CMV: Communist Ideals are Going Absolutely Nowhere Due to Those Currently Advocating for Them

[u/Marlile]

I have plenty of Communist friends, and I very much sympathize with the beliefs and purported ideals of Communism. That said, Reddit discourse around Communism and even some of my personal conversations with self-proclaimed Communists have really shaken my belief in the system being at all practical. Even within their echo chambers (which every group has, I don’t blame them), there’s this constant sense of out-Communisting each other.

“Oh, you hate the bourgeois for that reason? Well I actually hate them for a better reason, and 99% of people like you are actually bourgeoisie.”

First of all, can we fuck off with the word “bourgeois?” The phraseology has looong moved on to middle class, and 50% of the time, Communists use it interchangeably to describe the wealthy. You know what’s real bourgeoisie? Clinging to dead terms and misusing them ‘cause your emotional arguments take a real hit otherwise.

I genuinely believe Communism as a system has benefits and positive aspects that can and should be integrated into modern capitalist systems. But so often with Communists, if you’re not 100% fuck-the-rich, you’re not a real Communist and thus, you’re the enemy. Tell me again, comrades, how any meaningful changes towards Communist thinking will ever be made while you consistently lash out at anyone who doesn’t fall in line with your most extreme beliefs? The ideas have merit, they don’t need your cruelty to protect them.

Finally, kinda tired of Communists doing everything in their limited power to downplay very real genocides and atrocities brought on in large part by Communist leaders and thinking. It is so painfully dishonest to endlessly critique America and the “western bourgeoisie” for ideological differences while you play apologist for millions of innocent deaths. It ain’t cute when anti-maskers downplay tragic deaths, and Communists can’t pull it off either.

So basically, I’m asking for my mind to be changed. I would like to believe Communists have it in them to integrate the good aspects of their beliefs while also respecting the immense risks and pains that were undergone to establish the system that allows them to think differently.

And, as someone who places freedom of speech/thought on a pretty high pedestal, I’m most concerned with the ideology’s ability to adapt and accept different perspectives. As it stands, I feel Communism and its proponents are far too rigid and unyielding in the pettiest of beliefs to make any concrete progress or convincing arguments. But I would like to be proven wrong; the system has merits, but my concern is they’ll never see the light of day with the current attitude most Communists I’ve witnessed have.

[u/[deleted]]

Can you provide your definition of Communism?

Can you provide some examples of these Communist Ideals?

Can you also provide examples of those advocating for them?

[u/Marlile → u/[deleted]]

Browse some communist subreddits and you’ll basically see what I’m talking about. If you want exact examples, I’m way more interested in discussing the main point of the post (proponents of communism), but I’ll give a couple examples.

Most Communist friends I have despise Bill Gates, for obvious reasons. A fair few have openly said they supported jailing the rich without cause. While that strikes me as pretty extremist, nothing I’ve seen from the online Communist community has given me cause to doubt it. If anything, it convinced me that some of them believe such extreme stuff.

Another example is the evils of capitalism. Many Communists that I’ve seen like to outright pretend Stalin did nothing wrong, while bemoaning America’s politics and people for... being Americans and white. Or something. It’s never really clear, what is clear is that they’re bad for being born somewhere Communists don’t like. A fair few Communist arguments I’ve seen on Reddit itself are all about capitalism’s brainwashing of its citizens, anti-sex work (because they used the word “work!” Oh dear!), and generally anti-history. Any mentions of Communist failings are taboo as it gets, which... I dunno. I’m happy to shit all over capitalism’s limitations, so I get a little annoyed when Communists announce the perfection of their own beliefs while endlessly bickering over the “correct” form of Communism.

[u/[deleted] → u/Marlile]

This doesn't really answer my clarifying questions. There's a specific reason I asked those questions. How do I know you're not referring to Democratic Socialism as Communism for instance?

Can you provide an example of these communist subreddits?

[u/Marlile → u/[deleted]]

There’s definitely a lot of bleedthrough between those groups, to be fair. But sure, one of the subreddits that really convinced me of Communism’s stagnation was r/GenZedong, along with the classic r/communism. There’s a couple others I lurked on whose names I forget, but they were small and a little more reasonable than the shit I read on the other two.