# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/141 "2010-08-23T02:54:55Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I really have to wonder… is this thread a whoosh, or is \*\*Commissar \*\*serious? It’s a joke ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/142 "2010-08-23T03:30:22Z")
Tell us comrade, what think you of Burma/Mynamar? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/143 "2010-08-23T03:35:52Z")
Tell us Commissar, how do you feel about being pruned yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/144 "2010-08-23T03:39:11Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > > I really have to wonder… is this thread a whoosh, or is \*\*Commissar \*\*serious? > > It’s a joke Say, has anyone seen **Skald the Rhymer** lately? Just wonderin’. No special reason. ---
**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 23, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/145 "2010-08-23T03:52:50Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > I really have to wonder… is this thread a whoosh, or is \*\*Commissar \*\*serious? It is a whoosh. Totally a fraud. > [@runner pat](#): > > > [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > > > I really have to wonder… is this thread a whoosh, or is \*\*Commissar \*\*serious? > > Yes, a whoosh. > > I wonder, too. He has that whole _Pravda_-style “glorious workers paradise” rhetoric down a little too pat. Who actually talks like that in real life? No person that has ever actually visited a “communist” country. > [@Muffin](#): > > Which states are presently communist? China, Cuba, Laos, Vietnam, and North Korea. None of them come close to first-world standards of living. None of them offer political freedom, or freedom of the press. > > China is a one-party state that is rapidly moving toward operating on a capitalist basis, with some human rights problems, and a recent history of genocide by communists. > > Cuba is a write off, with serious human rights problems. > > Laos is a write off, with some human rights problems, and a recent history of genocide by communists. > > Vietnam is a one-party state that is rapidly moving toward operating on a capitalist basis, with some human rights problems. > > North Korea is a write off, with serious human rights problems, repeated starvation, and ongoing war-mongering. > > All in all, communism has failed to live up to its own expectations. It is a social, political, and economic dead-end. The only success that communism can point to is countries the have adopted capitalism. Cuba and North Korea are a wreck both socially and economically while China an Vietnam are prospering due to their capitalistic initiatives. Read: **Vietnam Now** by David Lamb. I’ve been to Vietnam 3 times and his book is right on. While you are at it, read “This is Cuba”. Don’t feed the trolls! ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/146 "2010-08-23T04:28:08Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > When did your family move from the USSR to the US? Why did they move? > > When were you naturalized? Are your parents US citizens? What are their political views? > > Have you visited China? When or why not? Let me tell you, someone who can teach English and Russian over there can probably lead a really good socialist lifestyle. (I taught English in Beijing in the late 90s.) > > Why do you choose to live in the one country that is most closely associated with the fall of communism? I mover here with my parents following the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were afraid that their job security was in jeopardy (this later turned out to not be the case), and received an attractive temporary employment offer from a respected research university. I choose not to answer the immigration questions, except to say that no, I am not here illegally. My mother is apolitical, with socialist leanings but no particular political stances. My father, when he was alive, was a liberal socialist, believing in a Scandinavian-style multi-party welfare state. We had great political debates with him; I miss him a lot. ☹ I have not yet been to China, though I am planning to do so in the coming year or two. I feel that teaching languages is beneath my level of education, to be honest. Why do I live here? I suppose because of family commitments, mostly, but also because I have not yet discovered the proper way out. I would love to immigrate to China, but that hardly seems feasible at the moment. Neither my fiance nor I speak Mandarin and, as I said, I do not wish to teach languages. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/147 "2010-08-23T04:46:49Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > Laos is a write off, with some human rights problems, and a recent history of genocide by communists. Laos is poised to follow in Vietnam’s footsteps, embracing capitalism more and more. I was in Vientiane just last month, and there are many new little businesses springing up everywhere. A stock exchange in Vientiane is poised to open, mostly to support a quiet mining and hydropower boom, although I’m not sure an exact date has been set. Expected this year, though. Tourism revenue is a bigger and bigger driver, especially in the old royal capital of Luang Prabang. You can even now cross overland to Vietnam down in the southern section of the country. The place is really starting to open up, thanks to capitalism, but the one-party system will remain in place for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/148 "2010-08-23T04:49:41Z")
> [@BigBertha](#): > > Still waiting for the answer about Taiwan. What about it? Its GDP is far less that that of the PRC, so I must assume that you speak of its GDP per capita, which is, admittedly, higher than China’s. Are you asking why this is? Easy. It is a small country that had the good fortune of having the West plow a lot of money into it following its break with the mainland. It intelligently invested this money in industry, and was able to capitalize on its central location by shipping a whole lot of finished products abroad. Unlike mainland China, it does not have isolated remote regions sucking up funding and bringing per capita GDP down. Taiwan’s relative wealth does nothing to bolster your argument. Take another look at the per capita GDP tables: > **[List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita)** > > Nominal gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is the total value of a country's finished goods and services (gross domestic product) divided by its total population (per capita). > Gross domestic product per capita is often used as a proxy indicator an indicator of a country's standard of living; however, this is inaccurate because GDP per capita is not a measure of personal income and does not take into account social and environmental costs and benefits. Measures of personal income include a... You see all those African nations at the bottom? Yep, capitalist representative democracies. And yet they didn’t receive massive funding from the West, and here they are now… Taiwan is an outlier, not the rule. Also, notice that Singapore, a fellow island Tiger, is higher in the rankings than Taiwan. And it is basically an authoritarian dictatorship. There goes your entire argument. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/149 "2010-08-23T04:50:29Z")
So move to the ever so wonderful North Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/150 "2010-08-23T04:58:35Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Tell us comrade, what think you of Burma/Mynamar? I am neutral on Myanmar. The junta has done an acceptable job in governing the country, and has demonstrated admirable restraint in dealing with that one obnoxious troublemaker (I forget her name) and her retinue of mindless followers. Unfortunately, it has not done enough to industrialize and modernize Myanmar. It really ought to form closer ties with the Chinese and try to emulate their model. Also bring in some civilians, turning the junta into a one-party state. Whatever it does, the junta should NOT allow elections to be held. That is a disastrous course of actions, especially for a developing nation. Mob mentality is the enemy of human progress. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/151 "2010-08-23T05:18:12Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > I feel that teaching languages is beneath my level of education, to be honest. How very presumptious, classist and anti-social of you. You need to be re-educated. Off to Mao’s camps and Pot’s fields with you. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/152 "2010-08-23T05:21:52Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > > [@Commissar](#): > > > > I feel that teaching languages is beneath my level of education, to be honest. > > How very presumptious, classist and anti-social of you. You need to be re-educated. Off to Mao’s camps and Pot’s fields with you. Funny that his level of education does not allow him to recall Aung San Suu Kyi’s name. Brain must be too chockful of other stuff. But capitalism can’t have been all that bad for Russia, as more Russians are obviously wearing shoes, judging by the socks. ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/153 "2010-08-23T05:27:19Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > > [@DanBlather](#): > > > > It’s a joke > > Say, has anyone seen **Skald the Rhymer** lately? Just wonderin’. No special reason. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/154 "2010-08-23T05:36:34Z")
It’s always been interesting to me that while communism’s strongest proponents tend to be intellectuals, one of the first groups to be killed off by newly formed communist regimes are the intellectuals. Curious, that. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/155 "2010-08-23T06:13:24Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > Whatever it does, the junta should NOT allow elections to be held. That is a disastrous course of actions, especially for a developing nation. Mob mentality is the enemy of human progress. I’ve followed this thread out of interest to see where things are going, but I think I’m going to stop now. This is pretty much all I could bear, here. You, sir, are no Communist, big or little ‘c’. Everything you hold up as a positive example of what your politics represent is a twisted, parodic sham of a genuine democratic worker’s society. Your father was on the right track in many respects as regards his views, whereas you’re so far off it you couldn’t hope to build a railroad back in the right direction under a thousand years of Stalinism. Should the rest of the usual gang of opposition manage to frustrate you enough to drive you off the board (and given your complete lack of any sort of rigidity to your thought, I’m almost willing to bet on it), they have no reason to consider it a victory against Marxism, socialism, or communism - simply put, because what you’re arguing in support of ain’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/156 "2010-08-23T06:25:24Z")
> [@simple\_homer](#): > > > [@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. > > Have you ever visited China ? > > I am now living and working in China, > > and you made me laugh . The combination of “People’s Republic” and “truly free” made me laugh out loud. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/157 "2010-08-23T06:28:43Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > Should the rest of the usual gang of opposition manage to frustrate you enough to drive you off the board (and given your complete lack of any sort of rigidity to your thought, I’m almost willing to bet on it), they have no reason to consider it a victory against Marxism, socialism, or communism - simply put, because what you’re arguing in support of ain’t it. That’s the nice thing about this sort of nonsense – no two communists can agree with each other for long about what communism is. Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Juche, Left communism, Luxemburgism, Council communism · Titoism, Stalinism, Castroism, Guevarism, Hoxhaism, Anarchist communism and a raft of vacuous offshoot anarchisms, Religious communism, Christian communism, Eurocommunism, World communism, Stateless communism, National communism, War Communism. Each pathetic variant is convinced that it is the one true way, and is firm in its belief that it, and it alone, has the right to control entire populations through whatever violent means it choses. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/158 "2010-08-23T06:35:21Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > I’ve followed this thread out of interest to see where things are going, but I think I’m going to stop now. This is pretty much all I could bear, here. > > You, sir, are no Communist, big or little ‘c’. Everything you hold up as a positive example of what your politics represent is a twisted, parodic sham of a genuine democratic worker’s society. Your father was on the right track in many respects as regards his views, whereas you’re so far off it you couldn’t hope to build a railroad back in the right direction under a thousand years of Stalinism. > > Should the rest of the usual gang of opposition manage to frustrate you enough to drive you off the board (and given your complete lack of any sort of rigidity to your thought, I’m almost willing to bet on it), they have no reason to consider it a victory against Marxism, socialism, or communism - simply put, because what you’re arguing in support of ain’t it. Could you be more specific, my friend? What is it that makes you think that I am not a “true” Communist, whatever that term means to you? You quoted an excerpt in which I criticize popular elections - are you saying that true Communists would embrace them, instead? I think not. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/159 "2010-08-23T06:41:37Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > That’s the nice thing about this sort of nonsense – no two communists can agree with each other for long about what communism is. Marxism, Leninism, Trotskyism, Maoism, Juche, Left communism, Luxemburgism, Council communism · Titoism, Stalinism, Castroism, Guevarism, Hoxhaism, Anarchist communism and a raft of vacuous offshoot anarchisms, Religious communism, Christian communism, Eurocommunism, World communism, Stateless communism, National communism, War Communism. Each pathetic variant is convinced that it is the one true way, and is firm in its belief that it, and it alone, has the right to control entire populations through whatever violent means it choses. What you see as weakness, I see as strength. We Communists are heirs to a dynamic, complex philosophy that embraces change and progress. Naturally, many of us will differ in our opinions as to how our political/economic theory ought to evolve. We are not a cult; we neither seek nor expect to create a single unified theory that can be applied to all nations everywhere. Your thinking is too rigid. And at no point have I claimed that my theory “is the one true way.” It is simply a way, a potentiality in a sea of other options. I think that it happens to be a good option, but I am neither ignorant nor arrogant enough to claim that it is perfect. I am convinced that it will work better than what you Westerners are currently playing at, with your mob hysterias and your exploitative markets, but it will not be utopian. Not right away, anyway. There is always room for improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964/160 "2010-08-23T06:49:50Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Each pathetic variant is convinced that it is the one true way, and is firm in its belief that it, and it alone, has the right to control entire populations through whatever violent means it choses. And where have you seen me say such a thing in defense of my politics? Furthermore, it’s not like any other strain of political thought is free from such differences of opinion, is it? Should we say that Republicanism is a failed ideology because some of its adherents have had enough of the more extreme politics and have begun to strenuously disagree? > [@Commissar](#): > > Could you be more specific, my friend? What is it that makes you think that I am not a “true” Communist, whatever that term means to you? The fact that you hold up China as a model communist society, for one. Upthread I posted a link from 2003 in which I analyzed the Chinese Revolution and demonstrated that it had nothing to do with the working class taking power. In fact, the political structure of China closely matched (and still matches) the political structure of Stalin’s Soviet Union, which was pretty much entirely his creation. So on the one hand you justifiably execrate Stalin for his crimes, yet on the other you hold up a society based on his twisted political visions as an example of communism. > [@](#): > > _You quoted an excerpt in which I criticize popular elections - are you saying that true Communists would embrace them, instead? I think not._ Explain, then, why the Bolsheviks ran for (and got elected to) the Tsarist Duma in the years before the October Revolution. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-a-communist/550964.md?page=9)