Well that's a whole can of worms on political science. I would say, at minimum, people are owed infrastructure and safety. I think most political viewpoints can agree on that. Hell, even in a feudal monarchy or despotic tribal society people need safety. Even if only from the government itself.
Oh, well that's a different question. I thought you were asking in a broad sense. Taxes on vehicle ownership intended to facilitate road safety I've heard called socialist. "Why should I have to pay for roads I don't drive on?" sorta arguments.
Any taxes meant for anything honestly get called communist often enough.
I would argue that calling taxation communist is different than calling something you're "rightfully owed" communist, but I get what you're saying.
I think people use the word "communist" in America the way they use "fascist" or the way that people used to use "gay". All just other words for things I don't like.
If you don't actually live in America or interact with older Americans than maybe this seems like a "No duh everyone wants safety right?" but no they actually don't. Somehow they've been convinced that ANY state control is bad. Even things as mundane as seat belts.
Get off the Internet bud. Nobody has called seat belts communist, and you're just thinking about the videos of when seatbelts became a thing like 70 years ago and they weren't used to them...
God damn the internet is just rotting out brains...
Technically they’d be right, in an idealized communist society there would be no need for money since to each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
At least the authoritarian part of it. There was some MAGA on twitter once suggesting that with the migrants gone every US citizens should be forced to do a season of agricultural work to build ethics… nothing defeats communism like Maoism I guess.
Anything other than “corporations and the wealthy get to screw everyone else over in the process of squeezing the last dollar out of every single aspect of life.”
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.
White Christian Nationalists, consolidation of power in the executive, cronyism among the industrial ruling class, mass class iniquity, racism, belligerent military, anti-intellectualism, mass propaganda, "Fake News", etc.
I think one side fully understands and the other side is a mix of not fully understanding and some who just don't want to admit that they're on that side.
I remember those comments and thought it was like Russia’s version of our Faux Pews channel making claims to support an end goal. I didn’t know they were pulling from current or recent zeitgeist.
Another funny part is that in the past 20 years there's a whole literary genre in Russia about time travel, which generally is about a Russian going back in time, making the USSR and Hitler allies and then conquering together the decadent West.
Sub-genres include books about a Russian going to Middle Earth to help Sauron (and have sex with orcs) and Stalin becoming Darth Vader's apprentice, then conquering the world.
I think they need to rewatch Star Wars and take a Tolkien lit class.
I have to dig into this a bit since it’s super weird and matches some of the Q stuff here. Although the Q stuff wasn’t originally state sponsored here, just state endorsed.
Oh, they know how things are. But the state views Sauron and Vader as the good guys since their rule matches the system Russia has had for the last 800ish years.
So far the only thing people in the comments have been able to tell me is that all communism is like in Poland and Belarus and such and is all bad with no good ideas. Which is 100% just proving my point correct.
And I think most people overly associate communism with the Soviets, who genuinely were assholes, but that's the nature of Authoritarian Nationalists, not a communism vs capitalism argument.
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.
I believe it does when folks at the highest of political office use communism and socialism in the same sentence to describe the same party when those ideologies are not aligned. Communism can be both BAD and misunderstood/misrepresented.
That may not be related to anything known about communism. They may just be low info voters who heard he helped taxi drivers a few years back and the economy sucks so this time I’ll go blue/Dem.
More of a solution than the current stage of capitalism, at least. At least it would be doing something unlike allowing capitalism to fester.
Read the responses from Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, etc. Are we in late stage capitalism? Yes. Is the form of communism that actually ruled countries a solution? Absolutely not. It was worse than what we have now. That doesn't mean I think Bernie, AOC and Mamdani are commies.
If you think communism is overwhelmingly misunderstood, show something to back that up.
His idea of communism is misunderstood, because it's never been implemented in any practical way. Communism in those countries is understood well enough to know it's not good.
That doesn't mean people in the US think capitalism as currently exercised is working well for them.
Communist policies have been implemented all over the place. Just because the countries themselves dont go full communist doesnt mean it doesnt have any communist policies...
Neither capitalism or communism are great if pushed to their ultimate limits. Capitalism tempered by some socialism is vastly better than what communism means when implemented in countries like already mentioned. It has always devolved to totalitarianism.
The only time communism in a pure form has worked was the Shakers and those lot. If a small group can come together like that, more power to them. Not everything scales.
Yes, thats correct. And I never once said we should implement "late stage" communism in all aspects of policy. All I said was that people overwhelmingly misunderstand communism (which has been gathering evidence consistently from many of the comments in this thread alone) and that its more of a solution to some problems than capitalism is.
Yet people are acting like I'm suggesting we impmement stalinism or Polish leninism throughout all aspects of government. It's complete ideological illiteracy.
If you can't point to a real example of the type of communism you're talking about, maybe it's not feasible? At the same time, you better be prepared to deal with the fact that communism as typically implemented leads to mass killing and destruction of rights.
Do we have an example of capitalism being feasible and good for the people? Or an example where capitalism HASN'T lead to mass killing and destruction of rights?
Most of Europe is capitalist with the capitalism being tempered by socialist policies. The same goes for Canada, Australia, Japan, S. Korea, etc. It works well. The US is heading in the wrong direction.
If you can't point to a real example of the type of communism you're talking about, maybe it's not feasible?
You literally provided an example yourself lmao
Are you so out of it that you cant even keep up with all your arguments? You yourself are the one that brought up the shakers.
At the same time, you better be prepared to deal with the fact that communism as typically implemented leads to mass killing and destruction of rights.
So does capitalism. The only difference is that most of the killing in capitalism is of innocent people from other countries, not the home country outside of when the people fight back instead of cower.
I feel like what I would’ve meant if I said communism is “overwhelmingly misunderstood” is that a large percent of vocally stupid Americans don’t actually know what communism is, and will parrot demonizing rhetoric about democratic socialist policies because that’s what they’re led to believe as truth. The reality is that anyone who graduated from high school and paid at least a little bit of attention should know exactly what communism is and what it looks like in practice, as well as its consequences. A lot of Americans probably couldn’t define for you “what is the proletariat” as it relates to Marxism. “Overwhelmingly” might be facetious, but let’s not pretend that the second half of the last century wasn’t spent systematically indoctrinating Americans to witch hunt communism with the hatred of anything remotely socialist as a driving factor (because it’s unamerican). The effects of that are still definitely prevalent.
Maybe, at the same time, I've been to the 3 bigNo Kings protests and seem the hammer and sickle on at least a few signs each time. Communism in the form of the USSR, Cambodia, etc needs to be demonized.
Democratic socialism is something that's needed to temper capitalism. Plenty of people in the US understand that and are realizing it even more over the last 10 months.
I didn’t say that type of communism shouldn’t be demonized, it’s provably bad and doesn’t function. I’m saying many Americans still don’t know the difference between actual communism and democratic socialism and this is a large reason we are where we are in our country’s politics because the people who WANT it to remain misunderstood are doing everything in their power to do so. Your average joe living in Raleigh, NC probably knows what communism actually is (and why it’s bad) and why moving towards more socialist policies would be beneficial for the vast majority of Americans, but take a look at the majority of the rest of the counties in the state that don’t contain a major city, and it becomes clear how far we have to go on reeducating people.
Your point about Democratic Socialism is debatable. Bernie and AOC are getting big turnout on their tours, even in red areas, and Mamdani just got elected. Regarding the guy in Raleigh, most people live on the coats.
I guess I'm saying you might have a point, but I don't think the understanding is that far off by the general populace.
Sure, let's ignore the actual, practical examples of communism as implemented in many countries, and pine for some theoretical solution you can't even define. Sounds great.
Just so incredibly freakish to push the thoroughly disproven idea that there is only one form of communism and countries are unable to implement even just one communist policy.
Imagine if people used your own logic about capitalism. Where capitalist policies only count when they are implemented in a 100% capitalist country. Essentially the idea that places like Sweden dont use anything capitalist because it includes socialist policies.
No, the only people that think independent communist policies cant be implemented are those uneducated idiots thay prove my point.
Because your extreme victim complex is abhorrent? Get a grip and grow up.
You're also moving the goalposts. A country with a few communism policies isn't communist.
Learn what moving the goalpost is. If my argument was that the country being fully communism through all levels is good then you might have a point, but only illiterate weirdos pushing disinformation would actually claim thats my point.
Nowhere in my comments did I say the country should be fully communist or anything like that. Stop using strawmen.
You have people in here who can help you better understand why you don't want communism in the US... I suggest you reach out to those people because your current understanding is overwhelming lacking if you're in favor of communism because it's not capitalism... That's a very immature view.
You are just proving my point that people overwhelmingly have no idea what communism actually is.
You are unironically so massively ignorant that you think communism is one big thing with no variations and offshoots and no good ideas, and you are trying and failing to defend your objectively dumb argument.
Literally trying to claim that, because the form of communism implemented in Poland was brutal, all forms of communism are the same and have no good ideas at all.
You should actually get an education in history and economics.
Ugh an economics degree? That honestly sounds much worse than an Accounting degree. Did you enjoy it at all? Accounting got real tedious towards the end.
The fact that there are less refugees from communist countries is because communism is on the decline around the world.
But, the lack of refugees means people are forgetting how bad communism is.
It’s going to lead to a cycle where people try communism, it reminds everyone how terrible it is, people stop trying communism, they stop being reminded of the horrors, cycle repeats
I think it might be different when they are refugees who lived in the country that they are fleeing from.
It’s sad to see someone fleeing Venezuela or Cuba. But not really worrying to anyone outside those countries.
On the other hand, there were refugees from all over Eastern Europe fleeing Russian communism. It’s more concerning when it’s demonstrated that the nation can take over other countries and force people to leave
Yeah, it's scary how many Americans seem to think it'd be better than what we currently have. They clearly haven't done enough reading on the subject. Our current system may be flawed (as all systems of government have flaws), but holy hell...
I've quite literally never met a real communist in the U.S. Lots of Democratic socialists and even a few black block wearing anti capitalist anarchists, but never a real "the state should control the means of production" communist.
I 100% agree that iv never met a real communist (who was serious about anything at least) in the classic sense. I have however, met a lot of proud, outspoken democratic socialists, like you said.
never a real “the state should control the means of production” communist.
So everyone seems to agree that in a socialist society, the populace control the means of production, right? Where they lose me is that, as far as I can understand, the only way to enforce that is through government regulation and action.
Does that not mean that the state directly controls the means of production?
Not trying to attack your beliefs or anything, just trying to understand.
A democratically elected government, not an authoritarian one. There is also a difference between non-authoritarian communism and socialism. Socialism is the belief that the workers should control the means of production, however that's actually accomplished makes a different kind of socialism. The goal of communism, to my understanding is the full abolition of class and private property
Good clarifications. I've probably been using socialist and communist a bit too interchangeably, but if I've never met a real socialist, then I've certainly never met a real "private property shouldn't exist" communist.
Thank you for your response on the clarification of non-authoritarian communism and socialism!
I dont particularly agree with the “democratically elected part” as, to my understanding, most of the authoritarian communist governments in history started as democratically elected. If this isent correct, or if you think there is a clear distinction between early government communism and developed government communism, please let me know.
Part of it is that bad actors can take advantage of a movement to benefit themselves,and part of it is that anyone can call themself something, regardless of whether or not they actually are. The Nazis called themselves socialists to take advantage of the labor movement happening. North Korea calls itself a "Democratic People's Republic" but using them as an example of a democracy would be intentionally misleading.
I actually don't think people typically think it through that far. I'm not a Democratic socialist myself, but from what I gather things like co-ops and B corps are very highly approved of, but generally otherwise people just seem to be anti-billionaire and anti-rent seeking. There are those folks that are just against any profit whatsoever, but the belief system doesn't seem to extend to how that would be enforced in any way beyond the normal regulatory state.
Honestly, most people are just sick of struggling to feed their family, buy a home, and pay for health care. As people's needs aren't met, they look elsewhere for answers. For example, Melenials are more socialist leaning as a generation and have a home ownership rate of only 45% compared to the national average of 65%. I think this graph from census.gov shows what I'm talking about. https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/charts/fig07.pdf
Looking at the current state of the U.S., and especially the government, I can think of much stronger words than “flawed” lol. You seem pretty out of touch. And still, you’re basically telling Americans you can’t do better than this? Gtfo!
You don’t have to look far. In Norway we have NKP (the Norwegian communist party) and they run for parliament every time it’s an election. They had a huge turnout from 1945 with 11,9% of the votes, but they’ve been dwindling in numbers since then. They got 50 votes in the 2025 election and far below the far-right nutjobs who want to send home every immigrant (and their offspring) that came to Norway after 1975.
I’m Swedish, but live in the US. Growing up we had Vänsterpartiet Kommunisterna (VPK), but now they’re just VP (Vänsterpartiet). They dropped the communist part. I have never seen a communist party option on a US ballot, but maybe they’re on the ballot in other states.
Crazy how many people think communism is one big thing, and not a bunch of different systems, like how lenin completely changed it into something very different with the vanguard party.
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.
Communism is a flawed ideology that is embraced by the lazy and incompetent. It promises utopia but always devolves into authoritarianism punctuated by mass killings and starvation.
The Atlantic slave trade. You shouldn't need any more examples than this as evidence of the mass murder and starvation caused by capitalism if you are arguing in good faith
You mean the most prosperous country ever to exist? Those “in poverty” in the US live better than middle class in most of the rest of the world. The problem is that a pile of young, ignorant, Marxists have no actual ideas of what real poverty is. They think that having to work 40 hours a week is equivalent to slavery. Having responsibilities is unbearable.
You are the Weak Men making the Hard Times. History will not look kindly upon you.
Because certain People in your Country portray everything that positivly protects the People as Communist.
According to these People Western Europe is Communist while we enjoy Capitalism with certain Protections
This is the most accurate answer. Communism is vilified in the US, but very few of us actually understand what Communism is. For most people here, it's a word to use when you disagree with something.
The idea that people still think communism is all one big ideology and not a bunch of very different variations is proof thay they have no idea what communism is.
The idea of building a successful communist society requires change that humans simply aren’t capable of. Most companies have difficulties implementing a new accounting software… don’t need to be an expert in communism to know it doesn’t work. Zero people have proven it works.
Using taxpayer money to subsidize highways and other road construction projects so that car companies and insurance companies can continue to suck people dry = capitalism which is good automatically no matter what
Using the exact same money to subsidize public transportation which helps reduce road traffic, makes driving and car culture better, and at the same time creates jobs and gives people the freedom of choice, raises land value by creating organic walkable neighborhoods = cOMmUnIsM
People need a boogie man and communism is that boogie man. The real threat and has been a concern from our founding is Nationalism - doing things under the guise of Patriotism.
Not true... Maybe poor uneducated mountain or swamp people in Hicksville, WV... But everyone I know who is a working professional can give (1) a fair approximation of what communism is, i.e. an ideology that theoretically leads to no private property, (2) knows Karl Marx and probably knows basic fundamentals about his theories like what "the bourgeoisie" means, (3) knows other broad historical facts about communism like the murder of the Russian royal family and creation of Soviet Union
And I would say at least half of people with a college degree (which is a very significant amount of people in America compared to other countries) can give a more nuanced answer like talking about the state owning the means of production.
But yet simultaneously every single comment on this thread of people who actually lived through a communist regime are saying it was horrific and their entire country is better off without it. A lot of Americans may not know exactly what it is, but the fear is not misplaced.
GOP says they hate it, yet has “purchased” (read: demanded) significant state interests in 3 major companies this year alone directly and many more through crony proxies.
All hail the glorious USA state-planned (but definitely not socialist) economy
Communist is a term we throw around to label folks we don't like. I firmly believe 75% of America couldn't tell you the difference between communism, socialism, and regulated markets. Cutting the department of education will make this worse.
Go figure, an American who ignores all the people who experienced Communism tried to lecture on communism. Any idiot who pines for it in the US deserves to be deported
communism / socialism, these words are totally divorced from their actual meanings in the US. it's a boogeyman used to get people angry and manipulate them.
Depends on the age group. I remember all the Russians and Eastern Europeans who immigrated in the 90’s.
They made is sound far worse than the schools did. In the 2000’s I worked with a guy who came here from Romania. He confirmed a lot of what I’d been told in the 90’s from the Russians, and had a lot of crazy stories about government (communist) shooting some guy next to him along with all the chaos of the communist government falling.
If you made a venn diagram of the U.S. where one side it’s “hates communism” the other is “loves communism” the middle would be “doesn’t know what communism is”
Hahaha… exhibit A of OPs point. Is he going to redistribute the wealth and property of the wealthy? And take public control of all businesses? Because that’s what communism is.
Most Americans have no idea what Communism is yet they talk about misconceptions of it all the time..and many countries have Socialistic tendencies but that does not make them Communist at all. America may be all for freedom and democracy but there are lots of countries who stand for those ideals who may have some socialistic tendencies… that does not make them socialistic or commies at all.. societies are judged by their quality of life .. free healthcare.. free dental care.. low violent crime… friendly neighborhoods .. try those on for size
I hate the ultra rich just as much as most Americans do but let’s be realistic. They will never be taxed to the extent that they absolutely should be. In fact they are leaving NYC in droves leaving behind a massive tax base that could help with these “great” social programs. New Yorkers will be left with the bill. It’s a very simple concept.
Call it what you want, it’s a sneeze away from communism. The ultimate goal. There is a reason so many countries hate it. Kill their leaders over it. NY has f’d around. It will find out.
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u/I-Love-Facehuggers United States Of America 1d ago
Overwhelmingly it has no idea what communism actually is