Mindfuck

[Nox]

I was just casually doing some Geography homework, opened the book on the wrong page, interestingly it was about the demographics of China or something like that, and it said "China's government is state capitalist", those exact words.

Do my eyes deceive me?

[Lobotomy]

That's not too surprising. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who still considers China to be communist, even when it comes to right wingers.

[Landsharks eat metal]

You kidding me? Everyone I've ever talked to seems to think that China is still at least "mostly communist".

[Le Rouge]

You kidding me? Everyone I've ever talked to seems to think that China is still at least "mostly communist".

Same for me. I basically had to argue with them that China isn't communist/socialist. They couldn't believe it.

[Lobotomy]

Oh. guess it's just my area then.

[ColonelCossack]

Everyone in my area is at least a social-democrat who thinks communism would be great but sadly can't work because of "human nature".

[Landsharks eat metal]

Everyone in my area is at least a social-democrat who thinks communism would be great but sadly can't work because of "human nature".

I'm jealous. Everyone in my area is the type of person who thinks commies are pure evil and Obama is the king of all communists.
But it's actually because of my anti-communist history teacher that I found the revolutionary left, so growing up here didn't totally fuck me over.
(That's why I have trouble hating social democrats and liberals, though. I was always excited to meet someone who wasn't a conservative because they were less likely to express hateful opinions that made me want to punch them.)

[ColonelCossack]

I'm jealous. Everyone in my area is the type of person who thinks commies are pure evil and Obama is the king of all communists.
But it's actually because of my anti-communist history teacher that I found the revolutionary left, so growing up here didn't totally fuck me over.
(That's why I have trouble hating social democrats and liberals, though. I was always excited to meet someone who wasn't a conservative because they were less likely to express hateful opinions that made me want to punch them.)

haw haw

[Rafiq]

My civics textbook defines communism as a stateless, classless society....

It even fucking said Marx predictes a revolution will only survive if it spreads to an industrialized country...!

I guess the ZOG conspiracies about cultural marxism are true :lol:

[Prometeo liberado]

You kidding me? Everyone I've ever talked to seems to think that China is still at least "mostly communist".

Can someone(besides Obama) be mostly dead?

[Red Commissar]

Most school sources won't really say China is 'communist' anymore. Where I lived, schools usually had a basic interpretation of an economy along a continuum- one end as 'free market/laissez-faire' and the other as command economy. Rarely does a country end up on one or the other, they'll usually be in the middle but leaning towards one or the other. US leaned towards Free Market, European states typically were around the middle as 'mixed economies', and the Soviet Union, China, and other 'socialist' states typically were on the command end.

When my textbooks back in school talked about China, it was usually in the sense that they reformed the economy to be inline with a market economy, but retained its 'communist' political apparatus, ie authoritarian. They didn't consider it 'communist'- that designation was left for nations like Cuba and North Korea.

Then again, there are people who'll be pretty resolute in seeing any form of government intervention in the economy, taxation, and public services as socialism. So you won't have much luck talking to them about it.

With regards to actually using 'state capitalist'- something that tends to get thrown around a lot in our circles- it has become more widespread in mainstream discourse. Much in the same way some of our terms about 'crisis', 'alienation', and other Marxist terms regarding capitalism have been thrown around in discussions, regardless of their intent. Especially in the post-Soviet era it's become necessary to apply a different term to nations like Russia for example who show a great deal of involvement from the state in the economy, since the former designation of communist isn't really politically relevant anymore.

[praxis1966]

I'm jealous. Everyone in my area is the type of person who thinks commies are pure evil and Obama is the king of all communists.
But it's actually because of my anti-communist history teacher that I found the revolutionary left, so growing up here didn't totally fuck me over.
(That's why I have trouble hating social democrats and liberals, though. I was always excited to meet someone who wasn't a conservative because they were less likely to express hateful opinions that made me want to punch them.)

I used to think the same way. Then I moved to Northern California.

[citizen of industry]

I was just casually doing some Geography homework, opened the book on the wrong page, interestingly it was about the demographics of China or something like that, and it said "China's government is state capitalist", those exact words.

Do my eyes deceive me?

So then you researched the authors, the publisher, the text, etc. and the results were...?

[Polyphonic Foxes]

I assume no textbook ever mentions any alternitives to command economy/free market?

[NewLeft]

Why wouldn't a rightist want to claim China as capitalist?

[Le Rouge]

Why wouldn't a rightist want to claim China as capitalist?

To bash communists... while hiding the fact that China is a shithole (shitty working conditions) because of capitalism.

[Rafiq]

I've heard mixed answers. Many rightists like to label China as capitalist, and use it as proof of socialism's inefficiency ("Just look at China before and after capitalism!"). However, when they discover it's a shit hole, I'm sure they'll go right ahead and label it as communist once more.