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If your first instinct as a westerner is to criticize and lecture 3rd world communist movements, instead of learning from their successes, then you have internalized the patronizing arrogance of the colonial system you claim to oppose.

  • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I wrote my thesis about how we can learn from Cuba’s green farming movements (because they were essentially locked out of capitalism) and was criticized for it.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Depends which wave of newcomers. Some in more recent migrations just got banned for criticizing musk or endorsing Luigism, which is pretty milquetoast stuff any old lib can do.

    • scintilla@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      Reddit is not even “liberal” anymore. The people on the conservative sub will say that it is but its been shifting rightward for years. There are a lot of people getting permad over things that in the past would have had broad agreement.

    • The Menemen@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      I am not only on .world (actually started out there and moved over here), but yeah, for me that was the last straw. That official app is just an affront.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      Most of us have started from the default programming. I didn’t get a lot of what I get today when I moved from Reddit. I know it can feel shitty to keep repeating the same things and make the same arguments over and over again but that’s the process of teaching.

      • comfy@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        I know it can feel shitty to keep repeating the same things and make the same arguments over and over again but that’s the process of teaching.

        For what it’s worth, it’s important to have ways to do this efficiently, like linking to other resources or having copypastas. Otherwise the infinite influx of ignorant noobs will eventually cause burnout or just waste too much time.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 days ago

    May I recommend a book: The Jakarta Method, by Vincent Bevins. Humanized Communism in a way that profoundly changed my thinking.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Idk how anyone can defend how we (the US) does shit. Especially after this year. If you weren’t already privy to how monstrous we can be now you are, and now we pulled any good shit we might have done, too.

  • Cyrus Draegur@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    in first world nations we are insidiously brainwashed to believe that there WERE NO SUCCESSES among Communist movements.

    awareness of those successes must be promoted.

    start with “hey this really successful thing happened” AND THEN reveal “btw that was communism”

    • Zenith@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      I’ve always assumed communism works really well the smaller the group but at the scale of hundreds of millions it becomes very difficult logistically and also of course all those people need to agree with it so they’re not actively trying to sabotage it. I don’t see any danger in smaller nations being communist and never understood why people do consider it dangerous, outside of the obvious capitalist reasons and of course the dictators who used it as a front

      Unless the example is similar in size and scope to the country I live in I struggle to find true relevance in the subject of communism as a national government

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        I think you’re confusing decentralized communes with Marxist Communism, a fully publicly owned and planned global economy run democratically (oversimplified, of course). Communes can only work at small scale, perhaps with some level of federation, but the Communism Marxists aspire for is an extremely global and industrialized mode of production. Further, “dictators using it as a front” are relatively small in number, such as Pol Pot.

  • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    What are some succesful 3rd world communist movements? Asking for a friend

  • VirgilMastercard@reddthat.com
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    3 days ago

    I remember watching a documentary about North Korea and one of the guides was talking about how people in NK and Asia more broadly don’t necessarily want to live under the same liberal-democratic capitalist system that the west tries to impress on them.

    How arrogant are we to act like we have it all figured out and that countries outside of Europe and North America are backwards shitholes?

    • bigboismith@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      There is absolutely a discussion to be had here.

      Of course people should be allowed to have their own government setups and authorities. It would be wrong to assume that we in the west have it all figured out.

      However there are still questions of fundamental human rights. In many places of the world a woman can legally be raped, it’s the woman’s responsibility to always have a male relative with them. If we were to ask women what they thought about it they would probably say that there is no problem with it, that’s just how it works. These women have been so indoctrinated by it that they don’t question it.

      We could also use slavery in America as an example. Many slaves probably accepted the argument that they had a better living standard as slaves, or some other argument that made them accept the status quo. Should Europe just have accepted that that is the way life goes over there?

      Where does the line go between fundamental human rights and respecting other ways of life go? Western fundamental rights such as equal rights, right to a trial, right to life, etc. are just that, western.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.mlOP
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        2 days ago

        Liberals desperately need to read Losurdo - Liberalism, a counter-history.

        Even the liberal equality before the law, (ie, the illegality for the rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges and beg for food) was denied to colonized peoples and peoples of colonial origin.

        Every one of your liberal ideologues was extremely racist, and didn’t think colonized peoples deserved any of the rights they proclaimed for the white community. John Locke, and the first 5 or so US presidents owned slaves. Tocqueville pushed for the decimation of civilians in Algeria at the hands of the french imperialists, and wrote a book on the US that ignored slavery, lynchings, and native eviction. There are too many more cases to cover.

  • IHave69XiBucks@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 days ago

    I just had to explain this to someone the other day lol. Figure ur gonna get lots of hate from libs about this post so wanted to just come in and say hi. 你是很好老师同志。Your posts in response are nicely done. I hope people take the time to read them.

  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    I am hard pressed to think of any Americans older than twenty five that I have ever met IRL that was truly opposed to colonialism. High-schoolers and college students; sure. That’s about it though.

    EDIT: To be clear, I am not defending colonialism. I just don’t think most Americans understand or think about its impact. Out of sight. Out of mind.

  • pineapple@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Dang I didn’t know there were successful communist nations in developing countries.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      Dang I didn’t know there were successful communist nations in developing countries.

      Funnily enough, two started off as developing and ended up as world superpowers.

      • pineapple@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        I’m assuming your talking about Russia and China I think it very fare to criticise them, considering they are both totalitarian nations which don’t respect the needs of there citizens.

        • comfy@lemmy.ml
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          The USSR (Soviet Union) and the PRC (China). The USSR is not Russia, and it doesn’t exist anymore.

          And of course it’s fair, and in fact important to criticize them. We have the benefit of hindsight and can see how some of their decisions were serious mistakes. On the other hand, it’s also important to analyze what they did good and learn from that too. Neither was perfect, both were improvements, and the terrible fates of Russia and Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union is proof of how much good the SU was for its citizens.

          which don’t respect the needs of there citizens.

          They both inherited countries plagued with regular famine and have both eliminated it. In fact, in 1983 the CIA documented the SU as having a better typical diet than the USA. Clearly they respected the food security of their citizens.

          The SU managed to rapidly build low-cost housing after repelling a HUGE invasion of extermination from Nazi Germany. The “commieblocks” were critical in housing people after war. China has also made huge strides in home ownership and elimination of poverty. Meanwhile, poverty and homelessness is increasing under capitalist countries, with them doing little to resolve their housing crises. Clearly they respected the need for shelter of their citizens.

          Keep in mind, that both these countries were devastated by world wars and civil wars. Their countries started off in serious crisis and had already had revolutions. If they didn’t respect the needs of their citizens, they would have ended up failed states overthrown by their desperate population or quickly collapsing to invasions.

          As for China, the government, despite censorship and political repression, still remains popular among its citizens, according to censorship-resistant US studies[1]. It’s largely avoided war, hugely reduced poverty, and has become a world leader in technology.

          There are many valid reasons to criticize these countries and it’s important we do that. But they clearly respected the basic needs of their citizens. There are few other countries which have done more to reduce poverty and homelessness than them.


          1. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ ↩︎

          • pineapple@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            Thank you for telling me that. I never really thought that communist nations have done good things in the past, I suppose I already knew that about china. But I did not know that about the USSR. There is no education about any good thing communist nations have done well, at least in the curriculum I grew up with. And communism is therefore ingrained in people essentially as a synonym for bad.