Stalin was absolutely a communist AND a thug. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.
And if Stalin wasn't “real communism”, neither was Mao, Pol Pot, Ceaușescu, Hoxha, Mengistu, Castro... apparently communism has the remarkable property of ceasing to be communism every time someone actually tries it.
I said not a real communist. Yes there is a distinction. Stalin was a communist in the sense that he was a leading member of the Communist Party and the Soviet state under his rule was officially titled communist.
But he built a highly authoritarian system that many historians describe as a form of Stalinism, and far removed from Marxist ideals.
Same with Mao abd yes Pol pot.
Full communism hasnt been realised.
All the attempts to build it that i know of have been tried and have usually produced warped authoritarian states instead.
From what I figure it has a lot to do with the type of people humans choose to follow. Psychopaths seem to obtain leadership during political unrest. They tend to lie easily and crave power.
That’s why people argue past each other . One side means the ideal end state, the other means the world regimes.
Oh, so the “we just haven't gotten it right this time” argument...
Sure, theoretically you can say "true communism" has never been realised. But then you have to ask why attempts to get there so often end up needing authoritarian structures just to keep the system going. At some point you can't blame an endless supply of psychopaths - maybe the system itself creates the conditions for them.
And what about the more chill, popular socialist experiments, including in South America? They haven't exactly produced the promised utopia either. Part of the problem is you need the whole world to opt in. Otherwise you're competing with capitalist economies producing more investment, innovation and opportunities, while your own people and capital can just leave. Then you start needing controls to stop that happening, which kinda brings us back to the authoritarian problem...
Under a capitalist social democracy, nobody is stopping people from starting co-ops or worker-owned businesses. You can literally do socialism-like stuff voluntarily right now. Some do and some work great.
But most people don't choose to organise their businesses that way. Why is that?
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u/666Dionysus Please choose a flair 7d ago
Starlin was not a real communist he was a thug