• jj4211@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    You advocate for letting others chose the government while just sitting out and protesting and hoping the people formally being given power by the voting system you say not to meaningfully participate in would heed those protests?

    Or are you saying that such groups shall go beyond their stated methods and go to violent revolution, in which scenario I’d ask for a single example of “socialism” achieved through such ends that didn’t install a pretty terrible authitarian regime that merely took advantage of social unrest to seize power?

    • Cowbee [he/they]
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      2 months ago

      I am saying there is no electoral path to Socialism.

      As for Socialism’s historical record, I suggest you read Blackshirts and Reds. Cuba, China, Russia, etc. all dramatically improved conditions for the people following revolution as compared to the fascist slaver Batista regime, the nationalist Kuomintang regime, and the brutal Tsarist regime.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I am saying there is no electoral path to Socialism.

        That smells of voter suppression, like you are trying to talk people out of even trying to exercise their voice in the political system. The refusal to specifically spell out which described path you advocate for suggests you want violent insurrection, which is absurd, either doomed to be outgunned or doomed to be exploited by leaders with ulterior motives. If you can’t get the votes to your position, then things are going to be very bad if you try to get your way.

        None of your examples started from a vaguely functional democratic state. For all the fawning over Cuba, somehow they are a big source of refugees. The Soviet Union fell apart under well understood conditions that their flavor of ‘communism’ did not fix. China has an awful lot of forced labor, laborers stuck dorming in factories, and capitalist billionaires for a ‘communist’ state, and they have an ethno state with some other problematic human rights behaviors. While they may have been better than prior regimes in their contexts, I don’t think the end state in any of those is better than the current state of affairs in the US.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
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          2 months ago

          I specifically spelled out my call to action earlier in this very comment chain. Organizing with leftist parties like PSL and FRSO, revolutionary parties. Revolution is necessary, electoralism cannot work.

          None of your examples started from a vaguely functional democratic state. For all the fawning over Cuba, somehow they are a big source of refugees.

          Most of these refugees were historically land owning slavers, fascists, and Capitalists.

          The Soviet Union fell apart under well understood conditions that their flavor of ‘communism’ did not fix.

          Communism fixed a great deal of problems with Russia, why do you believe the USSR was dissolved?

          China has an awful lot of forced labor, laborers stuck dorming in factories, and capitalist billionaires for a ‘communist’ state, and they have an ethno state with some other problematic human rights behaviors.

          The PRC is a Socialist Market Economy. The model is described as a birdcage, the CPC allows markets to naturally develop but only along their guidelines, and increases ownership as competition creates these new monopolist syndicates. Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism is a good article going over China’s economic model. The CPC has the power it has as a Dictatorship of the Proletariat, it needs that power to maintain supremacy over their bourgeoisie. Communism is achieved by degree, not decree.

          While they may have been better than prior regimes in their contexts, I don’t think the end state in any of those is better than the current state of affairs in the US.

          Why are you comparing developing countries to the current Imperialist hegemon? Do you think if you adopt Socialism, everything is magically fixed overnight? Have I ever implied that?

          A good primer is Why do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?” an excellent article that goes over materialist examinations of AES states vs idealist examinations. Another good reference is Blackshirts and Reds. AES is by no means perfect, but it does and did work.