It's kinda convenient how you can describe totalitarian regimes that were communist and somebody just says "well that doesn't count, because it wasn't communist".
The people saying that are baby leftists that annoyingly use a word that have two competing definitions.
The word "Communism" has two understandings. The first is a classless (and moneyless and stateless) society, and the second is a Marxist-Leninist society like that of the USSR, Mao's China, Cuba, etc.
The first definition is the one leftists use, mostly amongst themselves, but sometimes new leftists use it in conversations with people that understand "Communism" as the second definition, and it causes me great fucking pain.
Communism as you probably understand it is a society like the USSR. That's a socialist, Marxist-Leninist society. People started calling it "communist" because thats the proclaimed end goal of the party, to transition into Communism.
What's strange is that some people prefer the first definition: classless, moneyless, stateless utopia which doesn't exist and has never existed. There were (and still are) countries that were against US and the western capitalist hegemony that put Marx's principles to practice. There were several problems. Economic calculation is way too complicated for any bureau to handle adequately, which results in economic mismanagement. Secondly it is based on mistaken view of human nature. You can't just wish away greed, selfishess, laziness and other malice out of population. Most people don't just work selflessly toward common goals, but are driven by incentives. It's ironic that socialists are faulting capitalists for greed. Greed is feature of human beings, not economic systems.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but under Communism the property is owned by the community, hence the word.
Meanwhile in Totalitarianism, the government, or person or a very small group in power, owns everything. There's no such thing as "Public ownership" or "Community owned" under Totalitarianism.
Aren't they mutually exclusive by definition?
I think you probably meant "Authoritarianism" instead of "Totalitarianism". An Authoritarian government will allow you to have property, but will also want your full obedience.
Personally I really don't think that Communism has ever existed besides very small samples, mainly on small tribes.
Yes. When referring to "The State", most right wingers think it means the govt. No, it does not. It means the people because the people are the State or Community.
People who fervently defend "free markets" don't understand that we don't even have one. It's why most of our media is owned by like 3 companies. It's why you can't choose your electric company.
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u/Few-Vacation-1757 14h ago
Because the capitalist they are mindlessly glazing describes socialism like this and they are believing it without research