I’ve had piles of tankies try to convince me that the workers in China are in fact the ones in control of the government (no mention of the means of production though 🤔), and that shit like there being over 90 million members of the party is evidence of that (rather than of oh, I donno, a dictatorship?)…
It’s the oldest trick in the fascist book, hell, the father of fascism himself made the exact same move - started on the left, then co-opted and distorted its ideas to gain power for himself and his in group, and it’s their favourite trick because it fucking works, because as a society we have been indoctrinated by those in power for a good couple of thousands of years that we NEED someone in power to survive, which again, is completely antithetical to actual leftist ideas (and human nature).
It would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerously effective.
Technically, a sufficiently democratic state would make the workers indirectly in control (or directly in a direct democracy) if the businesses are state owned. Would make them socialist however and not communist, but that might be a bit pedantic.
I’ve had piles of tankies try to convince me that the workers in China are in fact the ones in control of the government (no mention of the means of production though 🤔),
I was referring to this. If the workers in china were actually in control of the government (which they aren’t), and the businesses were controlled by the state (which quite a few of them are, but not all), then that would be a form of socialism.
As it stands however it’s a capitalist oligarchy.
I would also like to say that I’m not arguing for this specific implementation of socialism, I’m elaborating on what is required for socialism in reference to how a tankie might deluded themselves into thinking that china is communist.
Technically, and in theory maybe, and even then only if the majority of business are actually owned by the state, but not in reality, and definitely not in China (or NK, or the USSR, or anywhere else claiming to be socialist, never mind communist) lol
Yup.
I’ve had piles of tankies try to convince me that the workers in China are in fact the ones in control of the government (no mention of the means of production though 🤔), and that shit like there being over 90 million members of the party is evidence of that (rather than of oh, I donno, a dictatorship?)…
It’s the oldest trick in the fascist book, hell, the father of fascism himself made the exact same move - started on the left, then co-opted and distorted its ideas to gain power for himself and his in group, and it’s their favourite trick because it fucking works, because as a society we have been indoctrinated by those in power for a good couple of thousands of years that we NEED someone in power to survive, which again, is completely antithetical to actual leftist ideas (and human nature).
It would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerously effective.
Technically, a sufficiently democratic state would make the workers indirectly in control (or directly in a direct democracy) if the businesses are state owned. Would make them socialist however and not communist, but that might be a bit pedantic.
Technically, it just leads to corporate capture of the state.
You are using the term technically incorrectly :P
I was referring to this. If the workers in china were actually in control of the government (which they aren’t), and the businesses were controlled by the state (which quite a few of them are, but not all), then that would be a form of socialism.
As it stands however it’s a capitalist oligarchy.
I would also like to say that I’m not arguing for this specific implementation of socialism, I’m elaborating on what is required for socialism in reference to how a tankie might deluded themselves into thinking that china is communist.
Technically, and in theory maybe, and even then only if the majority of business are actually owned by the state, but not in reality, and definitely not in China (or NK, or the USSR, or anywhere else claiming to be socialist, never mind communist) lol