I think we should absolutely be learning from Lenin and the USSR.

Learning from their mistakes. Not emulating a failed brutal authoritarian dictatorship.

I don’t see what is “backfiring,”

Americans fear the word “socialism” because they associate it with brutal authoritarian dictatorships. Your love of Lenin and the USSR isn’t helping with that.

The PRC learned from what succeeded and what failed in the Soviet Union, and is currently overtaking everyone else.

The only thing the PRC learned was to abandon socialism. Canada is more socialist than the PRC.

You keep linking books to read. I think we’ve read enough. It’s time to start writing.

Instead of thinking that big ideas or beliefs drive history,

So dialectical materialism rejects the notion of ideologies like socialism?

A worker cooperative in an economy dominated by private Capital is not an instance of Socialism, as it depends on the broader Capitalist system.

I’ve already addressed how this absolutism doesn’t track with logic, I just hope people stop repeating it so we can get some actual socialism in this world.

This seems needlessly arbitrary and reductive. Socialism exists all around us, it isn’t defined by a country’s borders.

By this absolutist logic, a socialist country is not a “socialist” part of a capitalist world, because it exists in the broader capitalist machine and must use its tools.

What is the point then? If you don’t want to call anything “socialism” until the very last human on earth is socialist, fine, I will focus more on improving people’s lives than haggling over definitions.

But in another comment you referred to the USSR as “the world’s first socialist state”, yet it existed in the broader global capitalist machine. You have contradicted yourself. Which is it? Can socialism exist in a world with capitalism, or not?

I don’t think we should be emulating Lenin or the USSR. I think that’s what is backfiring.

“Read theory” is how they trick us, forcing us into dogmatic religious-like application of historical texts.

Why don’t we write theory? Marx and Lenin weren’t gods. They got things wrong.

A democracy is a state in which the government is owned and controlled by the people.

I’m Canadian. It’s what the founder of our healthcare system, Tommy Douglas, called it.

And yeah, it’s the people owning the means of producing health. Socialist healthcare.

Americans scare people with these references to brutal authoritarian dictatorships that call themselves “socialist” but the real cause of all these problems is that they weren’t democratic, not that they socialized industries.

Anyways, maybe it’s just my autism making me literal as fuck, but I think you guys need to clear that up. This is what the people owning the means of production looks like. It’s always going to be adjacent to capitalism, whether it’s a socialist industry in a capitalist country, or a socialist country in a capitalist world.

It is in a democratic state. Who else do you think owns it?

Would these councils be elected by the people they represent?

Would they sit in a parliament and form a legislature?

That just sounds like Canada.

Socialized medicine is always cheaper than capitalist medicine. It’s inherently more cost effective for people to pool their money together. It isn’t paid for by some rich miner buying mining rights in some other country.

By that logic, socialism cannot exist until the entire planet is socialist.

Lisa’s only mistake was saying yes.

Just do every single thing in socialism, but change every single word. Call it Americanism.

Proletariat? No, just “worker”.

Bourgeoisie? No, just “elites”.

Capital? “Stuff”. Like how in baseball they say a pitcher’s got good “stuff”. Use your human stuff.

Class Consciousness - “common sense”.

Dialectical Materialism - Idk I’m still trying to figure out wtf that one means.

Stop using polysyallabic words like “proletariat” when trying to appeal to the American working class who read at a 5th grade level.

Seriously. Like the guy in Severance said. Apologize for the word. It’s too long.

Easy, we connect all humans together in a telepathic Borg-like mindlink.

In a democratic state, things like universal healthcare are also called “socialized medicine” because it is an example of the people owning the means of production in that particular industry.

That’s why most countries are what we call “mixed economies”, that mix elements of capitalism and socialism.

Norway mixes in a higher ratio of socialism to capitalism than most countries. But they don’t export any more of capitalism’s issues to the third world than other countries. It’s something to emulate, not discredit.

Which is surprising because up here in Canada, the socialism started with the farmers. And it’s still going on with coop feed and grain silos and harvester sharing. Farmers don’t let other farmers starve, in Canada.