Happy October revolution everyone! Today, to celebrate, we decided to debunk 6 common anti-communist arguments.
1. Human nature / people are greedy
Human nature is plastic to its environment. People certainly acted differently 1420 than they did in 2020. Democracy was against the great chain of being and the divine right of kings. Modern medicine is against human nature. Our human nature was certainly cooperative during the long period of human history that functioned under primitive communism. Our great ability for memetic advancement is one humanity’s defining traits. In addition, what does it mean to be “greedy”? Does it mean to look out for one own’s material interest? Well then most people should be socialist, as the lives of most people are improved under socialism. The working class looking out for their own interests is exactly what Marx advocated for.
2. death counts / no food
There is much to be said regarding death counts and famines under socialist governments and we may write another article on this. Firstly, death counts and famines are often highly exaggerated. The common “100 million figure” is from the propaganda piece “The Black Book of Communism” and includes people who were not even born. The Caloric intake of the USSR was the same as the US, according to the CIA who had every reason to make the USSR look bad. Secondly, we must remind ourselves of the material pressures various socialist countries faced that led to famine and devastation. This image explains it better than we can:
Thirdly, what exactly makes a death the fault of communism? Stalin could not control the clouds and make it rain over Ukraine. Even if Stalin did cause the famine would that be the fault of an economic system? However, if people die of exposure in countries with homeless people than homes — as is the case in both the United States and the United Kingdom — then would that not be the fault of an economic system that makes it disadvantageous to house people who cannot afford to pay for homes? We certainly say so.
3. no innovation
That socialism can take a country from Rasputin to Sputnik and people can still be convinced that socialism crushes innovation is a testament to the encompassing strength of anti-communist propaganda. They really can’t keep getting away with this. Jokes aside, economic systems do not innovate. People innovate and thus the economic system that liberates the people will allow them to innovate the most. Here is a long list of inventions in just the USSR alone. Plenty of other socialist countries have had innovations as well, in particular Cuba’s many advancements in the medical field including the lung cancer vaccine CimaVax-EGF. The real question is, what innovation does capitalism bring? Is planned obsolesce innovation? What innovations do come from capitalist countries tend to come from government research, not the market. Innovation comes from the hard work of scientists and engineers funded by your tax dollars, not the capitalist class.
4. no incentives
The idea that people won’t have incentives to work hard without the profit motive is silly. People obviously did things prior to capitalism so there must be other incentives. There are plenty of motives such as survival, satisfaction of your work, serving your community, passion, and just plain boredom. One of our favorites is metals, a common incentive in the USSR. What makes you want to be the best pilot, a potential raise or knowing that you’re serving your people and country and you will be given a shiny award for your efforts? The latter seems more appealing if you ask us.
5. leads to dictatorship / repression of rights
Every political system needs to restrict rights to establish itself and maintain itself in periods of stress. Take the sedition act and repression of loyalists in the United States or restrictions on press freedoms during the American Slavery war. Liberal Capitalism dominance is certainly paved with blood. Without the Spring of Nations or the French revolution it certainly would not have taken hold as the Monarchies of old would never let their power be challenged. Similarly, Capitalists won’t let Socialists develop a peaceful and gentle Socialism. When Allende tried to in Chile the democratic government was overthrown in a U.S. backed military Coup. They are forced to adapt ‘authoritarian’ measures to stay alive. This all being said, the extent of ‘authoritarianism’ is often greatly exaggerated by western propaganda. When America does it it is a prison. When the Soviets do it, it is a Gulag. We are taught to conceptualize these things differently. We implore anyone reading this article to do research and consider how socialist countries and capitalist ones are conceptualized differently.
6. “My family suffered under Socialism!”
If by suffered you mean they had their slaves and plantation taken away, good. That the dictatorship of the proletariat takes power from the Bourgeoisie is no surprise and it is a good thing. Besides that, if your family actually suffered under a socialist government, that is sad to hear. While there is much to be learned from the past socialist experiments they all certainly made mistakes and sometimes people did suffer when they did not need to. It is worth mentioning however that the experience of your family is not representative. Most people who lived under Socialism want it back according to many polls done in Russia, what formerly made up East Germany, Hungary, Czechia, and Serbia. It is also worth noting that the greatest suffering in many socialist countries came not from socialism but from the collapse of the USSR. While the 90s in the US was a time of peace and prosperity Cuba was devastated by famine in what’s referred to as the “Special Period”. The DPRK was similarly struck by famine in the 90s and the collapse of Yugoslavia also came out of the USSR’s demise.
