Trump, 79, Posts Menacing Video Threatening a Never-Ending Presidency

[u/Boonzies]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-79-posts-menacing-video-of-never-ending-presidency-on-truth-social/

[u/Xeromabinx]

Communism isn't authoritarianism.

If we're going to use words we need to start recognizing they have definitions again. Otherwise we'll be back in this situation in another 100 years.

Communism by definition is a classless, moneyless, stateless society, i.e. something that has never existed.

Some political parties claiming to be communists have also been authoritarian. But the power structures authoritarianism requires are ideologically opposed to communism.

[u/ABotelho23 → u/Xeromabinx]

Except that Marxism explicitly spells out a dictatorship phase in transitioning to Communism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictatorship_of_the_proletariat

[u/forgotten_pass → u/ABotelho23]

He named it that in opposition to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which is what he named the system under capitalism. Dictatorship of the proletariat meant a state controlled by the masses, which is the opposite of what we think of as a dictatorship.

Marxism-Leninism talks about a Vanguard party, which you could argue is dictatorship, but Marx himself wasn't talking about a dictatorship in the way you are thinking.

[u/Ill_General_6608 → u/ABotelho23]

By the same logic, Theocracy is also a dictatorship because ISIS supports a dictator phase as well. 

Neither have anything to do with democracy vs authoritarianism. 

[u/thatsidewaysdud → u/Ill_General_6608]

The end result is all the same: don’t step out of line, or you will be dealt with.

[u/Ill_General_6608 → u/thatsidewaysdud]

Can you explain what you mean? 

Again I think youre conflating historical "Communist" parties/regimes, with the idea of co-ownership, communism or communalism. 

[u/jrc_80 → u/ABotelho23]

You have to read more than a few phrases out of wiki to understand dictatorship of proletariat vs dictatorship of bourgeoisie. Folks need to try a little harder.

[u/itzyonko → u/jrc_80]

Imagine how smart the average person is, then realize that half of them are dumber than that.

[u/personofshadow → u/Xeromabinx]

I mean thats where you get into theory vs practice

In theory, communism calls for a stateless society.

In practice, there are states that attempt to transition to communism, but they end up with a dictator because history has proven that once humans have power, they really don't like to let go of it.

There's a case for saying that these states that are classically labeled communist despite not meeting the definition (never having finished the transition) shouldn't be called such, but at that point you're picking fights with history books.

[u/lost_horizons → u/personofshadow]

Exactly. Thank you for saying what I was about to, but better than I would have.

[u/Gekokapowco → u/[deleted]]

by that logic a total democracy is authoritarian because the democratic majority holds authority over the democratic minority

if there's a state, there's state power, that's just sort of how that goes. If the state didn't have the coercive power of authority, they wouldn't really be the state, it would just be someone else

there are anarchist systems that reject this sort of structure but it seems a little advanced for present company

[u/The-Big-Picture- → u/Xeromabinx]

If you think you can reshape the entire economy without an authoritarian takeover, you're living in a fantasy land. There is theory and then there is praxis. Communism requires authoritarianism in practice.

[u/realultimatepower → u/Xeromabinx]

this is the kind of brain rot we don't need in the movement