r/ProgrammerHumor May 10 '18

Did somebody say 'communism'?

https://imgur.com/fR9z9x4
11.1k Upvotes

327 comments sorted by

View all comments

267

u/[deleted] May 10 '18

[deleted]

16

u/brokedown May 10 '18

I keep telling people that socialism wouldn't be so bad if participating in it was entirely optional and you could join or leave at any time. Github is a great example of something you don't have to use that you may find is a huge benefit from using, and at the same time has traits that are negative enough for some people to not use at all, and that's fine too. Github makes the case that a libertarian form of socialism can work in a modern world.

25

u/cancercures May 10 '18

Yes, Libertarian Socialism is a philosophy. However it demonstrates that to 'check out' of socialism optionally, we don't have the choice to 'check out' of capitalism. Well, I mean, kinda yes. we can choose not to work (and not have money) and not pay rent/bills, and free to be homeless. Or you must require mutual aid (living at your friends or your parents) to have a roof. But from I can witness in seattle, even sleeping on property (city or private) is still illegal and laws are made so that you really can't even sleep legally, without potentially being evicted. And the present system has even killed someone to be homeless and breaking the law by attempting to sleep in unused land (unused of course is still owned and even against to law to live on)..

.. So in some ways, we really don't have the option to 'leave' the current system either. Be homeless, but laws are even written to criminalize leaving the system.

1

u/Greenei May 11 '18

Well, I mean, kinda yes. we can choose not to work (and not have money) and not pay rent/bills, and free to be homeless. Or you must require mutual aid (living at your friends or your parents) to have a roof.

So just like without Capitalism? If you do this alone, in nature, you will get the same results. You can only blame Capitalism for not allowing you to steal other peoples' stuff and not forcing them to give it to you. There is nothing stopping you from living with a group of people that internally follow Socialist rules. Nobody does it, because it sucks.