221
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Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Fundamental to communist ideology is the common ownership of the means of production and abolishment of social classes and social hierarchy. In practice, that means no (or very few) private property ...
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187
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Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
TL;DR: because communism did, in fact, kill people. Between 23 million (low estimate) and 100 million (high estimate) of them killed by regimes that collectively self-branded themselves as led by "...
- 93.3k
113
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Why is banning communism symbols so hard to achieve as opposed to banning of Nazi symbols?
Nazis are a specific group of people who have committed atrocities in Europe. It is directly linked with the idea of Racial Superiority and Antisemitism.
We can agree that Nazism is morally bad. One ...
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91
votes
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Why has Venezuela's economy collapsed when Cuba's has not?
The reason Venezuela's economy collapsed was its over-reliance on oil exports. In the last half of the 20th century, the Venezuelan economy focused on growing its oil industry, while relying on ...
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91
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Why has Venezuela's economy collapsed when Cuba's has not?
Wait up a minute. Who says Cuba didn't fail spectacularly?
Miami (and Florida in general) have a huge Cuban population. Generally, because Cubans did anything they could to leave that country ...
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90
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"Communism in the Soviet Union, China, etc., wasn't real communism" - is that true?
Its mostly a matter of definition.
Communism was supposed to bring about a better, more rational world in both Russia and China. Marx theorised that once the dead hand of capitalist exploitation was ...
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77
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Is Communism intrinsically authoritarian?
It depends on what you mean by communism. If you mean what the Soviet-bloc states ended up like, then, yes, all historical examples of this communism were pretty authoritarian.
If you want to indulge ...
70
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in western countries?
Simple answer is them vs us. This was previously nationality, but cold-war era saw this them vs us line drawn more ...
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67
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What is the relationship between communism and 'a classless system'?
When Marx used the term 'class', he wasn't referring to hierarchical organizational structures. He was referring to more-or-less permanent and impermeable social distinctions. For the sake of the ...
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65
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Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Communism has committed atrocities far greater than the Holocaust.
Holodomor: up to 12 million dead
Khmer Rouge: up to 3 million dead
The Great Leap Forward: up to 55 million dead
Tanzania ...
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58
votes
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Confused about the term 'Bourgeoisie'!
The Wikipedia page for Bourgeoisie is informative, and worth the read.
Strictly speaking, there was no equivalent of middle, upper, or lower classes (in the modern usage of the terms) prior to perhaps ...
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56
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Why do one-party states still have a party at all?
While it needn't be this way, per se, political parties and the government are often separate institutions as a matter of having different operational objectives.
The job of the government is to run ...
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54
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the
United States?
Short Answer
The background necessary to accurately answer your question is complex in both history and culture, ...
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53
votes
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Why do so many Russians approve of Joseph Stalin's regime?
I'm not sure there's anything more than expert opinion as an answer:
Levada sociologist Karina Pipiya told BBC Russian: "There is growing nostalgia for the Soviet period and Stalin as a leader. ...
52
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Is Communism intrinsically authoritarian?
First, I wanted to make clear that "authoritarianism" does not mean "enforces rules with some form of force" - if we were to use that definition, then every single system of ...
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45
votes
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Why have the Venona materials not yet vindicated McCarthyism?
Why has the mainstream narrative continued to regard McCarthyism as "making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence"?
Because there is no evidence that McCarthy was ...
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45
votes
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Why was homosexuality unacceptable in USSR?
I think it is like asking why drinking too much vodka was so widely accepted in the SU, if nothing in "Das Kapital" promoted it.
First, you are right that there is nothing in the Communist ideology ...
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45
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Are there examples of grassroots-level corruption in the history of socialism/communism?
I don't know how to find statistics or studies on the case, but as a native I can give my memories of communist Poland. Grassroot-level corruption was ubiquitous. Introduction of ration stamps in 1976 ...
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43
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Did Karl Marx ever use any example that involved cotton and dollars to illustrate the way capital and surplus value were generated?
A searchable PDF suggests it's been freely translated:
Apologies for using an image, but the side-by-side didn't paste sensibly. You can see that the currency is different but has been converted; the ...
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37
votes
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Is China really Communist?
First of all, for clarity, China never claimed to be communist.
I have reviewed the full text of Chinese Constitution (both the China's Constitution of 1982 with Amendments through 2004, as well as ...
- 93.3k
34
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If the goal of communism is a stateless society, then why do we refer to authoritarian governments such as China as communist?
As I explained in a previous post, pre-1980s China was socialist/lower-stage communist. Karl Marx believed that one method for true communism is socialism or the lower stage of communism to achieve ...
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34
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According to Marx, is Communism a workable system or an unreachable ideal?
The main thrust of Das Capital is that Communism is not only a workable system, but an inevitable consequence of the flow of history, and of the instabilities inherent in the capitalist system, which ...
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33
votes
Why do communists claim that capitalism began at the Industrial Revolution?
Capitalism is defined as private ownership of the means of production, right?
No.
One of the key features of the capitalist mode of production, is the existence of two predominant classes, one class (...
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31
votes
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For what stated reasons (not opinion) is classical communism antagonistic towards the bourgeoisie more than the aristocracy?
We can see that classical communism didn't perceive the aristocracy to be a threat or enemy, at least not as much as the bourgeoisie.
The communist manifesto describes the aristocracy in 1848 as "...
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31
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What are the modern arguments for Communism?
I'm going to try to make an argument that a modern Marxist Communist could make.
Firstly, it is perfectly reasonable to argue that Marxist Communism has never been tried. Specifically, Marx ...
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