What everyone points to as "communism" shares more in common with capitalism than anything else. They had authoritarian rulers and a small wealthy class that lords over the rest of the populace.

There is nothing "worker owned" about these examples and it only serves to spread FUD about moving away from capitalism towards a more human centric economy

[–] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Red Scare is still working it's magic I see. I don't think many people think that communism is the perfect system. Even the ones who support it. It's just that after living in a capitalist hellhole our whole lives and watching the world burn, some of those ideas start to look like they are worth trying.

Star Trek is a good example of what the endgame of communism is supposed to look like. It's just the process of getting there that is hard to figure out.

[–] within_epsilon@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Star Trek is an example of a post scarcity society. I worry about persisting military rank instead of a horizontal power structure.

[–] TopRamenBinLaden@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looking into it again, you are right. I am not a big trekkie. I just always thought it was a good example of a moneyless stateless society, but the post scarcity definitely changes things. Thanks for the correction.

I guess we are on the brink of reaching post scarcity, and we kind of already have with our basic needs, just not our luxuries.

I don't know if communism or socialism is the actual answer at all, btw. I'm just not scared of it and willing to see what good ideas might be in there even if it is a flawed system. I hate the authoritarianism that always seems to inevitably come with it. I just think we probably have outgrown capitalism a bit.

[–] within_epsilon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely. Capitalism enforces a different heirarchy where power resides with owners. The owners then suppress the power of the workers.

Can we do better? I hope so.

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca -3 points 1 year ago

Star Trek isn't even communist. It's a Post-Scarcity society which has traded physical currency for the currency of position and rank. Wealth becomes the power you are able to wield as everyone has access to everything from their synthesizer. Until such a device is feasible communism and socialism are just crackpot plans made up by deranged idiots that don't want to work.

[–] peanut_boy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

But this is the no true scotsman fallacy. Is there any evidence that your definition of communism is possible to attain, without devolving into things similar to real world countries that attempted to become communist? And couldn't an ancap just as easily claim that all of the negative sides of capitalism are communist because they are all in some way a perversion of a freely negotiated deal?