this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
866 points (94.2% liked)
Memes
45704 readers
1203 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's a form of socialism in the broadest sense of the term, but what you're describing has nothing to do with socialism as it has ever existed in the world and not something that should exist. Socialism must be democratic or it's just a holding-state for fascism and, as you describe your "system," an engine of gleeful murder.
Bro, you people are the first to want to eat the rich alive and when I propose a government that actually does that you all go "no, man, democracy is the way, peace and love"? Fuck that, I want revenge for this shitty world I've been given and a better world in the meantime, and the elite who caused this must pay dearly.
I guess I've discovered an "unreconstructed" socialist. I think an autocracy is bad even if it kills rightists, but that doesn't mean I want to make peace with the rich. If the government isn't bound by a popular mandate, then it's just guided by the whims of whichever assholes are in charge, and you've basically reverted to monarchy.
Mao's purging of the landlords was a great achievement, but it only worked because he left it up to the people rather than having the PLA go to every plot of land and dictate what is to be done with it. Likewise, it was also a great achievement that he was able to rehabilitate Puyi, the last Emperor of China, rather than resorting to killing him. Turning people into productive members of society is always the most preferential option, it's just that it often simply isn't viable.
Revenge is an idealist notion that doesn't accomplish anything. It's just sadism and leaves justice completely aside. Sometimes it is correct to kill people (and in times of war, unfortunately frequently so), but that is for the material difference that makes (e.g. diffusing threats) rather than because it rights some imaginary cosmic ledger.
Yes, we must seize power from the reactionaries, and that will require incredible violence and lead to lots of purging, but if we are separate from the people, we are just a military dictatorship like any other.
To defeat the reactionaries we have to completely strip them of their economic and mediatic power, and the only way is to suppress their voice and cut off their money.