder how long before they just ditch it altogether.
You know exactly what I mean, I think? The nasty dogshit in China where you get neither the meager benefits of the existing Cuban state capitalist system or the meager liberties of a market capitalist system?
Lest we forget, Cubans did manage to find a cure for various lung cancers and made them widely available to their populace. In no way does it excuse the human rights abuses but if the system loses that while only winning a handful of people a better lifestyle... that's not good.
I readed an article by a commie group some time ago about infights in the chinese communist party, and what i remember its there's a fight in Power about political family aristocracy and normal people politicians.
I think that they Will not drop the facade until the political Groups are in Control. Differently from what some people expect i don't think the facade Will drop in china by popular demand and fight, but by the aristocracy itself to remain in Power If that happens.
They Will say communism is over and revolution prevailed while they will kill the opposition against the aristocracy, the western World Will be happy.
Not a huge expert on socialism with Chinese characteristics or the PRC but I don't really know what the CCP would have to gain from rhetorically abandoning the communist label. A pretty important part of China's soft power push is portraying the inefficiencies of western liberal democracy and presenting the "efficient" one party bureaucratic rule as a better alternative to developing countries. Unless the Chinese have a different ideological label to describe their current model I don't see why they would abandon their current name.
Btw its Just me or entered more conservative people in resetera?
I noticed a fash this month then i blocked him, but im starting to notice more conservative people than the usual from before and some without avatar
I noticed a fash this month then i blocked him, but im starting to notice more conservative people than the usual from before and some without avatar
Well, everything is all about proper marketing instead of material relation to capital, so they can theoretically do anything!
i mean, video games. what can we expect really
anyway hello again. Brazil is worse than ever. Left wing is discussing its own thing while the 3 big leaders for this year's election are all from right-wing. As per most countries, of course.
"Left"-wing leader was incarcerated for "corruption" so we are fucked.
The only way that the fight for presidency Will not be a fash vs a neoliberal rests if lula indicate somebody. Otherwise presidency result is doomed. Legislative IS already fucked because people loves Lula but not PT, so probably a right Wing legislative is my bet
I believe he can't do much. People would vote for him, but how can he campaign in prison?
Isnt hard to record something he says. But yeah he couldnt campaign
I can't tell if this is just anger that the PRC calls themselves Communists or anger at the idea that ideas have any meaningful relation to the world and that soft power is meaningless and that ideology is fake or whatever.
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Lazy Karl, couldn't even speed it up one day to be born on Star Wars Day.
As mentioned yesterday, Diaz-Canel officially took his position as president today. We'll see how it goes.
Incredible that after 150 years of stepping on the rake of ideology, some still insist the rake does not exist
For a while I've had the thought bouncing around my head that socialism will happen by accident, out of a feeling that the political left never really actually confronts capitalism. Mostly they push to more broadly and equally share the output of capital. At their most radical they might push for nationalization, really involved unions, or some sort of co-op corporate structure pipe dream. I feel that at the end of the day all of these options just rearrange who fits into what class.
Socialism will happen because capital becomes more accessible. I think that the most promising and advanced front against capitalism is in the software industry in the open-source software movement.
Quoting from the Varoufakis op-ed:
But the instruments of AI and automation are actually open-source and freely available to everyone! Operating systems, computer vision, machine learning, programming language compilers and interpreters. There are closed source equivalents to a lot of these, but open source is better. Perhaps it's because closed source software is mostly trying to make money while open-source software is developed with a focus on usefulness, or "use-value" if you prefer.
It's not a model that can be applied to every factor of production but I do think it can be expanded beyond the software industry. People seem perfectly capable of making illicit drugs without much capital, perhaps the processes for making medical drugs could be open-sourced. Maybe automation makes capital like CNC machines pretty cheap and with open-source schematics for machine parts people could produce a lot themselves.
tl;dr: Automation makes capital cheaper -> capital is more accessible -> socialism
PS. Is regulation compatible with socialism?
Socialism will happen because capital becomes more accessible. I think that the most promising and advanced front against capitalism is in the software industry in the open-source software movement.
Quoting from the Varoufakis op-ed:
But the instruments of AI and automation are actually open-source and freely available to everyone! Operating systems, computer vision, machine learning, programming language compilers and interpreters. There are closed source equivalents to a lot of these, but open source is better. Perhaps it's because closed source software is mostly trying to make money while open-source software is developed with a focus on usefulness, or "use-value" if you prefer.
It's not a model that can be applied to every factor of production but I do think it can be expanded beyond the software industry. People seem perfectly capable of making illicit drugs without much capital, perhaps the processes for making medical drugs could be open-sourced. Maybe automation makes capital like CNC machines pretty cheap and with open-source schematics for machine parts people could produce a lot themselves.
tl;dr: Automation makes capital cheaper -> capital is more accessible -> socialism
PS. Is regulation compatible with socialism?
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Regulation requires a government and a state. Socialism is beyond the need for a government and a state.
There's a temporary sustainability in capitalism social democratic that mantain the Workers happy with better incomes, the problem is that this system is temporary, soon the bourgeoise with bigger political and economical Power Will start to Go Full liberalism in search for more profit the aim of this system IS profit always.
But at the same time capitalism, globalization, Free market are needed for socialism so It will develop capitalism to the limit in the World and create the proletariat Everwhere and to develop the means of production, and the fall of it, so in a way protectionism IS reactionary against socialism because for socialism to be global its needed to fully develop Everwhere.
Lets create the capitalism |ot| lol
But at the same time capitalism, globalization, Free market are needed for socialism so It will develop capitalism to the limit in the World and create the proletariat Everwhere and to develop the means of production, and the fall of it, so in a way protectionism IS reactionary against socialism because for socialism to be global its needed to fully develop Everwhere.
Lets create the capitalism |ot| lol
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It's a pretty good intro to the Manifesto, though he should have cut out the part about what he thinks Marx would think today. There's no need to sugarcoat things.
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Didn't even notice, but today is Lenin's birthday.
Ain't that the truth.
These are some interesting thoughts but I can't help but shake the feeling that rather than lead to a positive outcome, ultimately capitalists will just find a way to turn further advances in tech that should logically lead to socialism into engines for their own profit.
Ain't that the truth.
These are some interesting thoughts but I can't help but shake the feeling that rather than lead to a positive outcome, ultimately capitalists will just find a way to turn further advances in tech that should logically lead to socialism into engines for their own profit.
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Socialism will happen because everyone will be a capitalist ? That sounds about right and not utopian at all.
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I know that's basically what Mr. Mike was saying (everyone gets to have capital, so even though everyone is still replicating capitalist relations they at least are not wage slaves), but I was speaking strictly in terms of how tech developments aren't likely to make capitalists less capitalistically inclined.
Yeah, I think "by accident" is the incorrect assumption for the conditions that will result in socialism. I think rather it would be more accurate to say "completely unbeknownst to the capitalist class," socialism has to be implemented. I think if the capitalists know it's happening (until reasonably late in the game), even if they don't recognize it as a socialist movement, then it'll be subverted, commodified, and effectively defanged (or destroyed, if recognized as an actual threat). The open source movement is a good example, in that even though it is a great tool for socialists and broke people in general to this day, in and of itself it has no real capacity to harm capitalists. Neither the culture, nor the products they produce. Blender's good as fuck. It did not suddenly liberate 3D modeling, as a community, from capital relations. That goes fuckin' double or triple for its engineering counterparts. My personal pet peeve example is how open source movements in 3D printing didn't suddenly stop corporate giants from withholding access to pretty powerful tools by way of sitting on patents. It's because of this that 3D printing took even as long as it did in the first place to start up as a subculture for making-- the tech's been there since the Nineties, but until key patents lapsed the open source software couldn't even get out the gate.
It is true that ready access to capital does... help. In fact, I'd almost actually call it a prerequisite for getting anything done. But I think that without methods of distributing resources that are hidden from the capitalist class, there's very little way to gain a foothold. Open source is a good model for distribution of information, but information on its own can't liberate people from wage slavery, say. Or from "fuck you, you don't even get the chance to be a wage slave" precarity. And that's not the whole story, either-- actually organizing a system like that to not just end up being a parallel capitalism (which would just mean you've created a black or grey market like how cryptocurrency ended up) would fall into a superstructure issue again, in my opinion. Speaking of crypto, it's an example of something that I thought had the potential to weaken capitalism, if not for the fact that from the word jump a bunch of capitalists were watching it like a hawk. I'm sure it can still be used to beneficial effect in particular struggles in particular places, but you aren't creating a non-capitalist economy out of that shit, and the way it's been converted as a speculative market actively hampers its capability to work as a secondary channel for resources. The fact that it is (or at least used to be) good for crimes exacerbates the issue with the idea of creating parallel resource channels. People who have less than charitable intent are likewise going to be drawn to any such structures of resource distribution, and not only are they going to fight to become the new capitalist class within a parallel economy, they're going to bring attention with them that will then lead to the phase where your resource channel is either destroyed or repurposed to further the capitalist agenda.
So just started playing Battletech. And when choosing which faction you're from, one of the choices is this, which wound me up.
"The Capellan Confederation is the smallest and youngest of the Successor States. A socialistic police state with strong Chinese and Russian influences, the Confederation is ruled by the authoritarian Chancellor, who has almost always been a member of House Liao. During the years of the Succession Wars the Capellan Confederation was the perpetual underdog, losing territory to its aggressive neighbors and verging on the brink of total collapse before regaining much of its strength by the middle of the 31st century. Many Capellans take pride in their citizenship - not least because it must be earned - and view service to the State as a worthy sacrifice for the good of humanity. Originally founded on Capella, its current capital world is Sian."
Because if it's socialistic it was to be a fucking police state, right !?! right?!?!? And then there's the citizenship has to be earned and not a fucking birthright. Which is a fucking fascist concept. But hey it's all the same, seeing as we're just as bad as fucking Nazis.
Sorry for coming across as angrier then i actually am. I just found some what irksome.
"The Capellan Confederation is the smallest and youngest of the Successor States. A socialistic police state with strong Chinese and Russian influences, the Confederation is ruled by the authoritarian Chancellor, who has almost always been a member of House Liao. During the years of the Succession Wars the Capellan Confederation was the perpetual underdog, losing territory to its aggressive neighbors and verging on the brink of total collapse before regaining much of its strength by the middle of the 31st century. Many Capellans take pride in their citizenship - not least because it must be earned - and view service to the State as a worthy sacrifice for the good of humanity. Originally founded on Capella, its current capital world is Sian."
Because if it's socialistic it was to be a fucking police state, right !?! right?!?!? And then there's the citizenship has to be earned and not a fucking birthright. Which is a fucking fascist concept. But hey it's all the same, seeing as we're just as bad as fucking Nazis.
Sorry for coming across as angrier then i actually am. I just found some what irksome.
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This is your brain on Stalinism
https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/8efjhb/whats_up_with_vices_north_korean_obsession/dxwqmet/?context=3
https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/8efjhb/whats_up_with_vices_north_korean_obsession/dxwqmet/?context=3
Right Wing party that rules Paraguay over 70 years and was the party of dictatorship Won the elections again...
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i havent seen an analysis about that yet, but the only leftist government paraguay had it took a white coup, 10 years ago more or less.
Hey y'all. I've been listening to Citations Needed, and they make a lot of unsubstantiated claims. Like, they mention Hugo Chavez and western media demonizing him. Am I wrong to think he falls into the same category as Castro, a cult of personality that did some good but ultimately still did more harm than good?
I don't know about more harm than good, I think you could argue either way. But he definitely was demonized by Western media.
When I've looked into him, he seems polarizing, with the richer Venezuelans being mostly against? And there is some idea that he harmed the economics of the country. This really came up because some one was talking about the benefits of Centrism using the book How Democracies Die by Levitsky and Ziblatt. The blurb of the book use Chavez as a key example of a democracy failing and converting to a dictatorship. I don't know what my question is here. I'm just trying to parse why there is such a deep divide in perception. Maybe the answer is a reliance and belief is Capitalism as the only way for economics to thrive.
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Chavez was a strongman type, there's no doubt about that, but he wasn't a dictator and he genuinely won elections. He did a lot of good for Venezuela but he also helped send it down its current trajectory by letting the PSUV's corruption ensnare the state. Basically Venezuela is a failed social democracy due to its mishandling of oil money and other state-based functions, and the roots of that were in Chavez's era.
Better than Maduro though who is just a dunce all around.
Better than Maduro though who is just a dunce all around.
He wasn't a dictator because his military coup and junta failed. So he won the vote based on populism and installed a junta that way.
In the 90s Venezuelans often joked that Venezuela was "Saudi Venezuela" because t was a country run completely on oil.
They had two decades to approach that problem and they didn't.
Chavez is why Charismaric Leaders and their personality cults dont make for good governance. Chavez died but his strongman style of politics lived on.
In the 90s Venezuelans often joked that Venezuela was "Saudi Venezuela" because t was a country run completely on oil.
They had two decades to approach that problem and they didn't.
Chavez is why Charismaric Leaders and their personality cults dont make for good governance. Chavez died but his strongman style of politics lived on.
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Was browsing around on Wikipedia and discovered that apparently The Wizard of Oz was sort of localized and turned into its own thing in the Soviet Union. Never heard of that before but now I kind of want to read these. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_the_Emerald_City
Also they made a really cheesy film adaptation of The Hobbit.
Also they made a really cheesy film adaptation of The Hobbit.
I think If i had to choose to watch the trilogy or this one, i think i would prefeer this one, It can be bad but its only a hour, now 10 hours of the Hobbit trilogy ughhhhhhhh
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Yes, looks like it was about 10% censored. Initially I was surprised that they even bothered to release it but I guess this was post-Khrushchev Thaw and Brezhnev didn't really care too much.
They should've made a Soviet LotR taking the side of the orcs like that one fanfiction (which, if memory serves me right, is Russian).
Just Googled to verify. Polish, late 80s, so definitely during the great liberalization.
I know the Jesus stuff is all allegory and such, but boy that book would be much better without that story line.
I know the Jesus stuff is all allegory and such, but boy that book would be much better without that story line.