Coito ergo sum wrote:I've been looking for a proper discussion about communism for years. Most of the time, the proponents of it can't even explain what they think it is. All the time people say, "you're mischaracterizing communism! It's not that [insert negative description]!" But, they won't tell you what it really is in any degree of detail - they'll give you the broad strokes -- everyone equal -- to each according to need, from each according to ability to give (which is a horrid, abysmal basis for an economic system, and amounts to a prescription for slavery, IMHO) -- but, beyond that, they won't give any detail as to how society would actually function under their proposed system.
I agree. I've been doing the same thing and I've never yet found anyone who is willing or able to defend the ideology. All any proponent has been able to do, at best, is derail the debate into the supposed evils of capitalism whilst ignoring utterly the absolute insanity and evil of Communism. They cannot and will not defend the economic propositions put forward by Marx and others, much less examine human behavior to see if it comports with the communist ideal.
Most of this evasion is simply the product of ignorance, stupidity, propaganda and indoctrination. Most people simply cannot defend Communism because, as you point out, they don't even know what it is. They have some vague notion that things would be more "fair" (for them, of course, because they are have-nots) if socialism or communism were applicable to everyone, but they are incapable of explaining how this would work in actual practice much less whether it's a durable socioeconomic model.
But some of the evasion is evil and intentional. The hard-core Marxists have been carefully taught never to allow discussion of the ideology. They are only permitted to spout propaganda and slogans, not critically examine the flaws. This is because if the lumpen proletariat actually take the time to think critically about Marxism, they quickly discover that it's false.
It's every bit as much a religion as Catholicism, and it has it's own unquestionable God in Karl Marx, before whom all Communists must genuflect and whose dictates are to be taken at face value as revealed truth.
And Communist religious zealots have killed far more people in the last century than all theists combined.
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"All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke
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