Ridiculous anti-communist straw men

[Quail]

I don't know if anyone else gets these kind of absurd arguments when talking about your politics to people who aren't communists, but for some reason the following argument comes up loads:

"Nobody would have the incentive to do unpleasant work like taking rubbish to the tip so the streets would pile high with rubbish!"

I don't even get where these people are coming from. If there is rubbish piling up in the streets, why would you not do something about it? Seriously. If the council stopped collecting the rubbish today, would they honestly just sit there and live amongst huge piles of rubbish rather than organise a way of getting rid of it? :confused:

What ridiculous non-arguments do you get the most, revleft?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

'If it's such a good idea, why has nobody done it yet?'

Like yeah, that's how the world works. Hey, I wanna be fucking rich, but that can't be a good idea because nobody's done it yet.

Or, it'd be a great fucking idea if we rid the world of malaria - or is it? Cos, y'know, nobody's done it yet, so it can't be that good an idea.

[Anti-Traditional]

I don't know if anyone else gets these kind of absurd arguments when talking about your politics to people who aren't communists, but for some reason the following argument comes up loads:

"Nobody would have the incentive to do unpleasant work like taking rubbish to the tip so the streets would pile high with rubbish!"

I don't even get where these people are coming from. If there is rubbish piling up in the streets, why would you not do something about it? Seriously. If the council stopped collecting the rubbish today, would they honestly just sit there and live amongst huge piles of rubbish rather than organise a way of getting rid of it? :confused:

What ridiculous non-arguments do you get the most, revleft?

Actually I think if the rubbish started piling up tommorow most people wouldn't go near it.

However in a Communist world this wouldn't happen, I think the feeling of knowing the world is 'ours' would motivate us to sort things, akin to how most people wont let their homes go to shit even though theyre not paid to do housework.

[Criminalize Heterosexuality]

I don't know if anyone else gets these kind of absurd arguments when talking about your politics to people who aren't communists, but for some reason the following argument comes up loads:

"Nobody would have the incentive to do unpleasant work like taking rubbish to the tip so the streets would pile high with rubbish!"

I don't even get where these people are coming from. If there is rubbish piling up in the streets, why would you not do something about it? Seriously. If the council stopped collecting the rubbish today, would they honestly just sit there and live amongst huge piles of rubbish rather than organise a way of getting rid of it? :confused:

What ridiculous non-arguments do you get the most, revleft?

Oh god, have you ever been to the dorm room of an average male freshman? Those rooms, at least where I'm from, have led me to conclude that some people are just so spoiled and privileged they would rather choke in garbage than do work that is "beneath them".

But yeah, generally, I don't see why collecting garbage is necessarily more unpleasant than poking around someone's guts as a surgeon - apart from the scorn society has for garbage collectors, which wouldn't exist in communism.

[Taters]

Mostly I just hear about how 'communism requires mass murder' and after that statement something about Robespierre or Stalin.

[motion denied]

Concerns under capitalism: poverty, exploitation, oppression, wars, etc

Concerns under socialism: BUT HEY WHOS GONNA CLEAN THE STREETS

Yeah, I'd choose the latter. I've heard it a few times too (actually the same example).

[Sinister Intents]

My mom is a spiritualist and pulled this one out in because apparently the spirits told her my want for communism is a longing to become an authority figure and to redistribute authority.

Also "People like to eat Jay."

I don't know if these count, but they're frustrating

[Red Commissar]

The dumb, false anecdote involving a professor giving everyone a curve such that they all get C because it's socialism.

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

A common argument I've heard: "No one will have any incentive to work!"

You hear that all the time here in the U.S. It's total bullshit, of course....because any sensible human being will realize that certain jobs have to be done for the good of the community.

I think, in a socialist society, the people who do some of the more 'gross' jobs (plumbers, trashmen, etc.) would be suitably honored for their willingness to take part in such jobs.

[human strike]

Concerns under capitalism: poverty, exploitation, oppression, wars, etc

Concerns under socialism: BUT HEY WHOS GONNA CLEAN THE STREETS

Yeah, I'd choose the latter. I've heard it a few times too (actually the same example).

Yeah, this is a good point. Whenever I hear people criticise communism I often ask them, "This is the biggest problem you can think of? Look at the world around you!"

[Jimmie Higgins]

lol, I think the fear of shit in the streets must be a British concern. No one's ever given me that line and I've heard a ton. Our streets already have trash on them.

Of The arguments I get that are more or less sincere and not from a dedicated right-winger or libertarian, The one about no incentive to work is real common. No innovation, is another one. It becomes ironic when you hear the same tropes and language repeated over and over about how capitalism allows for free thinking and originality and individuality, but communism is about uniformity of thought.

Yuppieish liberals are the worst, professionals just tend to think professionals know better than everyone else. Like, how are workers supposed to figure out complicated things like economics? As if capitalist professional economists can figure out an unplanned system based on secretive entities competing to amass as much money as quickly as possible.

Ironically the only time that the silly liberal line about if you use force and fight you will become what you hate is only true when talking about class war. Dialectics?

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

Considering that I have to take my own trash to the dump myself....like, literally load up my trashcans and junk on to a trailer and drive to the dump and then physically dispose of it myself....

.....It's just that, the idea of someone complaining about taking out the garbage just seems downright silly to me.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Now that I think of it, the trash argument does come up, just differently. In the US it's usually presented as a Janitor vs. Doctor trope.

[Domela Nieuwenhuis]

The "incentive"-argument is one you hear a lot.

"There is no incentive to work."
"There is no incentive to clean the streets."
"There is no incentive to learn."
"There is no incentive to invent stuff."

Especially that last one. Probablt my favorite. "People invent stuff because they can make a profit!" No they don't. Some maybe, but most inventions are made out of convinience or coincidence.
I once had a list of all kinds of well known historical inventors who never got rich through their inventions, but i seem to have missplaced it (i only remember Niels Bohr was one of them).

[human strike]

The "incentive"-argument is one you hear a lot.

"There is no incentive to work."
"There is no incentive to clean the streets."
"There is no incentive to learn."
"There is no incentive to invent stuff."

Especially that last one. Probablt my favorite. "People invent stuff because they can make a profit!" No they don't. Some maybe, but most inventions are made out of convinience or coincidence.
I once had a list of all kinds of well known historical inventors who never got rich through their inventions, but i seem to have missplaced it (i only remember Niels Bohr was one of them).

That private and intellectual property inhibit innovation is so obvious it's painful.

[Comrade Jacob]

Well, I like private-property because my video-games are private property. :glare:

[The Intransigent Faction]

'If it's such a good idea, why has nobody done it yet?'

Like yeah, that's how the world works. Hey, I wanna be fucking rich, but that can't be a good idea because nobody's done it yet.

Or, it'd be a great fucking idea if we rid the world of malaria - or is it? Cos, y'know, nobody's done it yet, so it can't be that good an idea.

Ridding the world of malaria is a great idea in theory, but it's not "realistic" (:rolleyes:).

A gem from a self-described Hobbesian former Marxist I know: "Marxists don't understand Marxist economics. They just parrot Marx." I was dumbstruck.

[La Guaneña]

Mechanize the garbage collecting systems! Masheens everywhere! Masheeeeens

[PC LOAD LETTER]

"horseshoe theory" is likely to cause me to have a brain aneurysm

[o well this is ok I guess]

people are already cleaning the streets for shit pay as it is idk what the problem is

[Marshal of the People]

"Communism is statist"
"Hitler was a communist" (No joke, I actually got that one thrice)
"Human nature prevents socialism from succeeding"
"Do you want to turn the nation into North Korea" (other State-capitalist regimes are also used)
"You are a wannabe mass murder!"

[Dodo]

"Marxism is utopian and deterministic, I believe in an invisible hand that will solve the problems of economy when it is left alone"

I dont know how to deal with this...Should I start by explaining that Marxism is a method and not a guide on "how you should live and organize yourlife", its not an astrology book.
Or should I take the moral problems with capitalism.....whoever stigmatized Marxism so much has literally ruined my life.

[Rafiq]

"Marxism is utopian and deterministic, I believe in an invisible hand that will solve the problems of economy when it is left alone"

The irony in this alone is enough.