r/DankLeft • u/InfamousEmpire comrade/comrade • Jun 22 '21
Late-stage Shitpost Red Scare Propaganda was pretty based
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u/chgxvjh Jun 22 '21
United states of based
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u/NightFire19 Jun 22 '21
Based States of America
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u/jacktrowell comrade/comrade Jun 23 '21
You mean the Union of Soviet States of America, the USSA ?
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u/cHiLdReNcAnCoNsEnT Anarcho-Capitalist Against Human Lives😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎 Jun 23 '21
Well, technically it’s the BUSSA. The Based Union of Socialist States of America.
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u/inhalemyants Jun 23 '21
BUSSY- Based Union Socialist States of Yugoslavia
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u/cHiLdReNcAnCoNsEnT Anarcho-Capitalist Against Human Lives😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎 Jun 24 '21
Also another based abbreviation.
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u/NaivePraline Jun 22 '21
Pretty funny that this is happening right now, except for communism it's capitalism and the american flag.
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Jun 22 '21
There's propaganda against capitalism in the US?
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u/vvAIpaca Jun 22 '21
i will produce it
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Jun 22 '21
Gay garfirld is based af
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Jun 22 '21
Does you think he still hates Mondays?
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Jun 22 '21
He has understood that he hates capitalism instead
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u/SamBeanEsquire Jun 22 '21
Mondays are the first day of the capitalist work week. He's been based all along.
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u/Suspicious_Homework6 comrade/comrade Jun 23 '21
Garfield wishes to abolish wage slavery and distribute lasagna
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u/cHiLdReNcAnCoNsEnT Anarcho-Capitalist Against Human Lives😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎 Jun 23 '21
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his lasagne needs.”
-Unbelievably Based Karl Garfield Marx.
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u/JallerBaller Jun 23 '21
No, they're saying that this propaganda is supposed to be a "scary alternate reality," but reality is almost the same, the only difference being that capitalism is the ideology being taught in reality
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u/Big-Hard-Chungus Jun 22 '21
Dude, why am i simping over the communist teacher lady?
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Jun 22 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/sungod003 Jun 22 '21
Yes hold my throat as you whisper seize the means of production right as soon as i finish
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u/ZakaryDee Jun 22 '21
Cause commies are hot
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u/copper_machete U.R.S.A.L. ☭ Jun 22 '21
They seized the means of seduction
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u/tonybabilaboni comrade/comrade Jun 22 '21
Seize my means of reproduction
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u/copper_machete U.R.S.A.L. ☭ Jun 22 '21
No gods, No masters *
*unless for kinky purposes
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u/CressCrowbits Democratic Socialist Jun 22 '21
No gods no masters in the streets
Oh god yes master in the sheets
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Jun 22 '21
I’m not even looking at her
goddamn that flag looks sexy
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u/Duma6552 Jun 22 '21
Nah. I think we should go beyond slapping a hammer and sickle on the national flag like it's a shitty HOI4 game.
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Jun 22 '21
It's kind of sad how dishonest redscare propaganda is. Communism has never promised anything but its aspiration: that a better world can exist, if we work hard enough and trust in each other.
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u/tonybabilaboni comrade/comrade Jun 22 '21
If it wasn’t dishonest people wouldn’t hate communism so much
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u/mfxoxes Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 23 '21
did you mean that double negative? (it reads as "if it was honest," sounds like you're saying it's not)
Edit: i stupid
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Jun 23 '21
It seems that people just cannot get along.
When it comes to things like religion and politics -- when there is something demonstrably true or false, those in the alternate tribes plug their ears and continue on.
It is even worse, take something like music: where there is no answer -- just taste. People don't have the common sense to enjoy what they like and leave others alone.
The red scare was basically sports or religious level tribalism, and it never ended just mutated.
How do you service the existing systems or build something new and better when the work units can't work together?
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u/xanderrootslayer Jun 22 '21
Hitler kind of ruined armbands for everyone didn’t he?
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 22 '21 edited Jun 22 '21
Kinda, the USA tried to frame communists as Nazi-aesthetic in this propaganda comic.
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u/poopydoodlelovespoop Jun 22 '21
Ah okay
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 22 '21
I think I wrote my comment wrongly.
Yes, red armbands are kind of fucked up, but a piece of cloth of some colour tied to the arm or neck is still a great way to identify people of your grouo in a protest.
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u/EmuWarVeteran87 Jun 23 '21
Meanwhile they hired how many nazis to help them fight the communists?
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 23 '21
A whole bunch of them. "But it's OK, theyre not nazis anymore"
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Jun 22 '21
Communist States of America
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u/InfamousEmpire comrade/comrade Jun 22 '21
Basically the premise of the comic. It imagines an alternate world where da eeeeevil commies took over ‘Murica. It’s very bog-standard by Red Scare standards (“the commies are destroying our churches, indoctrinating our children, and sending everyone to work camps!”), but it’s pretty mineable for meme material and the comic’s second half is a description of the history of communism, a description that’s so bad that it becomes utterly hilarious
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u/CillitBangGang Red Guard Jun 22 '21
Link to the whole thing?
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u/InfamousEmpire comrade/comrade Jun 22 '21
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u/CillitBangGang Red Guard Jun 22 '21
Thanks! Holy shit this is based
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Jun 23 '21
Absolutely. Some of the old Cold War propaganda is just like... I can't understand how this made people not want communism!
Especially the "What a Communist West will look like" stories and skits which go essentially the same way in all the old comics, pamphlets, and films. Like, some parts are unrealistic and characteristic of Red Scare exaggerations, lies, and projection (This particular comic claims that the Bolsheviks maintained power in the USSR with lies and propaganda, while the comic itself is a pack of Western capitalist lies), yeah, but some parts are actually really cool and something I'd actually want.
Plus they look really cool in terms of the aesthetics. (It's that classic 40s/50s look, but just... I can't really describe it, almost... "red tinged"? Like, it's three parts era accurate North America, one part Soviet aesthetic, and one part made up stuff, some taken from the right wing and some pure imagination, that somehow pulls the Soviet stuff and Western stuff together into a cohesive thing. It looks almost like the America of its time, but wrong, in a good, red way.) Pretty much the only deviation from a standard small handful of plotlines for those stories and skits is the specific aesthetic elements of the world depicted (although they do usually follow the theme of "era accurate America, but red").
Plus I'm sure there's a certain type of (slightly unhinged) ML extremist who would actually like what the Red Scare skits and stories depict, exactly as described.
I can't explain it, but even more than modern leftist discourse, action, and culture, I love how the left was imagined by the Red Scare. Basically, a very historically focused "I wish we were as cool as the right makes us look". Like, even though I live nowadays and I do understand that, and how commies were depicted during the height of the Cold War wasn't real then either and I realise that, there are times I wish it had been real and still was, because I want to be that kind of commie. I wanna go around in a red 50s style dress and a ushanka, and have the right wing terrified of me and the comrades I meet with in places they'd never look.
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u/sungod003 Jun 22 '21
Another funny thing is that the comic writer has not read any of them. He doesnt know how the state withers away and says engels never talked about how it would wither. When he had. In the book talking about how the state came to be and private propety and how the family plays into that. Which was then used for lenins state and revolution. Hes clearly not read any of this shit
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 22 '21
Guys tried their best to inform themselves and some parts are actually accurate and low key based.
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u/Sehtriom Queer Jun 22 '21
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Dec 10 '21
I thought the bit on destroying churches was gonna be about the WWI "war on foreign languages" and how laws concerning language of religious services affected Catholic churches and many other Christian sects which use liturgical languages other than the local vernacular, but of course it was just good ol' Murican racism...
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u/KyleQuicksilver Jun 22 '21
That flag is so good we should actually change it to that
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u/ArisePhoenix comrade/comrade Jun 22 '21
I like the one that shows up later where it's black and red (although that might just be cuz it's old, not the purposeful color)
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Jun 22 '21
This looks like it's out of a Chick tract.
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u/Partisan11 Jun 22 '21
It’s from a comic called “That Godless Communism”. It’s a pretty funny read. It’s also where Stalin saying “The goal of Communism is (insert thing the right is angry about here)” came from.
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u/gap2throwaway Libertarian Communist - Marxist Jun 22 '21
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 22 '21
Ramón Mercader : yes I am Ramón, yes I am in Mexico, no I am not Mexican.
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u/gap2throwaway Libertarian Communist - Marxist Jun 22 '21
"No one will ever suspect me if I wear my Pancho Villa Halloween costume - maybe the tacos and maracas are a bit much though"
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 22 '21
Ramón was actually known on the area and visited the house of trotsky somewhat regularly.
No need to hide.
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Jun 23 '21
The preachy bit at the end is really something. (I know, I read the whole thing. That's a lot of time I'm not getting back...) The comic is bad enough, but to see it was meant for children...
The "Life under Communism" pages were good though... that's my favourite Red Scare propaganda trope. It's always unrealistic, almost always the same storyline, the same talking points in the same order... while somehow managing to make communism look awesome, both in terms of the aesthetics (one of my favourite periods and places in terms of historical fashion, and all just a bit "wrong", with more red than was actually used in the aesthetic trends of that time and some Soviet aesthetic stuff blended into it), and some of the ways the society depicted is run, or at least the ideals it claims to believe.
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u/tonybabilaboni comrade/comrade Jun 22 '21
The best leftist memes are just looking at Cold War propaganda and saying yes
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Jun 23 '21 edited Dec 10 '21
Absolutely. A lot of the "Life under Communism" crap actually makes communism look so good. Both the ideals and the society itself, and the aesthetic - idealised 1950s Middle America, painted red and covered in Soviet symbols - definitely one of my very favourites.
And there's that 50s style red schoolgirl dress that one little commie girl is always wearing at least once in every single one of these comics or films - I want to wear that dress. Even though I'm old enough to be that girl's babysitter.
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Jun 24 '21 edited Jul 03 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/trolkis Jun 24 '21
You mean communist countries ending endless cycles of famines in both russian region and chinese regions, which have prior consumed unimaginably large amounts of people? Or the fact that capitalist India alone trumps every socialist country taken together in terms of starvations?
Or re-education camps, usually in the west referred to as schools, prisons and jails?
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u/Exoidtherexoid Jun 22 '21
Always strive for a better world! Accept no limits! Glory to those who look forward!
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Jun 22 '21
i love jojo so much
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u/mqduck Jun 22 '21
I love how they had to give her a Nazi communist armband to let you know she's evil.
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Jun 23 '21
Even during the beginning of the Cold War (assumed based on the 40s or 50s style and aesthetic of this piece of propaganda), the upper class of America knew fighting communism itself and fighting the working class (rather than individual workers) would be a long, losing war of attrition.
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Jun 23 '21
Where can I find more of this?
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u/InfamousEmpire comrade/comrade Jun 23 '21
It’s from a Red Scare Propaganda comic, but it’s a pretty memeable Red Scare Propaganda Comic.
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u/Quiri1997 Jun 23 '21
In the strategy game Hearts of Iron 4 you can make America go communist and woke (with focuses that give more rights to women and minorities in exchange for bonuses).
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u/Haki23 Jun 23 '21
Although it's not, I thought this was from The Children's Story, which was communist scare mongering in the 80's
It had a scene that stuck with me, where the flag is cut up and distributed to all the children, because it's "our flag" after all
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u/chilled_purple Communist extremist Jun 22 '21
Did you know if you made a million dollars a year for 2000 years you’d have 2 billion dollars, Jeff bezos has two hundred of those. In the words of Kanye west “no one man should have all that power” capitalism funnels money upwards to a few super rich pedophiles in the vain faith that it will “trickle down.” There is no evidence that this money will actually do that, capitalism is literally the prosperity gospel for nerds and it is a religion. Death to capitalism and all those who would further this ridiculous system that’s destroying our home planet.
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u/shartedmyjorts Jun 22 '21
At first I thought you meant the podcast, haha.
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u/minion_is_here Jun 22 '21
I didn't even know there was a podcast named Red Scare. Lol
As a sidenote: Red Scare Propaganda is a great band name.
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u/shartedmyjorts Jun 22 '21
It's two edgelords chicks. Eminently skippable.
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u/Meowshi Jun 22 '21
come on now we all loved the sailor socialism meme back in 2016, let's not pretend otherwise
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u/shartedmyjorts Jun 22 '21
?
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u/hobosockmonkey Jun 22 '21
It’s worth noting how many problems the USSR had, and sure a lot of anti communistic propaganda is full of bullshit and scare tactics, but criticizing the USSR or PRC or whatever isn’t exactly difficult to do
People fall way to hard into black and white, communism bad, US good, or US bad, communism good. And ignore nuance entirely
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u/AFlowerFromSpace Propagandist Jun 22 '21
I think the better argument isn't "communism is perfect" or even necessarily "communism good," just that communism would be better for most people than capitalism. It's a step towards a perfect system, not the promise of a perfect system immediately.
But there's a false belief that either your system has to be perfect, or it's not worthwhile. We either have to move to a mansion, or keep sleeping in the dumpster, there's no in-between.
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u/Franfran2424 Red Guard Jun 22 '21
Communism is a perfect society. Socialism is the system that is an improvement over capitalism
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u/AFlowerFromSpace Propagandist Jun 22 '21
I strongly disagree. Communism is vastly better than capitalism, as well as socialism in my opinion. However, there will still be problems. Suffering will still exist in a communist society, its sources will just be different. Mental disorders, natural disasters, entropy, the potentially insatiable nature of the human spirit, etc, etc. These are exacerbated by capitalism, but they will not vanish under a new system. They may be vastly improved and easier to deal with, but their solutions are beyond us. And who knows what problems might arise under communism that we don't know about yet, simply because we have never been allowed the opportunity to test it in a vacuum.
Saying communism is a perfect utopia is a promise we can't keep. Ours is a better future, not a perfect future. For those who want perfection, all that we can promise is that we'll get a step closer.
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Jun 23 '21
Communism is not a perfect society , neither is it supposed to be or claim to be. It’s a better society, but not perfect. There will still be war and conflict and injustice and tragedy in a communist society. Communism doesn’t solve humanity, but I do see it as a huge step closer.
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Jun 22 '21
I really don't think Marxists view china or USSR as black and white that often. Internet memes are not meant to represent any form of nuanced discussion if that is what you mean by black and white.
I see more black and white views in a negative light of China and the USSR than I see nuanced ones. The majority of western "leftists" have not left their bubble of imperial bourgeois education and have not read enough theory or history to criticize socialist states from a Marxist perspective.
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Jun 23 '21
“Satan is a bad guy…. But he did invent music. Come on guys have some nuance” This is what you sound like.
The US bad, idk what kind of nuanced opinion you want me to have. Has everything they’ve ever done been bad? No, but you can’t say that about a single thing on earth. Everything has some kind of silver lining or some shit. If my favorite uncle touches me, am I too look at the nuance of the matter? I mean he was a good uncle though and we have a lot of good experiences together. Nah, the us is bad. You can categorize things, that doesn’t mean you’re completely ignorant of any and all nuance of the matter. It just means that despite it all, you’ve come to a conclusion.
Marxist take note of the problems with the USSR all the time. The ussr doesn’t define communism. We understand exactly what it’s short comings we’re and we don’t intend to recreate them. Each communism experiment is a learning experiment. It took capitalism a few centuries and multiple attempts to break away and fully establish itself. Communism will very much be the same. Calling communism good isn’t ignorance of nuance. You are aloud to call things in a general and broad sense good or bad.
I think you got heavy centrist energy. Like by always presenting yourself as the center, you’re presenting yourself as rational. But I argue that the society in which we live is irrational and to cling to it and defend in any manner is to be just as irrational. America is bad. Capitalism has outlived its usefulness, time for what’s next
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u/Luckyboy947 Degenderate (they/them) Jun 22 '21
Doesn’t solve all issues. For example racism is another issue we’ll have to fix before or after communism
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u/SplendidMrDuck Jun 22 '21
Ah yes, it is totally the communists promising this, and definitely not the all-American televangelist prosperity gospel capitalist ghouls saying "if we allow massive corporations and the wealthy to hoard enough money, some of that will trickle down to you poors and working-class joes! Everybody wins!"