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Cowbee [he/they]

@ Cowbee @lemmy.ml

Posts
39
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13968
Joined
2 yr. ago

Actually, this town has more than enough room for the two of us

He/him or they/them, doesn't matter too much

Marxist-Leninist ☭

Interested in Marxism-Leninism, but don't know where to start? Check out my Read Theory, Darn it! introductory reading list!

  • What Fediverse instances would you recommend to others?

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  • Nor on Hexbear, or a few other large instances. In the case of Hexbear and Blahaj, it's to protect queer users from being unfairly downvoted, as well as to encourage discussion over silent downvoting.

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  • No problem! As a tiny addendum, if you're interested in Marxism-Leninism at a general level, and not how it's specifically used in China, I wrote an introductory reading list you can check out if you want!

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  • I'm not trying to argue with you, just see more where you're coming from, what your present understanding of socialism and China in particular is, etc, so that I can help bridge the gap. For clarity, I'm a Marxist-Leninist, I study theory and organize in real life (though less than I'd like to admit, which is something I'm working on).

    The PRC does mass produce a huge portion of the world's goods, yes. This alone isn't incompatible with either capitalism or socialism. China has a private sector, largely relegated to small/medium firms, and secondary, ie not critical or key industries. The public sector governs the large firms and key industries, including finance.

    Even checking Wikipedia, data from 2022 shows that the overwhelming majority of the top companies are publicly owned SOEs. This is China's strategy, they've been honest about it from the beginning. The private sector is about half cooperatives like Huawei or farming cooperarives and sole proprietorships, with the other half being small and medium firms. As these grow, they are folded into the public sector gradually. This is China's Socialist Market Economy.

    China's relation with the world market came into being as a result of Reform & Opening Up, which agreed to foreign investment as long as the PRC retained sovereignty over the invested capital, and technology and knowledge transfer was mandatory. This is the secret to stablizing their growth, which was positive but unstable under Mao and the Gang of Four, as the PRC was developing from a largely agrarian economy to an industrialized one:

    Class struggle does continue in socialism. The idea that it ends is one of the reasons the USSR liberalized towards the end and dissolved. China's market reforms were made not with blindness to their danger, but with control and containment, often described as a "birdcage model." In this way, the proletariant retains dominance over the state and the commanding heights of industry, while capitalists largely exist purely to facilitate the beneficial aspects of markets, such as rapid development of underdeveloped industry. As these firms grow, they are folded and integrated more into the public sector.

    As for the state being run by the working classes, this is also pretty straightforward. Public ownership is the principle aspect of the economy, and the CPC, a working class party, dominates the state. At a democratic level, local elections are direct, while higher levels are elected by lower rungs. At the top, constant opinion gathering and polling occurs, gathering public opinion, driving gradual change. This system is better elaborated on in Professor Roland Boer's Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance, and we can see the class breakdown of the top of the government itself:

    Overall, this system has resulted in over 90% of the population approving the government, which is shown to be consistent and accurate. If you want to learn more Roland Boer also has a good book called Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners, which is more specifically about the PRC and goes beyond the structures of governance to the more broad system of socialism in China. While not nearly as in-depth due to time limits as Roland Boer's work (and mostly focused on the Xi Jinping era), Red Pen's A Summary of Xi Jinping's Governance of China can be a good primer! There's also This is how China's economic model works: Explaining Socialism with Chinese Characteristics by Geopolitical Economy Report.

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  • What would you accept as proof? The USSR brought dramatic democratization to society. First-hand accounts from Statesian journalist Anna Louise Strong in her book This Soviet World describe soviet elections and factory councils in action. Statesian Pat Sloan even wrote Soviet Democracy to describe in detail the system the soviets had built for curious Statesians to read about, and today we have Professor Roland Boer's Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance to reference.

    How could they have materially been more democratic in a way that would satisfy you?

    When it comes to social progressivism, the soviet union was among the best out of their peers, so instead we must look at who was actually repressed outside of the norm. In the USSR, it was the capitalist class, the kulaks, the fascists who were repressed. This is out of necessity for any socialist state. When it comes to working class freedoms, however, the soviet union represented a dramatic expansion. Soviet progressivism was documented quite well in Albert Syzmanski's Human Rights in the Soviet Union.

    In what way were they more repressive than their peers?

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  • It's not about gatekeeping "common sense," much of what Marx elaborates on is far from common sense until you adopt the method of dialectical materialism. Theory is necessary, just like you wouldn't want a random person to perform surgery, so too you wouldn't want an untrained revolutionary.

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  • AI is generally treated more as infrastructure in China, for helping automate industry and agriculture, than as an investment platform and the latest "fad" bubble.

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  • Why do you believe manufacturing to be incompatible with socialism? In the PRC, public ownership, not private, is the principle aspect of the economy, and the working classes control the state. This is recognized as socialist.

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  • The picture is closer to the truth when you factor in imperialism, and the actual wealth gap.

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  • The rate is massive at this point, considering how long it has been going on, especially due to imperierialism. You're referring to the labor aristocracy exclusively when you say 13,000 isn't life changing.

  • Turns out that the US is unable to produce enough missiles for Ukraine and a war with Iran

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  • Oh, most definitely real then!

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  • That works!

  • Turns out that the US is unable to produce enough missiles for Ukraine and a war with Iran

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  • The burden of proof is on you, all I was doing was contextualizing what you posted.

  • Turns out that the US is unable to produce enough missiles for Ukraine and a war with Iran

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  • The IWPR is based in Washington D.C., the U.K., and the Netherlands, and seems to be especially concerned about manufacturing consent for backing the Banderite regime in Kiev, and supporting the ovethrow of socialism and Chavismo in Venezuela.

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  • I don’t trust the statistics of a state that let millions inhabitants starve to death.

    They didn't "let" millions of inhabitants starve to death, they did everything they could to alleviate it. Russia was notorious for frequent famine and starvation prior to collectivization of agriculture, and ended famine once and for all once it had. That's a major contributor to the doubling of life expectancies in Russia:

    Moreover, contemporary historians rely on statistics provided by the soviets, fact-check them, and find them to be very reliable.

    How exactly was the normal worker in control of production? Wasn’t it more like production was in the hand of the state, which in fact was very hierarchical?

    As I explained earlier, and will copy again, the state was run by the working classes. Socialism is not the absence of hierarchy, you're thinking of anarchism. First-hand accounts from Statesian journalist Anna Louise Strong in her book This Soviet World describe soviet elections and factory councils in action (as I'll show at the end). Statesian Pat Sloan even wrote Soviet Democracy to describe in detail the system the soviets had built for curious Statesians to read about, and today we have Professor Roland Boer's Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance to reference.

    Several elections which I attended will show concretely how soviet democracy functions. Four election meetings were held simultaneously in different hamlets of Gulin village, which had no assembly hall big enough for all. One of these meetings threw out the Party candidate, Borisov, because they felt that he neglected their instructions; they elected a non-Party woman who had displayed energy in improving the village and were praised by the election commissioner—himself a Party member—for having discovered good government timber which the Party had neglected. The central meeting in Gulin expected 235 voters; 227 appeared and were duly checked off by name at the door. There ensued personal discussion of every one of nine candidates, of whom seven were chosen. Mihailov “did good work on the roads.” The most enthusiasm developed over Menshina, a woman who “does everything assigned her energetically; checks farm property, tests seeds, collects state loans.” Dr. Sharkova, head of the Mothers’ Consultation, was pushed by the women: “We need a sanitary expert to clean up our village.” The incoming soviet was instructed to “increase harvest yield within two years to thirty bushels per acre, to organize a stud farm, get electricity and radio for every home, organize adult education courses, football and skiing teams, and satisfy a score of other needs.

    • Anna Louise Strong

    All in all, the version of the Soviet Union that exists in your head is a work of fiction.

  • Turns out that the US is unable to produce enough missiles for Ukraine and a war with Iran

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  • Most communists support the secessionists in Donetsk and Luhansk, that have been fighting the Banderite regime in Kiev since 2014, when their democratically elected president was ousted in a western-backed, far-right coup. The Russian Federation is aiding the secessionists, and destroying NATO equipment and resources that otherwise are used to threaten the global south into bending the knee to western imperialism.

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  • Fair, but my point is that the lion's share expands exponentially, not linearly, nor is it all consumed every year.

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  • That's pure profit, not counting surplus re-invested into production and expansion, and moreover this wealth extends year over year as reproduction occurs on an expanded scale.

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  • There are many parasitic classes historically, such as the feudal lords, slave owners, patriarchs, landlords, etc. The capitalists are the present dominant parasitic class.

  • Turns out that the US is unable to produce enough missiles for Ukraine and a war with Iran

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  • No "tankie" thinks Putin is a communist, far more liberals think Putin is secretly a communist than communists think so, both by ratio and total.

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Read Feinberg.

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    ☭ Workers of the World, Unite! ☭

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Parenti Hands

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    You Can Always Use Comrade!

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    End the Imperialist Blockade

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    PragerUrine

  • Memes @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    The Greatest Lie about the Red Scare is that it Ended

  • Socialism @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of "Brainwashing"

    redsails.org /masses-elites-and-rebels/
  • Socialism @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    "Tankies"

    redsails.org /tankies/
  • Socialism @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Why Marxism?

    redsails.org /why-marxism/
  • Socialism @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Why Public Property?

    taiyangyu.medium.com /why-public-property-28773fa93b61
  • Socialism @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    What is Socialism?

    taiyangyu.medium.com /what-is-socialism-3b554dc645a9
  • Communism @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Read Theory, Darn it!

  • Videos @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Michael Parenti "Yellow Parenti" Speech Excerpt

  • Gaming @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Fallout: London Official Release Trailer

  • Games @hexbear.net
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    Pseudoregalia is dope.

  • Games @hexbear.net
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    What are your favorite Indie Games from the last 5 or so years?

  • Games @hexbear.net
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    What games have the best Leftist or Leftist adjacent narratives and writing?

  • Asklemmy @lemmy.ml
    Cowbee [he/they] @lemmy.ml

    What are your favorite albums from the 2020s?