• JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      Isn’t “authoritarian communist” kind of an oxymoron? 😂 like the whole point of communism is that there isn’t a ruling class. I guess Russia and China were never really communist, just statist authoritarian right? I mean, the Nazis called themselves Socialist. They were nowhere near that

      • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Isn’t “authoritarian communist” kind of an oxymoron?

        Yes. Yes, it is. I sometimes call them “pseudocommunists” for this reason.

      • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Isn’t “authoritarian communist” kind of an oxymoron?

        Most real life implementations of communism used an authoritarian one party system. You can say these aren’t true examples of communism, but that just ends up sounding like cope unfortunately.

        • ATGM 🚀@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          None of those states ever gave economic or political power to the working classes.

        • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          Fair point. Though so far, there hasn’t really been any system at all that didn’t lead to genocide and/or class based opression. From monarchs to feudal Lords to capitalist oligarchies and communist dictators, terrible people always rise to the top.

      • blackbelt352@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        As how Marx outlined Communism as the evolution of Capitalism once it reaches a scale of production that everyone can have their needs met, resulting in a classless, stateless, moneyless society, then yes authoritarian communist is an oxymoron.

        • JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          The same can be said for capitalism though.

          Capitalism must be enforced somehow, it ends up being an oligarchy or authoritarian because of that.

      • Coryneform@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        well socialism has the proletariat as the ruling class, this is true in Marxism & anarchism even if anarchists word it differently

        • ATGM 🚀@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          The party leaders are not proletarian, but rather become part of a class of privileged bureaucrats.

          • Coryneform@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            there’s a trend towards that, which can be combatted & has been by communist parties. Stalin had a pretty incoherent plan to combat rightist tendencies within the communist party, assuming the problem stemmed from external meddling. Mao actually shared your view in that bureaucracy rots socialism, and that it needs to be decreased as the people are helped towards being self reliant, ready to self manage the economy & have suitable industry to run the country with. that’s why the cultural revolution happened, to fight bureaucracy

            • ATGM 🚀@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              And yet in spite of the few positive things contributions Mao made, and some of the things he got right, he still positioned himself culturally to take up the position 'benign and distant emperor. Much as the contemporary regime prefers to pin all the horrors of the Cultural Revolution on the Gang of Four, many of Mao’s ideas themselves were harmful (such as wholesale and universal destruction of old culture).

              Marxism-Leninism and its party structure has shown itself, in practice and historically, as being unable to resist this impulse to corruption and autocracy. It was Bolshevik counterrevolution that destroyed the power of the Worker’s and Soldier’s Soviets in Russia, Soviet counterrevolution that invaded Ukraine during its revolution, and then again Leninist party counterrevolution that prevented any of the (few) positive aspects of the cultural revolution from blossoming into anything useful.

              Vanguard parties are counter productive, and counter revolutionary. The French revolution gives us the same lesson, as the Jacobin counter-revolutionary terror (with the oh-so-popular guillotine mostly used on the poor) created the space for reactionary backlash.

              The centralization of power is, therefore, a counter-revolutionary impulse. Humans being are not suited for the rule and management of others. Only a revolution that truly returns power to the people has any chance of lasting. That’s why even the flawed and imperfect Kurdish revolutionaries of Rojava are sustaining the social and cultural infrastructure for revolution, while Marxists, Maoists and other authoritarian communists world-wide consistently either degrade into bandits and terrorists, or form corrupt and reactionary power-structures.

        • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          The proletariat are by definition the majority. The Soviet Union was by no means ruled by the majority. Stalin murdered millions to enforce his autocracy—the exact opposite of majority rule.

          • WabiSabiPapi@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            just to chime in with an anarchist perspective-- majority rule, as lionized by proponents of liberal democracies, is itself a form of heirarchy in which the will of an ostensible ‘majority’ (though usually that of the capital- owning class actually) is inflicted upon society as a whole, alienating the minority position, enforced by the state apparatus’ monopoly of violence.

            if one values bodily autonomy, reconciled with the needs of the collective, a system of governance like mutual collective determination must be established which guarantees that all voices are heard and acknowledged.

      • peanuts4life@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Both. Fascist apologist like to cherry pick palatable characteristics of figures like Stalin, or Hitler, or Andrew Jackson in order to destigmatize thier idolatry of these figures. These “certain aspects” are the tip of the wedge they use to destroy rationality and peace.

        A reasonable person who would like to discuss the benefits of communism would point to the value of labor, advantages of unions, and the dignity of the worker, not the evil, paranoid, and violent person of Stalin.

        Always, the stink of fascism follows the idolization of so called “great men.” Excuses after excuses.

          • peanuts4life@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            The Holocaust most definitely happened and was perpetuated by the Nazis. Please don’t accuse me of denial.

            Communism, or to be most specific, Marxism, was most definitely aligned against Hitler.

            Stalin, was not. He would have watched Hitler kill all of Europe had the Nazis not attacked Russia. Same as the united states if Japan had not attacked them.

            • CommunistLady@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              this is incorrect. the USSR made a suggestion to Czechoslovakia to make a defensive pact in case of nazi invasion. they also suggested this to poland. the polish did not like the idea. poland teamed up with nazi germany to invade czechoslovakia, and czechoslovakia preferred the help of the west, which backstabbed them and did not assist them despite declarations to the contrary. this meant that the soviet union could not intervene early in a large alliance against nazi germany. instead, they had to rebuild after the civil war as quickly as possible. they are on record knowing the germans were going to attack well before the war.

              it should also be noted that poland invaded and annexed parts of independent ukraine and russia prior to WW2. the west was hoping the nazis and poland would both invade russia together. the polish ambassador to germany was in fact favorable to handing danzig over to nazi germany, and is on record about their surprise at the attack on poland. the fact that the soviet union suggested an alliance to poland was a massive act of deference considering the recent history.

              why you have an obsession about stalin is beyond me. especially in regards to advocating for violence against marginalized groups that are usually socialist ‘tankies’. the soviet union does not exist anymore. grow up.

              more info here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish–Czechoslovak_border_conflicts

              • peanuts4life@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                I’m not obsessed with Stalin. I’m also not a Holocaust denier. You really seem keen on saying inflammatory things about me without any preceding context.

                I will observe that I think Stalin was an awful person who tarnished the reputation of socialism for a century. I don’t have anything against socialist, being one myself.

                I have a beef with apologist for failed communist states like the soviet onion. I feel they deeply misrepresent socialism.

                • CommunistLady@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  I will observe that I think Stalin was an awful person who tarnished the reputation of socialism for a century. I don’t have anything against socialist, being one myself.

                  this is an american/european thing, not a rest of the world thing. i am not an american, i live elsewhere right now and i am also trans. you simply have been propagandized, and you believe it because you are a product of your environment.

                  you are a holocaust denier if you deny that communists fought fascism and instead supported nazism.

                  • peanuts4life@beehaw.org
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                    1 year ago

                    It’s a semantic argument, then. To me a fascist is a Donald Trump. To me, Facisim is a broad set of characteristics which can be attributed to people outside of the context of Nazi Germany. For example, I might call an ancient emperor a fascist.

                    Facisim to you is a political movement linked only to the Nazis and thier allies.

                    That’s not unfair. It’s a different definition of the word.

                • Soviet Snake
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                  1 year ago

                  You did not addressed a single point lol you’re a broken disc, say the same thing all the time

              • SuddenDownpour@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Your historical notes are technically correct, and Stalin did even attempt to reach a pact with France to limit the potential expansion of Nazi Germany. However, once those initiatives failed, Stalin had no issue about pacting with Hitler instead to invade third countries together, which highlights how Stalin’s first priority was improving his geopolitical position, rather than an ideological opposition to nazism.

                • CommunistLady@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  Stalin had no issue about pacting with Hitler instead to invade third countries together, which highlights how Stalin’s first priority was improving his geopolitical position, rather than an ideological opposition to nazism.

                  Terrible understanding of the sequence of events. The bartering of Czechoslovakia by the West was itself the first invasion, and it was supported by the West. Notably, the Soviet Union did not cede ground to the Nazis, they prevented that ground from being gained and those people from being slaughtered. The West made a NAP with the Nazis and handed vast swathes of people over for extermination. The Nazis were bound to invade Poland no matter what, and it should be noted that France made no offensive push during the invasion of Poland in order to make it happen faster. I would even argue that things were so close on the Eastern Front, that if the Soviet Union did not take back western Belarus and Ukraine the Nazis would have won the war.

                  Improving geopolitical position is ideological opposition to Nazism, which had always postured itself as an enemy to communism.

              • Quereller@lemmy.one
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                1 year ago

                Do you deny the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact and the illegal attack on Poland by the Soviet union under its leader Josef Stalin?

                • CommunistLady@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  1 year ago

                  Do you deny that the west signed NAPs with the Nazis as part of the agreement prior to Czechoslovakia’s annexation, which was before Molotov-Ribbentrop? Do you also deny that the Soviet Union saved approximately 200,000 Jewish lives by annexing Eastern Poland (which was taken from Russia and Ukraine in the 20s) upon the Nazi invasion?

                  • Quereller@lemmy.one
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                    1 year ago

                    No why should I ? A non aggression pact is not the same than occupying another country. The Jews which were deported to other parts of the Union were in deed saved from the Nazis.

          • peanuts4life@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            I am of the strong opinion that fascism doesn’t care if you call yourself a communist, a capitalist, or a Democrat. If someone promotes a state which strips the power of local and individual labor for it’s own use; cultivates violence as a means of domestic control; supports expansionism; and finally the consolidation of power under a personality; I oppose it, and call it what it is.

          • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            And then they killed millions of people to enforce Stalin’s autocracy. How, exactly, is that better than Hitler?

          • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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            1 year ago

            Because they were attacked. Otherwise they would have happily sat out of ww2.

            • yuritopia@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Nazism as an ideology set out to eradicate those seen as impure, and two of the most prominent of those targeted groups were communists and Slavic people. Hitler literally wanted to kill everyone who identified as a socialist. To think that the USSR was unaware or tolerant of this fact is a truly awful take.

              • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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                1 year ago

                Wow a commie who doesnt know history, not surprising. Firstly I never said USSR didnt know what Germany was doing, I said they didnt care. This is backed up by history. Yes Hitler hated the soviets and they probably disliked him to but they tolerated him and his crimes against humanity enough to form an alliance and work together. A little timeline of events to refresh your memory: 1939 USSR signs a non aggression pact with Germany. This pact includes plans to divide eastern europe between USSR and Germany, a clause that prevents the USSR from allying or aiding enemies of Germany. Shortly after Germany and the USSR double team Poland and split it up between them. After Stalin used the attack to capture a few eastern european countries he asked to join the Axis powers treaty. Stalin was warned multiple times that Germany was preparing to backstab him but rejected the warnings as he thought they were so allies. After it was confirm that Hitler had betrayed him he spent several days sulking in his holiday house refusing to communicate with his generals.

                There is no way you can reasonably say that USSR disapproved of Hitlers action and Ideology. The only thing he would have had an issue with is that Hitler hated slavic people. He was even willing to put that aside because they both had authoritarianism in common.

              • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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                1 year ago

                Did you finish your book halfway through? Hitler and Stalin formed an alliance shortly after the Spanish civil war. Even though Hitler referred to Slavic people as untermench Stalin still signed treaties because they were at the end of the day both Fascist Authoritarian dictators and dont give a single fuck about committing crimes against humanity.

      • Silverstrings@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 year ago

        The fundamental problem of tankies is that they forget the whole point of socialism is making people’s lives better, not getting revenge on the hated capitalists. If you create an oppressive hellscape in the process of destroying capitalism then you’ve failed.