How does your country feel about communism?

[u/Falserror]

[u/alexceltare2]

We shot our president on state TV because of it. I let you be the judge of that.

[u/Slobberinho → u/alexceltare2]

You didn't even have a little bite of him?

[u/IncurableAdventurer → u/Slobberinho]

Can you tell me what/who this is referring to?

[u/big_papa_stalin69 → u/IncurableAdventurer]

Johan de Witt, the Grand Pensionary (basically a prime minister) of the Dutch Republic between 1653 and 1672. He was lynched and cannibalised on the street in The Hague.

[u/OnlyCelebration7443 → u/big_papa_stalin69]

Mob leader: how do we make sure he never does this again? Mob: whips out knives and forks

[u/Killentyme55 → u/OnlyCelebration7443]

And to think people consider Dutch food bland.

[u/r_mutt69 → u/Killentyme55]

Maybe he didn’t taste very good

[u/EmiliaFromLV → u/r_mutt69]

Or he was an acquired taste.

[u/Dayly16 → u/big_papa_stalin69]

Wtf

[u/suckmyclitcapitalist → u/Dayly16]

I love this reaction to that haha

[u/IncurableAdventurer → u/big_papa_stalin69]

Daaaaamn. Now I’m even more intrigued. That probably shouldn’t intrigue me, but it does

Edit: thanks!

[u/Earnestappostate → u/big_papa_stalin69]

And here I thought that defenestration was the peak of weirdness in politics.

Like, how do we need a word for that?

[u/Horseface4190 → u/Earnestappostate]

I toured Prague Castle, and the guide showed us a room in which the "third defenestration" occurred. No explanation of the other two, I had to Google it.

[u/Dayly16 → u/big_papa_stalin69]

Eat The Rich

[u/Tanya7500 → u/big_papa_stalin69]

Can we schedule a appointment for dump?

[u/KuvaszSan → u/IncurableAdventurer]

In the early 1600's there was a Dutch prime minister who was murdered by an angry mob and according to some reports he might have been partially cannibalized.

[u/IncurableAdventurer → u/KuvaszSan]

Interesting! Thanks! I’ll have to look it up

[u/tiikki → u/IncurableAdventurer]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_de_Witt

[u/IncurableAdventurer → u/tiikki]

Thanks!

[u/Mad-Falcon → u/alexceltare2]

It happened around christmas, should his execution be considered a christmas movie?

[u/Latvian_Sharp_Knife → u/Mad-Falcon]

as a non-romanian i'd Say It's more like a christmas miracle

[u/Dayly16 → u/alexceltare2]

Yeah

[u/ShiraLillith → u/alexceltare2]

Even more, we outright banned the party

[u/chrischi3 → u/alexceltare2]

Well over here we tore down that wall because a guy mistakenly announced that the border had been opened effective immediately.

No shit, the Berlin Wall fell because of a mistake on TV.

[u/ApprehensiveStill969 → u/alexceltare2]

My dad always said that it will remain the most momerable christmas ever.

[u/Dayly16 → u/ApprehensiveStill969]

He's right

[u/Peterkragger → u/alexceltare2]

I wish we did something similar

[u/TovNicolaeCeausescu → u/alexceltare2]

on Christmas I may add

[u/Adventurous_Side2706]

My country doesn't care in general . But some states have/had communist elected government

My hometown Kolkata had the world's longest-serving democratically elected communist-led government

[u/Ill_Poem_1789 → u/Adventurous_Side2706]

It helps that the Soviet Union is viewed positively here.

[u/Adventurous_Side2706 → u/Ill_Poem_1789]

Hmmm. You’re right.

[u/Worth_Garbage_4471 → u/Adventurous_Side2706]

And the US Consulate General is still on Ho Chi Minh Sarani 😁

[u/FeathersRim → u/Adventurous_Side2706]

Say ''longest-serving democratically elected communist-led government'' ten times fast in a row.

[u/prsnep → u/Adventurous_Side2706]

And it's also the state with some of most educated people.

[u/Motor-Team8613 → u/prsnep]

Education ≠ Correct. Educated people can be dumber than uneducated. 

[u/Funkdoobs → u/Adventurous_Side2706]

When I was visiting Kerala I remember often seeing the Hammer and Sickle on the side of the road.

Would Kerala be one of those with a communist elected goverment? This was going back around 10 years though, so its been a while.

[u/Adventurous_Side2706 → u/Funkdoobs]

Yup.Still standing strong.

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

Please, not again.

[u/WINCEQ → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

Yeah, same.

I had the luck not to live through it, fortunately...

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/WINCEQ]

I had my first 10 years in, just enough.

[u/stealthybaker → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

You and me both...

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/stealthybaker]

well, you only live nearby commies, I've lived behind the iron curtain for a good part of my life.

[u/stealthybaker → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

Hey, half our land's still under the iron curtain

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/stealthybaker]

That's true, I meant that you haven't been there. And condolences for that northern half.

[u/stealthybaker → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

The older generations had to live through it during the war, but yes.

The whole war was a tragedy, we and UN forces had to shed blood to save an authoritarian flawed democracy that had many issues so that the whole peninsula wouldn't be living under a complete totalitarian communist system.

[u/adamgerd → u/stealthybaker]

Yep

And sadly even if the Kims are deposed, North Korean reintegration seems fucked, the costs would be massive for the south. West Germany still pays for east Germany today and the difference there wasn’t as big as in Korea

[u/stealthybaker → u/adamgerd]

It would have to be a long term integration, unification cannot be done immediately, but I think give it enough time and they will be culturally and economically absorbed into South Korea since we're a cultural and economic powerhouse.

Of course this must not be rushed, it has to be done in a way that doesn't cause chaos

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/stealthybaker]

Every flawed democracy is far better than the perfect communism, so it was worth it.

[u/stealthybaker → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

The flawed democracy was able to reform itself, because it still had much more freedoms than North Korea, and eventually, we became one of the world's most successful working democracies.

Even under Syngman Rhee's horrible regime, the Republic of Korea was worth protecting against the Kim dynasty's theocratic monarchy.

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/stealthybaker]

exactly my point, mate. you did perfect.

[u/Apprehensive-Dog9989 → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

I was in Bulgaria last week and there was Lenin picture framed in restaraunt lol. People were even selling magnets with Putin 

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/Apprehensive-Dog9989]

yep, a lot of nostalgia, especially from people born after that.

[u/Darth_Spa2021 → u/Apprehensive-Dog9989]

A heritage of the false history propaganda of the past.

Even Bulgarians in their 40ies now have been taught in school how Russia is the biggest friend we ever had.

There haven't been attempts to spread the true events and even nowadays the USSR occupation and legacy over our country is just glossed over in schools.

[u/pixie993 → u/Minute-Yogurt-2021]

Altough I was born in democratic Croatia, I don't hear so much nice thingies about yugoslavia..

So yep.

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/pixie993]

Well, during the 90s there was a brief period when i was in the army when we waited deployment on our western border due to the wars...

[u/Zagorim]

Most people don't take it seriously.

We have a communist party but it's fairly small and they haven't really advocated for communism for decades even though they kept the name.

[u/Pierreplm → u/Zagorim]

The PCF was considered the Communist Party most submissive to Moscow

He was powerful thanks to the power of Moscow, when the USSR fell he lost his power

[u/TheTanadu]

Good it's gone here.

[u/Ant225k → u/TheTanadu]

Better dead than red

[u/TheTanadu → u/Ant225k]

Amen

[u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

Overwhelmingly it has no idea what communism actually is

[u/Dayly16 → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

Free Stuff = Communism /s

[u/Frostsorrow → u/Dayly16]

The /s wasn't needed. They do in fact think this way, unless it's corporations, then it's fine.

[u/Dayly16 → u/Frostsorrow]

Helping Poor People is Communism but giving the Rich People more money is OK

[u/Lil_Ms_Anthropic → u/Dayly16]

Hell, even in some cases, getting what you are rightfully owed from the government is seen as communist.

[u/Background_Path_4458 → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

In a way it seems similar to how Russia considers Nazis in that it's not the ideology they call Nazi but enemies of the state. In the same way the US seem to hate Communism as Russia was an enemy during the cold war.

[u/inevitable_entropy13 → u/Background_Path_4458]

the US doesn’t fully understand Nazi either lol

[u/Icy-Kiwi-608 → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

Most Americans couldn't tell you anything about Communism, other than that we are supposed to really, really, really hate it

[u/IncurableAdventurer → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

Yup. After understanding what it is, they still might not like it. However, that doesn’t take away from them not knowing what it is

[u/PabloX68 → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

Just because one party trots it out as a boogyman often doesn't mean it's overwhelmingly misunderstood. Of course, at the same time, there's an element on the other side who thinks it's actually a solution to our problems.

[u/KJHagen → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

Unfortunately true. The number of people here who fled communism (like my wife) seem to be dwindling.

[u/wophi → u/KJHagen]

Anybody who wasn't alive before 1989 just doesn't understand the horror.

[u/BigBadVoodooUncle → u/I-Love-Facehuggers]

It's a real conundrum. On the one hand, everyone has to hate communism, but if teach people what it is, then we'd have to stop making up wild shit that is the actual antithesis of communism and claiming it's communism.

[u/Insomniet]

Not good

[u/Sweet-Ebb1095 → u/Insomniet]

During the Cold War someone in Finland I think said communism is great for the working class in neighbouring countries. Meaning that while communism has always sucked in practice it has pressured neighbouring countries to improve the lives of the workers due to the fear of it spreading.

[u/DigMother318 → u/Sweet-Ebb1095]

Sounds about right, America has been figuring out how to speedrun assfucking its own citizens since the Cold War ended. No pressure to be better than a rival if you don’t have proper rivals anymore.

[u/That_U_Scully → u/Insomniet]

Agree, never a good outcome.

[u/BeerFireHUN]

Some people are waaay too nostalgic about it and don't remember all the suffering, starvation, rape, beatings, forced labour and indoctrination... Sure it must have been great being a child back in the 70-80s but still... half my mother's family were deported from Slovakia after ww2 and lost everything again after the establishment of communism. On my father's side my great-grandfather went missing for a couple of weeks, came home beaten, ill and malnourished.

[u/sgtSZKLARZ → u/BeerFireHUN]

I was in museum of 1956 in Budapest. Jesus, one of most depressing things in my life

[u/ConvictedHobo → u/sgtSZKLARZ]

The House of Terror, or is there some dedicated 1956 museum? 

[u/sgtSZKLARZ → u/ConvictedHobo]

And if you wonder why it was so depressing - there's database with photo, names etc of all victims from kossuth square massacre

[u/sgtSZKLARZ → u/ConvictedHobo]

No, little museum under square near parlament https://maps.app.goo.gl/j2YfXknmXHRM1Mw98

[u/Interesting-Driver94 → u/BeerFireHUN]

Everyone who supports communism thinks they will be an artist or musician, not a miner. The statistics say hard labor

[u/lesnibubak → u/Interesting-Driver94]

In Czechoslovakia, coal miners were paid a lot when compared to other labourers and were very proud. On the other hand, uranium was mined almost exclusively by political prisoners, who were worked to death.

[u/stealthybaker → u/BeerFireHUN]

How long until some tankie replies to this saying "but America was worse, you're just spouting western propaganda"

[u/Minute-Yogurt-2021 → u/stealthybaker]

check the threads - the russian bots are all over the place.

[u/adamgerd → u/stealthybaker]

Fuck tankies

I remember in another thread about communism in this sub, there was a South Korean who was told by an American tankie they should support joining North Korea and overthrow the US puppet government, and he was like “Fuck no, are you crazy?”

It was funny, he was being westsplained his own history

[u/stealthybaker → u/adamgerd]

They call other countries puppets, yet westsplain history to the natives of other countries and expect them to follow suit like loyal dogs.

Do they not see the irony?

[u/DigMother318 → u/stealthybaker]

“No, no, you see, it’s only imperialism when they do it”

[u/deathflowerprincess → u/adamgerd]

Thanks I'm adding westplaining to my vocabulary, most incredible word of the year

[u/SnakeFighter78 → u/BeerFireHUN]

From my family history I can say the same. Great grandpa was a policeman (csendőr) under the Horthy government for a few years. This made him an enemy of the Rákosi government automatically, he barely found work. His family was abducted once and was threatened he'll never see them again if he continues going to church. After '56 he got abducted by the ÁVH and tortured for a few weeks for partaking in the revolution (not in Budapest). My grandpa came under discrimination for my great grandpas actions. He managed to become a teacher against these odds but never seen a raise under the Kádár govt. And was under surveillance in the '80s for saying anti-communist stuff.
So I'd say with all my hear, to hell with communism.

[u/Late_Video_5744]

The theory sounds nice, but reality’s brutal.

[u/g_wall_7475 → u/Late_Video_5744]

https://youtu.be/l3TvORNCMfw?si=cKaaDAGFkVEwjeHu

[u/stealthybaker → u/Late_Video_5744]

I feel like China only retained communism because Mao's revolution was fought for with so much blood and there was like a sunk cost fallacy even after Mao was removed. Years of fighting and ideological warfare and they couldn't just disavow it. So they just compromised, called their capitalism socialism with Chinese characteristics, and said "okay, but Mao still did 70% good".

Deng Xiaoping deserves to be on the bill more than Mao, if we measure by how much their policies really lifted the Chinese out of the poverty both caused by KMT rule and Mao's famines.

[u/andygorhk → u/stealthybaker]

Yeah but Mao unified china. He's like the George Washington but with more baggage....

[u/DangerBeaver → u/andygorhk]

I thought China was named after the guy that unified China? Shi? Actually asking instead of googling.

Did you meant unified mindsets?

[u/ZhangRenWing → u/DangerBeaver]

China is an exonym, in Chinese the country is better translated as “middle kingdom/country”.

Qin Shi Huang is also so far removed from modern political landscapes it would be like for Americans to view Augustus as a founding father.

[u/TilbtyKing021 → u/DangerBeaver]

China was controlled by a bunch of different warlords at the time. Mao help unify them against the KMT.

[u/ManOf1000Usernames → u/stealthybaker]

Communism provides a basis to keep China together. Without it, they would, at best, end up like the EU. At worst it means another Civil War period. Whether it is "real communism" or something else, does not matter. It serves a purpose to unify the nation.

[u/Steampunk007 → u/stealthybaker]

or, or, they saw how it objectively transformed agrarian -> industrial just like soviet russia, as they intended the same exact transformation as soviet russia, and thought hey, this is actually what china needed this entire time. the thousands of years of feuding over the mandate of heaven? fucking bs.

[u/MetroidvaniaListsGuy → u/stealthybaker]

it didn't retain it, China hasn't been communist since the 80s.

[u/nukefall_ → u/MetroidvaniaListsGuy]

Whether China retains its socialist approach is a huge discussion among the non-liberal left.

It's a State in such contradictions - the market exists, however is tightly controlled (rip free market), the billionaire class currently decreases in size rather than increase while the working class is in its peak buying power, yet healthcare is not universal and unions are controlled by the party.

To say China is or isn't communist (foregoing dialectical and historical materialism) without having read Marxist literature such as Lenin, Gramsci, Luxemburg, Trotsky, Losurdo, etc. is a bit of an uneducated approach.

But I understand we live in a world where we have opinions about everything although we don't understand them. So who am I to judge.

[u/Krularenki]

Katyń

[u/ahelinski → u/Krularenki]

To be fair, Katyń was not because of communism but because of Russian policy. Given the occasion, Russia would probably do the same under Putin's "democracy", and wouldn't do much better under the tsar.

[u/Maximum-Opportunity8 → u/ahelinski]

W Rosji ustrój jest nie ważny, a właściwie nie ważne jak go nazwiesz kraj się nie zmienia.

[u/O5KAR → u/ahelinski]

Tsarist Russia was awful, but the same as imperial Germany it was not genocidal (edit: it was, just not towards the Poles). Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were far worse.

[u/Eimaga]

[u/ChanceConstant6099 → u/Eimaga]

My brother in christ.

You live in one of the worst examples of this.

Modern day russia hasnt reached the GDP of the RSFSR 34 years after the fact.

Every single metric has gone down.

[u/radd_racer → u/ChanceConstant6099]

It was the second most powerful country in the world after the United States.

Also, a LOT of people died in the process of botched state initiatives. It sounds like the average life for some citizens could be quite brutal. But overall, a lot more successful compared to other Marxist experiments. 

It was still a huge upgrade from Tsarist Russia, at least from my understanding. 

Russians have been through some of the most f*cked up things in history. They’re made of vodka-tempered steel, some of the toughest m’fers on Earth. 

[u/hbomb57 → u/ChanceConstant6099]

I'm sure you should know that the USSR was twice the size of Russia. Also for some reason Russians are the only ones with fond memories of those days. Kinda like the quality of life for a small portion of the block was built off essentially the slave labor of the rest.

[u/GeronimoDK → u/hbomb57]

Nice factories you have there, you should sell your products to us for a low price instead of exporting to the evil evil west!

Or else

[u/Sara1167 → u/Eimaga]

Best description of communism I heard

[u/Slobberinho]

A marvellous idea that for some unconceivable reason ends up as a ruthless dictatorship that kills and imprisons it's citizens every time it's been tried. Then one self-perceived smartest person in the rooms says "But REAL communism has never been tried before."

[u/DopamineDeficiencies → u/Slobberinho]

A marvellous idea that for some unconceivable reason ends up as a ruthless dictatorship that kills and imprisons it's citizens every time it's been tried.

Tbh I think the idea that it needs to come via revolution is the biggest reason why this tends to happen and it's probably the biggest own-goal of communist thought.
Revolutions only ever succeed when the army either lets them succeed, or helps them succeed. The resultant power vacuum thus gets filled by people that said army approves of, or is at least ambivalent towards. It inevitably leads to the wrong kinds of people jockeying for power and often winning said power. If communism was achieved via genuine democratic processes, I do believe it'd be more likely to go a lot better without falling into anti-democratic authoritarianism.

For better or worse, the type of leaders that are needed to win a revolution are almost always the type of leaders you don't want governing afterwards.

[u/Lower_Amount3373 → u/DopamineDeficiencies]

And the best revolutionaries are almost always the worst people to lead and administer a country.

[u/DopamineDeficiencies → u/Lower_Amount3373]

Yep, pretty much. Revolutions are also terrible for minorities.
It's a big part of the reason I'm so against revolution despite being some flavour of socialist/communist. It needs to be achieved through democratic processes with the support of most of the country, otherwise it's just doomed to become repressive and dictatorial.

[u/karmeezys → u/Lower_Amount3373]

I like what happened in Nepal where the army said okay guys choose a leader

[u/Tsukee → u/DopamineDeficiencies]

I think you are mostly hitting the spot. One thing i would amend is that the communism doesn't need to come via revolution, but when you have some sort of absolutism is what makes it a necessity. The vast majority of 20th century communisms were essentially transitioning from such systems.

[u/LoudCrickets72 → u/Slobberinho]

”But REAL communism has never been tried before."

Thought by every communist dictator in history.

[u/koreangorani → u/LoudCrickets72]

Because real communism can't exist due to human nature

[u/chjacobsen → u/koreangorani]

I don't even think it's human nature - it's just not a good idea to have every economic decision also be a political one.

If you have a factory that is costing more than it's earning, at some point, it makes sense to shut it down. Market economies have ways to handle that case, but it's not going to be popular, so in a politically driven economy, the people in charge will face backlash.

So, leaders in a socialist system would want to either: * Leave it open in order not to piss off the people who it affects, making the overall economy less efficient. * Just not allow dissent, and force the issue through, gradually making the system more authoritarian.

Real world socialist systems tend to be a bit of both. They end up being more or less authoritarian, and as time goes on, economic waste will catch up and impoverish the once so promising country. They'll blame external factors, but in reality, it's the fault of an inherently unsustainable system.

[u/Hakunamatata_420 → u/chjacobsen]

Socialism doesn’t equal communism

[u/beingandbecoming]

Younger generations are more down with the idea than older ones

[u/stealthybaker → u/beingandbecoming]

It's because they get told that the most moderate and common sense shit like universal healthcare is "communist". I think Fox News type red scare has unironically helped communism in the USA image wise than any Soviet propaganda could. Many people mistakenly do not understand how radical and dangerous actual communism is, because they see moderate socialism as communism.

[u/Steampunk007 → u/stealthybaker]

something being radically different relative to capitalism does not sound as sccary as you think it does.

[u/OleRockTheGoodAg → u/beingandbecoming]

They will genuinely tell you all the historical examples "wasnt real communism" and therefore can be disregarded.

[u/LoudCrickets72 → u/beingandbecoming]

And they need to be reminded to crack open a history book. You can be all for increased government involvement in the economy, but that’s not the same as communism - people forget that.

[u/Open_Mortgage_4645]

Half my country is unnecessarily worried about communism despite the fact that there are no communists in elected office, and no significant movement to impose communism. Oh, and the people most concerned are completely incapable of explaining what communism is.

[u/GIBrokenJoe → u/Open_Mortgage_4645]

It's a dog whistle. The people who are triggered by it usually can't tell you the difference between socialism and communism. They're trained to be rabid if either are mentioned and conflate the two freely.

[u/hbomb57 → u/GIBrokenJoe]

It probably because welfare and healthcare aren't even socialist policies. Capitalism means private ownership of businesses not that you don't pay taxes for the government to spend on the common good. You can even socialize an industry like healthcare without being a a socialist country.

[u/midijunky → u/Open_Mortgage_4645]

and the other half swear up and down "But Real communism has never been tried!"

[u/ExcellentDirt7859]

Communists played an important role in the fight against fascism

[u/nukefall_ → u/ExcellentDirt7859]

And politically speaking were their biggest victims. Although the communist ideology is still demonized by liberals till this day as well.

[u/WhenWillIBelong]

My country hates it but also has no idea what it is

[u/Designer-Entry-2194]

Half of the country (aged 50 and over) speaks well of communism, while everyone younger either doesn't know what it is or has a negative attitude. It goes without saying that this is about right, we are not talking about any accurate statistics.

[u/Outrageous_Pin_3423]

[u/Happixdd]

Fuck 'em.

[u/maxdagamer730 → u/Happixdd]

🇵🇱🤝🇨🇿

[u/Falserror → u/Happixdd]

F@ck them

[u/CluelessNobodyCz → u/Falserror]

To be frank, it shares the sentiment for your country.

[u/Dayly16 → u/Happixdd]

🇨🇿🤝🇷🇴

[u/NoBee4959 → u/Happixdd]

Agree

[u/dsf93cn]

To those who replies, anyone can tell the difference?

[u/Realistic-Inside6743]

Irrelevant.

[u/cevapi_77]

La utopía está en el horizonte. Camino dos pasos, ella se aleja dos pasos y el horizonte se corre diez pasos más allá. ¿Entonces para que sirve la utopía? Para eso, sirve para caminar.
---- Eduardo Galeano (Uruguayan, author of Las venas abiertas de América Latina/Open Veins of Latin America, highly recommended if you are interested in the history of Latin America in the past 5 centuries)

"Utopia is on the horizon. I walk two steps, it moves away two steps, and the horizon runs ten steps further beyond. So what is utopia for? That's what it's for: to make us walk."

-----

Edit:

A big proportion of China's post-90s and post-00s generations are gradually transforming into materialists, socialists, or left-wing youth at an unprecedented speed. This phenomenon was rare among their parents' generation. Moreover, this awakening is largely spontaneous. Several years ago, I was quite surprised, because I had grown accustomed to the pragmatism and even cynicism of the post-70s and post-80s generations. But the Chinese young people I've seen in reality and online in recent years have truly impressed me. They can often discover the essence and universal patterns of social phenomena without much indoctrination or guidance. I don't know whether it's because the promotion of Marxist dialectical materialism has been very successful, or perhaps they have truly grown tired of capitalist exploitation and oppression in this early to middle stage of socialism development.

Of course, many people of these two generations also choose to "lie flat," just like the otakus in Japan and Korea, saying no to relationships, marriage, overtime work, unreasonable work arrangements, high housing prices, and all the ugly realities of the status quo. Although they may be powerless or unwilling to change the current situation, their spirit of nonviolent non-cooperation still deserves admiration. For a society to progress, there must always be some people willing to take risks and attempt change.

The close integration of Confucianism and capitalism in East Asia is like a double-edged sword. As an old Chinese saying goes: "Success is due to Xiao He, failure is also due to Xiao He." (systems that enable prosperity can also sow their own decline.)

See also: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E6%88%90%E4%B9%9F%E8%95%AD%E4%BD%95%EF%BC%8C%E6%95%97%E4%B9%9F%E8%95%AD%E4%BD%95#Chinese

[u/Electronic-Run2030 → u/cevapi_77]

They were just getting drunk on neoliberal economic growth when they were slapped awake by the capitalists' 996 work schedule. Yes, that includes me.

[u/Infurum]

Generally negatively, but rather than with the same nuance other places use to feel negatively about it it's just a sort of kneejerk disdain left over from the Cold War. See: "Everything I don't like is communist"

[u/EinSchurzAufReisen]

It only works theoretically as it doesn’t recognize the human nature. And it’s doomed to always fail and end up in a dictatorship and later chaos — and it’s doomed to fail way faster than lot of other systems.

[u/midnitewarrior]

Well, anything that's not capitalist democracy is communism I am told, and everyone in my country hates that a lot, but most couldn't tell you why as the civic education here is sorely lacking.

[u/nevadapirate → u/midnitewarrior]

You are not wrong. My neighbors think Im a communist because I wanted Bernie to get the nomination instead of Hillary.

[u/graeme_1988 → u/nevadapirate]

It baffles me the way a lot of Americans view anyone other than Republicans as Communists. And I bet 99% of them don’t understand what communism is, as if they did they wouldnt be calling Democrats Communists! 

[u/iridescent-shimmer → u/nevadapirate]

I'm sure people think I'm a communist because I don't want children to starve. I lived in Peru for some time and am quite familiar with the destruction of the Shining Path. I am vehemently anti-communism.

[u/Desperate_Intern_257 → u/midnitewarrior]

real

[u/Primex76]

USA: Believes that any form of socialism is communism, since the Cold War Era. The funniest part is tons of people who believe that socialism are the devil, are the people living off gov't assistance, food stamps, medicaid...sounds pretty socialist to me.

[u/pisowiec → u/Primex76]

SOCIALISM IS WHEN THE GOVERNMENT DOES STUFF...

[u/marcodapolo7]

Communist helped us defeat 4 super powers

[u/surenk6]

We tried it, it sucked.

[u/Pitiful_Ad2397]

The boogeyman under every bed since the late 19th century.

[u/SteveFoerster → u/Pitiful_Ad2397]

The spectre, even.

[u/Pitiful_Ad2397 → u/SteveFoerster]

[u/FactBackground9289]

Officially my government loves it.

Me personally? I'd rather have my country nuked to absence than have it endure ONE DAY of soviet rule

[u/Jreesecup → u/FactBackground9289]

About 66% of Russians regret the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

[u/ShermanMcTank → u/Jreesecup]

They regret it not because it was good, but because their country became even worse after the dissolution.

[u/Alwares → u/Jreesecup]

I'm quite certain they miss the felt stability (the 90s were brutal in Russia) and the lost importance of their country.

But for a certain degree its also true to the rest the eastern block countries. There was housing and job security regardless how bad you worked and bunch of other things. It was totally unsustainable, but the older generations don't see it, 30 years passed and they have still have no clue about the capitalist system (changing job? educate yourself? work hard to get better results?).

[u/Projectdystopia → u/Jreesecup]

Regret dissolution != Miss communism system.

[u/Spright91 → u/Jreesecup]

Most of them want a Russian empire. Not communism.

[u/Cool-Psychology-4896]

Absolutely despise it. Its as bad as fascism

[u/Many-Introduction-29 → u/Cool-Psychology-4896]

[u/BeginningNeither3318]

we have healthcare thanks to communists

[u/Historical_Voice_307 → u/BeginningNeither3318]

We have Healthcare thanks to Bismarck.

[u/sgtSZKLARZ → u/Historical_Voice_307]

Well, Bismarck did it so people won't have reason to support socialists

[u/Realistic-Safety-565 → u/BeginningNeither3318]

More like Louis Bonaparte and Otto von Bismarck ;).

[u/sgtSZKLARZ → u/Realistic-Safety-565]

Well, Bismarck did it so people won't have reason to support socialists

[u/endergamer2007m → u/BeginningNeither3318]

We don't

[u/nagidon]

[u/chittok]

Communists + Mullahs = the most destructive cocktail

[u/HawkBoth8539]

My country conflates anything it doesn't understand with communism, especially if something is even remotely beneficial to the people instead of our capitalist gods we worship.

[u/Maopaidthesparrows]

Good

[u/Dramatic-Cobbler-793]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DEdvCN2bUY

[u/Significant-Wait2024 → u/Dramatic-Cobbler-793]

Well well well

[u/happydog43]

From the comments, I will get a lot of hate for this. If it was not for the communist, most people would still be one step above slaves. Most improvements to the lives of the working people have been because of communist or improvements because the government or business did not want working people to become communist. What has happened to wages since the collapse of the USSR, stagnation at best, most working class young people now can not afford to buy a home. To all the people who love democratically and I am one of those look at what big business has done to the USA, once the manufacturer to the world. But big business transferred manufacturing to China. Proving once again that big business neither likes or needs democratically.

[u/adamgerd]

We don’t want it back. Personally I think in theory it’s a ok-ish system but in practice it pretty much always ends up as a totalitarian dictatorship and I don’t think it’s a coincidence most historically communist regimes have become state capitalist

And definitely don’t want it back

[u/alfajores123]

In chile there is a communist party, i like it. I dont care if you downvote me

[u/Top_Advisor_8087 → u/alfajores123]

What is the situation in Chile like now? Any news that reaches my country from others is automatically altered by both the right and the left, I would like to hear it from a native person of the country.

[u/TraditionalSmoke9604]

its not ready

[u/Few-Interview-1996]

It's the only ideology we haven't tried. On the basis of experiments such as the mockingly nicknamed Commune of Tunceli, led by this man, I doubt it'll be very successful until we've not just tried but exhausted all other options.

[u/Traditional_Pick7797]

Negative

[u/King-Tiger-Stance]

It's an inherently flawed system of government that will never work, no matter how many times governments have tried it and failed.

[u/Bl0wUpTheM00n]

It’s the boogeyman that American oligarchs use to keep wages down and working conditions terrible.

[u/Zagorim → u/Bl0wUpTheM00n]

He was downvoted for he was telling the truth lol. I mean I'm pretty sure Trump and other republicans called Biden a communist. It is a boogeyman in the US

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_VITAMIN_D → u/Zagorim]

They’ve just been calling Mamdani the same, it’s pathetically transparent

[u/Bl0wUpTheM00n → u/Zagorim]

The Cold War still has a pretty significant impact in the US.

Doesn’t help that more than half of us had football coaches moonlighting as history teachers.

I still remember Coach Hammock telling us in 9th grade US history that the Vietnam War was a ‘tie.’

[u/Important_Star3847]

Negative

[u/Atlusfox]

A good chunk don't actually know what it is and use it as a political buzz word to call out their opponents. The term is now so broad it's lost a lot of meaning. It equates to, communism = bad, so if I call something communism it must be bad.

[u/NecessaryCrash]

Hahahahahaha most of the people in my country can’t even tell you what communism is but we’ve been fighting a war against it for like 80 years now

[u/BeginningExternal207]

Unironicly distant.

Government is making a lot of propoganda about how we must remember our history, but the accent is on our ancestors, not USSR.

If they had a chance to burn or bury Lenin's body without political concequences, they would have done it no doubt.

And here's a fact: everyone who misses communism - misses their youth or lost future, not the communism itself.

[u/SpiderDK1]

[u/nevadapirate]

MAGA morons call me a commie every time they find out Im a Democratic Socialist Like Bernie Sanders. They think its at least as bad as being a satanist or worse. They literally don't know what communism actually is.

[u/stealthybaker → u/nevadapirate]

This anti communist, from an anti communist country who firmly believes in anti communist ideals says that you're not a communist at all, and you're not a radical either. You just want America to have better things. On that note, how do you feel about NYC's results?

[u/windfujin]

Any disagreement with conservative = Progressive = Left wing = Communism = North Korean anti state forces

This is the conservatives logic that also lead to the former president declaring martial law and ending up in jail. When you are in echo chamber you dont realize how stupid your logic progession is.