07-11-2013, 05:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-11-2013, 07:17 PM by FireIceTalon.)
Actually, no, I wouldn't. YOU would be saying that, not me.
Because communism, by your definition means, well, just about anything. If we go by your definition, every monarch during the middle ages, Hitler, Pinochet, and Mussolini were all communists. You, like most anti-communists, want to put your own spin on what things mean, so it conveniently fits your own agenda and views. Me? I don't define things to fit an agenda, I define them on what actually constitutes the particular parameters that make something what it is. In the case of modern communism, as defined by its original founders Marx and Engels, a classless and stateless society. All the countries you named had classes, and of course as a result, they all had states. Therefore, by definition, it would be impossible for them to be communist. Just the fact that they are even countries at all eliminates that possibility, as "countries" are socially constructed as a product of class based societies. The term "communist country" is an oxymoron.
I could really care less what they called themselves, or how many red flags they decorated their buildings with, or what they named their cities. Hitler called and thought of himself as a savior of humanity (perhaps he used different wording) and human rights activist - doesn't mean he was, does it? Just like with communism, feudalism, slave society, or any other type of social organization, western capitalism also has a particular set of social relationships that define its class character, and make it what it is: private ownership of the means of production, free-trade, and liberalism. Most social science courses in American schools are taught in such a way that promotes and upholds the values based on these conditions. Not that I blame it in a way, cause it sort of has to do that by default - the system literally fights for its life everyday. And because it must do this, that makes it impossible for it to be a 'conspiracy theory'. Capitalism and its operations are not a conspiracy, they are observable material realities. Now, things like the government trying to poison us with chemtrails, the existence of the Lochness Monster, or that we have aliens from outerspace among us are conspiracy theories - there is no valid, conclusive or observable evidence to support any of them.
But the TL;DR version of it is, you can't just go around defining things how you want them to be or think they are, otherwise all knowledge becomes meaningless.
Because communism, by your definition means, well, just about anything. If we go by your definition, every monarch during the middle ages, Hitler, Pinochet, and Mussolini were all communists. You, like most anti-communists, want to put your own spin on what things mean, so it conveniently fits your own agenda and views. Me? I don't define things to fit an agenda, I define them on what actually constitutes the particular parameters that make something what it is. In the case of modern communism, as defined by its original founders Marx and Engels, a classless and stateless society. All the countries you named had classes, and of course as a result, they all had states. Therefore, by definition, it would be impossible for them to be communist. Just the fact that they are even countries at all eliminates that possibility, as "countries" are socially constructed as a product of class based societies. The term "communist country" is an oxymoron.
I could really care less what they called themselves, or how many red flags they decorated their buildings with, or what they named their cities. Hitler called and thought of himself as a savior of humanity (perhaps he used different wording) and human rights activist - doesn't mean he was, does it? Just like with communism, feudalism, slave society, or any other type of social organization, western capitalism also has a particular set of social relationships that define its class character, and make it what it is: private ownership of the means of production, free-trade, and liberalism. Most social science courses in American schools are taught in such a way that promotes and upholds the values based on these conditions. Not that I blame it in a way, cause it sort of has to do that by default - the system literally fights for its life everyday. And because it must do this, that makes it impossible for it to be a 'conspiracy theory'. Capitalism and its operations are not a conspiracy, they are observable material realities. Now, things like the government trying to poison us with chemtrails, the existence of the Lochness Monster, or that we have aliens from outerspace among us are conspiracy theories - there is no valid, conclusive or observable evidence to support any of them.
But the TL;DR version of it is, you can't just go around defining things how you want them to be or think they are, otherwise all knowledge becomes meaningless.
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (on capitalist laws and institutions)
"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (on capitalist laws and institutions)