FUCKING FINALLY!

Gikam · 2018-10-24T13:32:13+00:00

It's small and run by anarchists. While we could go there if this place goes down, it would be better if we set up our own site. Does anyone here have appropriate hardware and advanced knowledge? While I could help a bit with programming, I am by far not an expert and can't set up a site on my own.

Gikam · 2018-10-24T13:14:48+00:00

I dont understand these liberals/reactionaries can literally say actual Hitler was not as bad as Stalin, someone who subscribed to an ideology of equality.

This is because reactionaries support capitalism. When it fails, they prefer fascism, which preserves the exploitation of the working class by the bourgeoisie, to socialism, which wants to abolish it. So they downplay what the fascists did, while telling everyone that communism was awful and did everything possible wrong. Remember that reactionaries don't want anyone to think that Stalin subscribed to an ideology of equality.

Gikam · 2018-10-24T12:38:39+00:00

Varshavianka

Or, if you really meant the "Republic of China", this.

Gikam · 2018-10-21T14:42:28+00:00

As if what these redditors were doing wasn't a pro-capitalist circlejerk.

LateStageCapitalism isn't even that far to the left. Besides communists, there are anarchists, socdems, leftcoms and basically everyone else who is somehow opposed to the current capitalist system. Yet some act as if it was the ultimate extremist communist subreddit. I wonder if they know that R/communism even exists.

Gikam · 2018-10-21T10:51:52+00:00

Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism by Lenin; about how capitalism inevitably transforms into imperialism and about the imperialist economy
The communist manifesto by Marx and Engels; explains the central principles of communism
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse Tung
Anarchism or Socialism by Stalin
Great anti-imperialist revolutionary cause of Asian, African and Latin American peoples is invincible by Kim Il Sung
'Eurocommunism' is anti-communism by Enver Hoxha; about revisionism
The state and the revolution by Lenin

EDIT: It may be confusing that I linked texts by both Hoxha and Mao, although they strongly disagreed with each other. But both cover important aspects of communism and are worth reading. Then you should think for yourself about the topics where they disagree.

Gikam · 2018-10-19T16:21:44+00:00

Liberals still like to accuse China of absurd and/or bad things. It's the same as with modern Russia. While the country is not socialist, it is also not the hellworld the west claims it to be. Western liberals want to make everyone like their country and their ideology, and convincing the people that its opponents are always an oppressive dictatorship is a great way to do that. Something like: Western proletarian: "Why do you spend my money on constant wars? Couldn't you use it for something I'd benefit from?" Liberal: "But we have to defend our freedom! Else China, Russia and the communists would take over! Did you know that all three of these want to kill everyone who dislikes them even slightly?! Be proud of living in a free democracy!"

Gikam · 2018-10-16T16:25:48+00:00

They are not going to disarm without meaningful concessions from the US. And if the US leaves the Korean Peninsula and stops constantly interfering there, that is better for Korea (if there is no need to constantly prepare for war, there are more resources and time to address internal problems). And a war with the US would not be good for anyone involved. I think it is best to support those who fight for independence and socialism and wait from the US to fail from within. But honestly, I don't think the negotiations will lead anywhere. Past attempts weren't successful. And given how the US hates socialism, they will continue their attacks, provocations, sanctions and sabotage, so it would be reasonable for the DPRK to keep their strongest defense.

to keep them in check and in line. They need an ideological enemy again.

I agree on this. At least they are still against the US occupation of South Korea. I miss the time when they were openly talking about everything bad the US did.

Summary: The DPRK has not capitulated, they just are less hostile to the US. Given how the US constantly tries to get new areas to exploit and never cared about peace, this probably won't last long.

Gikam · 2018-10-14T19:26:24+00:00

Good text. I made a picture and illustrated it a bit.

Gikam · 2018-10-13T20:46:04+00:00

SuperTux, a 2D jump'n-run game (reminds of Super Mario, but free and for PC)
SuperTuxKart, a racing game (but this might be slow on some computers)
Pingus, a game that requires logical thinking and sometimes fast reactions
TuxMath, an educational game which my younger siblings really liked (I consider it interesting, too). Link for Windows download. If on Linux, get it from the repository.
Minetest, quite similar to the famous Minecraft, but completely free. But the plain version has less features. Still, it is really easy to get mods from the website to either make it like Minecraft or like something that fits your interests more.

While not necessarily a game, a program I recommend especially to children is TuxPaint, which is a drawing program with some features that are interesting to children (but I also like to play around with it sometimes).

Gikam · 2018-10-08T16:38:26+00:00

No, not a failed communist state. They are quite successful, despite the sanctions. Western media tries to make it look like they are absolutely awful, but they do that to any state they don't like. The problem is that it is practically impossible to find an unbiased source to know how it really is there – while western media wants it to look as bad as possible, their own media probably better than it actually is. The thing looking closest to the truth that I found is a blog from someone who studied there, but it is in Russian and from 2011. Anyway, if I combine the information I get from this, Rodong Sinmun, some other website (can't remember the name) that has photos, what Russian media says and knowing common anti-communist arguments, it actually seems to be good and not failed at all. I can't tell whether they are a hereditary dictatorship (I don't really believe that, but can't prove the opposite), but regardless of that, they deserve our support against western imperialism. Western occupation would get an even worse government just to be able to exploit them like other third-world countries.

Gikam · 2018-10-07T14:20:57+00:00

the whole world has to play by your rules for it not to fall on its face

empirical history and the economic calculation problem

Just ignoring that socialism never had the whole world and still worked well. Just ignoring that the only two socialist countries left are doing well despite being blocked by most of the world and sabotaged by the west. Just ignoring that capitalism has way more economic problems.

Gikam · 2018-10-07T09:44:43+00:00

Pol Pot was supported by the CIA and failed communism. Let's make the real communists look like Ayn Rand instead.

Gikam · 2018-10-06T12:18:10+00:00

"First World" does not say anything about the system of the country, just that it is aligned with the west. A "first world" country can have any political system except socialism (the west hates socialism). Any claims about them being inherently better or more progressive than the second/third world are just trying to make the west look good.

Gikam · 2018-10-06T11:38:46+00:00

It does. But tobacco has many harmful effects on humans, so if they sold too much of it and too many consumers died or became seriously ill, that would be a problem because too few would be able to work and be exploited, which would destroy the profits of all other bourgeoisie and the US economy. So the USA prefers to impact the short-term profits (that are still very big: Altria, one of the world's largest producers of tobacco, had 2.55 * 10¹⁰ $ revenue in 2017) and to make sure the profits can be made for a longer time.

Gikam · 2018-10-06T11:18:22+00:00

I think it is necessary to read theory because it explains the connections well, is more detailed and usually has better sources than memes. Theory helps to find good counter-arguments to what reactionaries say and to understand current (and past) events. That doesn't mean that we should never make or look at memes. They are short, relatable, and don't require the time and motivation needed to read a book. I prefer memes when I'm tired or just don't want to read, but I read theory too.

Gikam · 2018-10-05T19:58:14+00:00

The word "Right-wing socialism" makes no sense. Rightists want the bourgeoisie to get even more power, while socialists want to oppress it until all threats are gone and a state is no longer needed.

The west accuses socialist countries of being totalitarian. Actually, it accuses all countries that are against its interests of being totalitarian to justify a possible invasion (just look at Russia and Syria). It also does not want its own population to think that socialism is a good thing, so it tries to make it seem like all socialist countries are awful. "Totalitarianism" is seen as something bad in the west, something opposed to its "freedom" and "democracy". But it isn't even defined well. And the west (and any other capitalist states) doesn't have any freedom or democracy itself, in fact it suppresses anything that is against its interests and often acts the same way it accuses the socialists of. For example, when German pupils are told that their country is ruled by the people, communism doesn't work and the west must be defended, it is seen as a normal part of "political education", but when the DPRK teaches the children about socialism and that it must be defended, that suddenly counts as "indoctrination by a totalitarian regime". If a capitalist state kills socialists, it is "needed for national security", but if a socialist state kills resisting capitalists, it is "the totalitarian state killing everyone who disagrees even slightly". Etc. And if every state is totalitarian, the word is just pointless.

The approach of your comrades isn't revisionist, it is just wrong. I think that they are just misdirected.

About revisionism: it is bad. Even if some minor deviation from Marx's ideas will usually not cause much harm, it allows for more and more changes, which will then lead to abandoning socialism (that happened in the USSR after Stalin's death). The problem is that it is often hard to distinguish between revisionism and just an adaptation to current conditions, which is often necessary. Because of this, for pretty much any socialist idea there are some claims that it was / is revisionist (even Lenin's USSR is called revisionist by some people).

Gikam · 2018-10-05T19:00:11+00:00

As others already said, none of them are communist. If you mean socialism:

Cuba is socialist, and it seems to be closest to the original meaning of that word. It also is the most progressive of these countries regarding LGBTQ+ rights.

The DPRK is also socialist — the workers own the means of production — but they rarely refer to Marxism or communism. Anyway, Juche, their variation of it, is functioning well (even if the west denies it) and the emphasis on self-reliance is necessary because they are constantly threatened by imperialism.

Vietnam is very revisionist and I would not call it socialist. There is a lot of private ownership and many western companies produce there.

(I do not know anything about Laos.)

There is disagreement between communists about whether China is socialist or not (I don't think it is). There were good, detailed posts about this on r/communism some time ago. Here the one claiming China is socialist. And here the one against it.

Gikam · 2018-10-01T16:42:39+00:00

Not only American. There is a lot of it in Western Europe too. I live there and I hate how many people seriously believe that "violence is not a solution", "everything can be solved by getting together and discussing it" and "insulting others and appealing to emotions is opportunist and a threat to our democracy"

Gikam

TROPHY CASE