Different countries' views on communism

[Orcris]

Over here in the USA, communism is hated. The left tries to pretend that it doesn't exist, and the right calls anybody left of them a communist. Go to any internet discussion on Obama. There's going to be some commenter who calls him a communist or a socialist. The majority of Americans can't even define communism.

How is communism viewed in other parts of the world? What is the general attitude towards it in your country?

[Petrol Bomb]

I'm not too sure about how Communism is generally viewed here in Canada, mostly because I am just now learning and getting into it. But I can tell you that here in my school, I don't think it is as hated as the situation in the USA. In fact, my social studies and English teacher was more than happy to offer me Marxist text to read over the summer, along with other books, though she is not a Marxist/Communist herself. As far as the students go, I am under the impression that those who have claim to have an idea of what it is, usually just say, "Communism is a good idea on paper, but it doesn't work in practice because of human nature." It is not hated, at least as severely, as in the USA it seems. I feel that here, there are a lot of young liberals, who if were educated on Marxism, would change their views.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

In South-East Asia there've been large US-funded anti-communist movements for quite a while (one of the most brutal where the supression of Indonesian communists and the failed suppression of the Vietcong - who weren't really communists to begin with - where they succeeded and failed fighting against said groups, respectively). So yes, people will probably think you're pro-china or something - that, or you'll get tossed in jail.

Australia's nowhere near as detached as America, but that's changing very quickly.


There's a massive communist presence in eastern India, particularly in Tamil Nadu(?).

In central asian countries, such as Iran, there have been very large leftist movements. These leftist movements have practically been decimated by the rise of Shi'ite and Sunni islamists from the countryside, however, and have been under such constant attack from said groups that many operate underground.

To be honest, the places with populations that are most sympathetic to far-left politics also happen to be places where you'll get dragged from your house and tortured to death for being sympathetic to said politics.


That's all I know. Communism has practically been stigmatised against in almost every pole of the world, and you might even have experienced this in high-school (Don't tell me you didn't go through the whole 'In Communism, everyone wears the same clothes and eats the same food/ Good on paper, not in practice' thing. I actually said this shit in a highschool debating class, so I know firsthand of how shallow and unanalytical such a response really is).

[Fourth Internationalist]

Well, earlier this year in school we learned about communism specifically Marxism along side Adam Smith, etc. It was actually very good, and it was an American high school textbook! Yay! However, it would always call Stalin and Mao communists, same with Khmer Rouge, etc. Even once it compared communism to fascism, of course not making a distinction between actual communism and Stalinism. Also, my teacher would say "Some people wanted socialism, others democracy" I called him out on that and he retracted his statement. However, he said communism was just an economic system so it could be totalitarian or democratic. Ugh. But eh better than most other places especially when it was about Marx. :D

[Flying Purple People Eater]

I'm not too sure about how Communism is generally viewed here in Canada, mostly because I am just now learning and getting into it. But I can tell you that here in my school, I don't think it is as hated as the situation in the USA. In fact, my social studies and English teacher was more than happy to offer me Marxist text to read over the summer, along with other books, though she is not a Marxist/Communist herself. As far as the students go, I am under the impression that those who have claim to have an idea of what it is, usually just say, "Communism is a good idea on paper, but it doesn't work in practice because of human nature." It is not hated, at least as severely, as in the USA it seems. I feel that here, there are a lot of young liberals, who if were educated on Marxism, would change their views.

I swear I want to find out who the shitbag was that invented these psuedopolitical slogans because they're vomited up almost robotically by almost any single human being on the globe with an inkling of knowledge on the subject of the far-left. Was there a 1950s US anti-communist phrasebook included in bibles for a few decades, or something? Because this seems almost universal - I live on the opposite side of the planet to you and have had (said even) a phrase identical to the one you just referenced.

[Red Flag Waver]

"Communism is a good idea on paper, but it doesn't work in practice because of human nature."
In my corner of the USA I often hear some variation of this from my peers. My parents recite that quote, "If you're not a communist at 20..." But walking around my town, you do see the occasional hammer and sickle. One of my roommates in college joined the communist party (not sure which one), which was weird since he never struck me as a very politically-minded person. Maybe he just wanted the free hat with the red star on it. But yeah, even he would say to me "you have to admit, it's a great idea."

My high school world history textbook had a section about "differences between fascism and communism." A very small section. My US history textbook described American communists as "hiding behind the constitution they sought to destroy." Yet my teacher for that class once handed me a pro-Qaddafi book. So weird. School curriculums in the USA are notorious for political meddling, and even if you go to school in a liberal region there's a good chance your books were written by far-rightists. For me, college was the first place where communism was approached with anything resembling intellectual seriousness, and even then there was a sense that we were studying it, like, the way you read the bible or Greek mythology just to understand Homer and Milton. No one actually saw Marxism as a way of understanding the world around them.

[Kalinin's Facial Hair]

Communism is an Orwellian society where government controls everything you do and think. The party bureaucrats will make you share your houses with homeless people who are too lazy to get a job. Your wife (yes, only the women) will become collective property (they hate private property remember?). Communism will bring an age of chaos and scarcity; it will destroy the fundamental basis of civilization such as the family. There will be no freedom, and one will not be allowed to posses anything or any business. Communism is North Korea on steroids.


Or so they say, eh...

[Blake's Baby]

'It's a nice idea in theory but it doesn't work in practice...' is often the opening gambit. Followed by either...

'... I mean, look at North Korea', or

'... it's against human nature'.

[goalkeeper]

In Southern Europe countries like Italy or Greece it is not uncommon for the left-over official Communist Party to get 5-10% of the electoral vote which would suggest a relatively sizeable percent of the population views "Communism" as favourable enough to vote for, although these Communist Parties definition of Communism may differ from yours and mine and a lot of the vote casts are also often the last remaining prestige of the party from ww2 years.

[Comrade Samuel]

I think we've established that bullshit cold war anti-communism slogans know no boarders....

Really up until this past year most kids my age here in small town U.S.A had no idea what communism was and didn't care either....then they all read animal farm in an English class and all of a sudden they are all experts and can 'easily refute my commie lies'.

I weep for this generation.

[Sky Hedgehogian Maestro]

Over here in the USA, communism is hated. The left tries to pretend that it doesn't exist, and the right calls anybody left of them a communist. Go to any internet discussion on Obama. There's going to be some commenter who calls him a communist or a socialist. The majority of Americans can't even define communism.

How is communism viewed in other parts of the world? What is the general attitude towards it in your country?

My grandmother said that the NSA's little debacle where they collected all of our information is "communist."
Man... Did I want to say something.
I guess it's just the Cold War era still lingering on. We were raised with the philosophy that anything not capitalism/corporatism/Christian = fascism, and thus anything could be used interchangeably with fascism (i.e. communism, Nazism, anarc-... anarchy!). And to some extent, since the communists loved touting their beloved "revolutionary communism" and then repressing everything in society, they didn't help. Add to that relentless propaganda and voila (Think cartoons are only for kids? So did the system in the '50s-'80s, hence the Animation Age Ghetto, where everything was simply black-and-white, and they used the medium for some quite interesting things... Take a gander at some of this era's cartoons again, and see what kind of themes they portray)
The Cold War was an interesting time.

[Alain]

I think we've established that bullshit cold war anti-communism slogans know no boarders....

Really up until this past year most kids my age here in small town U.S.A had no idea what communism was and didn't care either....then they all read animal farm in an English class and all of a sudden they are all experts and can 'easily refute my commie lies'.

I weep for this generation.

Which is kinda sad because George Orwell was a democratic socialist. That book was directed against the Stalin mostly, since Orwell considered that whatever the regime in USSR was, it was not socialism. Also Old Major(a mix between Marx and Lenin) and Snowball(Trotsky) are positive characters with Napoleon(Stalin) and the other pigs(the nomenklatura) being the villain. It's good reading for a socialist, I think.

And, on the subject, in my country(former "communist" eastern bloc) communism is viewed as something to be feared. In fact one of our presidential candidates mostly ran on the idea that "if you vote for the other guys, you vote for communism". The sad part is that he won.

[TheIrrationalist]

This is what I understand about opinions in Finland: Usually it is what is told at history lessons about the horrors of Stalinism and that they want to take away our independent businesses. Being a communist is a negative trait that leads to other forms of strange perversions and they are weirdos who want to take away our freedom. And basically it is an Orwellian nightmare, or that is what the history teacher told me.

People just don't want to know or think alternatives to our current perfectly democratic system, all is just perfect here.

[Crabbensmasher]

I think in Canada, we kind of let it go a bit easier than in the US. In my experience, nobody labels you a communist or socialist if your too left wing. They just kind of cringe and let it go. Like, of course they won't take you seriously, but they won't bash your face in either.

It's like it's a dead topic. Their sentiment is Cold war is over, so why bother?
Personally, I find it preferable to what I've heard about some parts of the US. McCarthyist indoctrination if you ask me.

[Philosophos]

Greece

1. Haters (for no reason), nationalists, conservatives, fascists, even christians that are supposed "to love everyone". These people hate communism because they hate gay people (communism for them makes everyone gay apparentally), they hate change, they hate it because their grandfather told them to.

2. Communists that see their "special" tendencie of communism as the best/only right/ the best of the best and screw yourselves you revisionists etc etc. They treat communism as a religion (huge mistake).

3. Apathetic people. They just breath in and out.

4. Smart people that understand what communism is and how there are ways to make it work.

Pretty much the same vies here in Greece as everywhere in the world...

[adipocere]

...Don't tell me you didn't go through the whole 'In Communism, everyone wears the same clothes and eats the same food/ Good on paper, not in practice' thing...

I remember exactly the same thing, but in my instance the "why communism is bad" (discuss!) started when I was about 9 or 10 years old. It got a little more philosophical a few years later when we would discuss the hypothetical "red hat law" and how in Cuba people had to be put on a list for a car that was probably a piece of shit - but they got a free car (discuss!) I went to an exclusive private school, and that particularly scandalized my class mates whose parents rolled up in brand new cars practically every week.

Anybody else get the 'Hitler was a Communist and his best pal was Stalin' memo?

[Skyhilist]

When I was a sophomore in my AP world history class, the teacher gave us a handout. It had a chart with a scale. The scale went from "democratic" to "undemocratic". Capitalism was placed at "democratic" and communism was placed at "extremely undemocratic." It was really a load of shit. The sad thing is that that teacher is actually a really nice guy who means well. He's just been so indoctrinated. He also tried to explain why Marxism was wrong by saying "look a the pilgrims, they tried marxism and it failed."

[Asmo]

When I was a sophomore in my AP world history class, the teacher gave us a handout. It had a chart with a scale. The scale went from "democratic" to "undemocratic". Capitalism was placed at "democratic" and communism was placed at "extremely undemocratic." It was really a load of shit. The sad thing is that that teacher is actually a really nice guy who means well. He's just been so indoctrinated. He also tried to explain why Marxism was wrong by saying "look a the pilgrims, they tried marxism and it failed."
Uh, what?

That's pretty much how it was 'explained' to me as well. My teachers also tried to convince us that Anarchism was right-wing.