# I am a Communist. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 21, 2010, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964 "2010-08-21T09:21:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/41 "2010-08-21T21:09:38Z")
I am hopeful that comrade **Commissar** and [**jrodefeld**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=575129) will combine forces to develop a Master Plan to save the human race from itself. It’ll be a doozy, incorporating Trotsky, the gold standard, a centralized economy and Austrian economics. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/42 "2010-08-21T21:12:28Z")
Oh yeah, you know who else was a Communist? _Hitler, that’s who!_ ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/43 "2010-08-21T21:33:52Z")
You know who else dated ya moms? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/44 "2010-08-21T21:42:10Z")
I’m not a scholar on communism, but it seems that most forms of classical communism are, in general, quite repressive, and not particularly productive or efficient in terms of having an economic paradigm that delivers a decent standard of living relative to their peers among nations. In other words classical communism is kind of a persistent under achiever, and has generally been abandoned or changed so profoundly, to classify it as “communism” is kind of a misnomer. Why do you champion a political and economic model that even most communist states, like China, have abandoned in practice? ---
**Author:** ![Othersider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cab0a1/32.png) [@Othersider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Othersider)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/45 "2010-08-21T21:53:33Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Call me cynical. Okay. You’re cynical. Hey, you told me to. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/46 "2010-08-21T22:53:01Z")
In a sane world you would be just as welcome as our recent racist visitor. Count me as happy that Communists in the US are little more than joke. To look at the track record of Mao and want to emulate it is just beyond belief. Not to mention any of the despicable paranoid Communist leadership of the former Soviet Union. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/47 "2010-08-21T23:06:07Z")
I like how British writer Simon Sebag Montefiore who wrote an excellent biography on Stalin put the communist ideology. “The random destruction of classes of people now, to create the perfect socialist society later.” ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/48 "2010-08-21T23:07:58Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > > > No one studying communism at a higher level anywhere in the free world could possibly be so naive and ignorant of the harsh realities of life under those regimes. > > Agreed. I felt a big whoosh starting with “hello my new found friends”. Call me cynical. Yea, this thread is a trolling whoosh. I regret posting an earlier reply. Mods: Please lock it. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/49 "2010-08-22T00:43:51Z")
I should point out that, when I say that I approve of Castro, I mean that I approve of the ideals and concepts of his revolution, given the state Cuba was in at the time. I think there is something to be admired in his determination not to be a vassal of the US. The current state of Cuba as a result of his decisions, I’m not so happy about. But given how things were under Batista, I do think I approve of the original revolution. But I’m biased towards revolutionaries. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/50 "2010-08-22T00:52:24Z")
Fake communism has been discredited. True communism is impracticable to impossible. Is it possible that what you really are is a socialist or left-liberal? They’re often stigmatized as commies, because their ideas are actually _more_ dangerous to those on the right - being both more common-sense and more respectful of individuals’ real day-to-day problems, ie, more of a threat to the American Way. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/51 "2010-08-22T01:01:47Z")
Do you concede that self-avowed communist regimes have historically had bad records on issues like human rights and political freedom? And, at best, their economies are not clearly superior to capitalist states. If so, what factors do you feel cause real world communist states to fail to live up to the theoretical ideals of Communism? ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/52 "2010-08-22T01:48:56Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > No, my take on a perfect communist system is very close to what the glorious People’s Republic has now achieved. I dream of a system in which people are truly free, in which they are unshackled by wants and deprivations, in which a strong single party carefully manages a centralized economy while allowing private entrepreneurs to fill in some of the blanks. I don’t know and don’t care if you’re trolling, but I LOL at this. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/53 "2010-08-22T01:59:32Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > No, my take on a perfect communist system is very close to what the glorious People’s Republic has now achieved. I dream of a system in which people are truly free, in which they are unshackled by wants and deprivations, in which a strong single party carefully manages a centralized economy while allowing private entrepreneurs to fill in some of the blanks. :dubious: …Aaaaalrighty then. Sheesh. Where are they all coming from? ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/54 "2010-08-22T02:04:33Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Now, having said all that, I’m afraid that I’m rather belatedly coming to the conclusion that the OP is a whoosh. Either that or the first part of his “higher education” in socialist nations was itself learned inside one of those socialist nations. No one studying communism at a higher level anywhere in the free world could possibly be so naive and ignorant of the harsh realities of life under those regimes. Agreed. One of the problems with communism is that it’s difficult pull off unless you have a totalitarian form of government. Because it goes against human nature, the only way to realize communism is to force it on people. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/55 "2010-08-22T02:06:04Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > No, my take on a perfect communist system is very close to what the glorious People’s Republic has now achieved. I dream of a system in which people are truly free, in which they are unshackled by wants and deprivations, in which a strong single party carefully manages a centralized economy while allowing private entrepreneurs to fill in some of the blanks. Considering this for my next sig. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/56 "2010-08-22T02:13:10Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > > > Now, having said all that, I’m afraid that I’m rather belatedly coming to the conclusion that the OP is a whoosh. Either that or the first part of his “higher education” in socialist nations was itself learned inside one of those socialist nations. No one studying communism at a higher level anywhere in the free world could possibly be so naive and ignorant of the harsh realities of life under those regimes. > > Agreed. > > One of the problems with communism is that it’s difficult pull off unless you have a totalitarian form of government. Because it goes against human nature, the only way to realize communism is to force it on people. Whoa. I actually AGREE with **Crafter\_Man**. _looks outside to see if the Rapture is occurring_ Now I’m scared. As for the OP, when you say you abhor Stalin, how can you justify your admiration of Lenin, when he was pretty much as bad, only with a smaller body count. (The difference being that Lenin had poor health through much his tenure). In fact, I once read a joke that said the only GOOD thing Stalin did was that he made Lenin look good by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/57 "2010-08-22T02:19:24Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Fake communism has been discredited. True communism is impracticable to impossible. > > Is it possible that what you really are is a socialist or left-liberal? They’re often stigmatized as commies, because their ideas are actually _more_ dangerous to those on the right - being both more common-sense and more respectful of individuals’ real day-to-day problems, ie, more of a threat to the American Way. I suppose that you can consider me either a Communist or a socialist, or both, depending on how you define those terms. Personally, I find there to be so much overlap and ambiguity in the terminology that I like to use them interchangeably. However, I am not a socialist in the same sense as some Scandinavian socialists, for example. I adamantly oppose the idea that socialists/Communists can co-exist with other parties in a representative democracy. No, there must be but one party, and it must control the government at all times. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/58 "2010-08-22T02:27:34Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > **Commissar** , are you quite young, perhaps early college-age? You seem to have a relatively poor grasp of history and geopolitics. > > Asked before, but do you think that communism is a practical philosophy for entities larger than a small town? Do you have faith in the innate goodness of all people? I am in my early thirties, Euphonious Polemic. I find it interesting that you are willing to extrapolate “a relatively poor grasp of history and geopolitics” from my limited posts here at this point. Basically, it seems to me that you have jumped to a premature conclusion as soon as you read that I am a Communist. This is the difficulty I often have when discussing Communism with Westerners; frankly, they don’t want to think about it, preferring to dismiss anyone with Marxist-Leninist leanings as a brainwashed idiot. I think that, yes, Communism is a great system for large national systems. In fact, I think that it tends to work better with bigger systems, as this allows the ruling party to truly leverage economies of scale to the benefit of the people. As an example, I once again point to China. Marx would have been proud, indeed. I do not believe that people are innately good, bad, or anything else, really. They just are. It is the responsibility of the government to make sure that they lead good lives without causing too much trouble for anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/59 "2010-08-22T02:27:48Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > > [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > > > Fake communism has been discredited. True communism is impracticable to impossible. > > > > Is it possible that what you really are is a socialist or left-liberal? They’re often stigmatized as commies, because their ideas are actually _more_ dangerous to those on the right - being both more common-sense and more respectful of individuals’ real day-to-day problems, ie, more of a threat to the American Way. > > I suppose that you can consider me either a Communist or a socialist, or both, depending on how you define those terms. Personally, I find there to be so much overlap and ambiguity in the terminology that I like to use them interchangeably. > > However, I am not a socialist in the same sense as some Scandinavian socialists, for example. I adamantly oppose the idea that socialists/Communists can co-exist with other parties in a representative democracy. No, there must be but one party, and it must control the government at all times. Then you’re a totalitarian, and all you differ in is the color of your jackboots. ---
**Author:** ![Waffle\_Decider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/77aa72/32.png) [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/60 "2010-08-22T03:08:25Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > As an example, I once again point to China. Marx would have been proud, indeed. Well, for some definition of proud. :dubious: You do realise that the enormous challenges that China is facing today actually have many similarities to the circumstances that motivated Marx in the first place, yes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964.md?page=4)