Even from people that never lived in a communist state

  • Bideo_james@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    How would you define communism? I hear so many different definitions and find it hard to differentiate which one is accurate.

    • pearable@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      The original definition is a community where private property is not a thing. Private property is when an individual can control the land, tools, and knowledge people need to survive. Private property is factories, not your toothbrush.

      Most pro USSR, PRC, or Cuba leftists believe those countries governments controlling all or the vast majority of private property constitutes communism. Some think these countries are socialist and working their way to communism.

      Many anti-communist people don’t really understand how these countries work specifically. All their ideas of what communism is are based on how they view the above communist countries.

      Finally right wingers will describe California as communist because they have social programs and higher taxes than some states. Basically if the government is intervening in the market by supplying a service or good directly to a citizen that’s communism.

      From what I’ve observed most people lie somewhere on this spectrum of definition.

    • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      I was kidding around, and part of the joke is how pointless the definition is:

      communism: that the assets held by a body are indivisible across the individuals of that body when the assets in question are required to engage in production.

      Thereby any definition of “body”, “asset” and “production” can be used to define specific types and scopes of a communist ideology.

      propaganda: a piece or collection of communications that has the primary purpose to persuade.

      communist propaganda: a communication to persuade the reader to share the means of production across a collective.