cyuJan 28, 2024

socialism never works

https://sh.itjust.works/post/13610709

lemmynsfw.com has been defederated - sh.itjust.works

Edit - This is a post to the meta group of Blåhaj Lemmy. It is not intended for the entire lemmyverse. If you are not on Blåhaj Lemmy and plan on dropping in to offer your opinion on how we are doing things in a way you don’t agree with, your post will be removed. == A user on our instance reported a post on lemmynsfw as CSAM. Upon seeing the post, I looked at the community it was part of, and immediately purged all traces of that community from our instance. I approached the admins of lemmynsfw and they assured me that the models with content in the community were all verified as being over 18. The fact that the community is explicitly focused on making the models appear as if they’re not 18 was fine with them. The fact that both myself and one a member of this instance assumed it was CSAM, was fine with them. I was in fact told that I was body shaming. I’m sorry for the lack of warning, but a community skirting the line trying to look like CSAM isn’t a line I’m willing to walk. I have defederated lemmynsfw and won’t be reinstating it whilst that community is active.

Show threadSpaceCowboyJan 28, 2024

It may be possible that socialism and capitalism are just economic tools that can applied to different sectors of the economy depending on which works best in a given context.

But sure, let’s all form up into groups that either think only socialism works or only capitalism works and try to misapply these to sectors of the economy where they’ve already been proven not to work. That makes sense!

It’s like one group deciding that hammers are better than screwdrivers and trying to beat a screw into something with a hammer. Then the other group decides screwdrivers are better than hammers and are trying to use a screwdriver to hammer in nails. They’ll both kinda work for everything, but for anyone that’s not caught up in the argument it all seems kind of silly. Why not just use the screwdriver for the screws and use the hammer for the nails?

Or right, because of ideology.

Show threadareyouevenrealJan 28, 2024

I don’t think you understand why people even want socialism or what it means to be a socialist. Socialism states that we are oppressed by the ruling class which are the capitalists. According to most socialist doctrine the government is controlled in part or entirely by the capitalists.

But sure, let’s all form up into groups that either think only socialism works or only capitalism works and try to misapply these to sectors of the economy where they’ve already been proven not to work. That makes sense!

You also don’t know anything about socialist economics. There are many socialist economic theories, a whole toolkit. Socialism isn’t a single tool or a single group of people and ideas. Heck even capitalism has different variations, although less diverse than socialist ideology.

What you are talking about is hybrid economy which is also an ideology. You are also starting with the assumption that democracy is real and the government is acting in good faith. Neither of those are necessarily true especially if you live in the US.

Show threadSpaceCowboyJan 28, 2024

That all sounds exhausting. Maybe we should just raise taxes on the rich to pay for social programs?

Does that really need to be slotted into an ideology before doing it?

Show threadareyouevenrealJan 29, 2024

Why do I have to understand politics? Why can’t I just have what I want? That’s what you are saying in effect.

If the rich control the state through corruption how is the state going to implement any of these ideas when it’s against capitalist interests? In less corrupt nations what you want might be feasible, but somewhere like the USA you have no chance.

Honestly you can just admit you are not a socialist and don’t understand socialism and move on. Statements like these are dumb and make you look dumb to anyone reasonably informed. Raising taxes isn’t socialism, owning the means of production is socialism.

Show threadSpaceCowboy

Sure I understand politics. At election time, I read the party platforms and check polling. That way I can can strategically vote based on the candidate that has the highest probability of enacting policies that I want. Though sometimes I vote to prevent a candidate that’s regressive. Repeat for every election.

Sometimes I’ll write to my representative. Sometimes I’ll go to party meetings, do some phone banking.

Progress is slow, but when you actually care about the issues you can achieve progress by voting in as many elections as it takes to get there.

Next month the bus route I take will only charge one fare instead of two. It’s a whole stupid thing, don’t even ask.

Given that it tends to be the working class that takes the bus, this helps the working class in a small way. If everyone put effort into making small local changes we could achieve even more.

So yeah fixing bus fares doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s far more help to the working class where I live than internet socialists have ever done. Too busy dreaming about some future socialist revolution that will solve all problems to make things better now. In fact I think that future revolution thing is mostly just an excuse to not make an effort to improve things now.

Do you even vote?

Jan 29, 2024 at 3:19amWeb
Show threadareyouevenrealJan 29, 2024

Sure I understand politics. At election time, I read the party platforms and check polling. That way I can can strategically vote based on the candidate that has the highest probability of enacting policies that I want. Though sometimes I vote to prevent a candidate that’s regressive. Repeat for every election.

I actually used to do this. Didn’t mean I understood much about politics and economics. Still could learn way more, but at least I don’t think this alone is sufficient anymore. Under a FPTP voting system their are only two parties who can win anyway.

Progress is slow, but when you actually care about the issues you can achieve progress by voting in as many elections as it takes to get there.

Some societies are literally going backwards - that’s not progress. Take the USA or UK as prime examples. Also slow and steady leads to climate disaster and people being deprived of their rights - namely women in the US and trans people everywhere else.

So yeah fixing bus fares doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s far more help to the working class where I live than internet socialists have ever done. Too busy dreaming about some future socialist revolution that will solve all problems to make things better now. In fact I think that future revolution thing is mostly just an excuse to not make an effort to improve things now.

Then you have met shit socialists. They are the people going to rallies and protests to show solidarity. Also the people building the unions, organising the strikes. Some vote in every election. There have been revolutions before, in almost every country on earth at some point. It’s entirely possible to have another one. This whole thing is badly informed and horribly wrong, there are socialists out there doing more to help people than you are.

Honestly you just want to make yourself sound impressive for doing basic civic duty while shitting on people who’s beliefs you don’t even understand in a forum that’s supposed to be for them.