this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
482 points (93.2% liked)

The Democratic People's™ Republic of Tankiejerk

701 readers
200 users here now

Dunking on Tankies from a leftist, anti-capitalist perspective.

Rules:

  1. Be civil and no bigotry of any kind.
  2. No tankies or right-wingers. Liberals are allowed so long as they are aware of this
  3. No genocide denial

We allow posts about tankie behavior even off fedi, shitposts, and rational, leftist discussion. For a more general community [email protected] is recommended.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] PugJesus 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

I've said it multiple times now.

worker ownership of the means of production

that workers must gain the power from their economic output to have true control over their social and political future.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
worker ownership of the means of production

Everything is government owned, check.

that workers must gain the power from their economic output to have true control over their social and political future.

Firefighters are paid and have control over their social and political futures, check.

[–] PugJesus 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Everything is government owned, check.

means of production

Firefighters are paid and have control over their social and political futures, check.

You're not looking at socialism at a social level, which is where the ideology operates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

What do you mean by "social level"? We're talking about the political and economic theory called socialism, right?

[–] PugJesus 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I mean individuals being paid doesn't give them power over their social and political futures, because such questions are determined at a larger scale than the individual level. Socialism is about worker control of the means of production, as a class, not as a few lucky individuals.

Firefighters do not operate the means of production; firefighters being paid well does not give workers control over their social and political futures, because firefighters are not a class that is large or influential enough to dictate the flow of their society's political and economic power structures.

You're looking at things in a very individualist way is what I mean, and that's... completely contrary to socialism in both theoretical and practical terms.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Firefighters do not operate the means of production

Sure they do.

firefighters being paid well does not give workers control over their social and political futures, because firefighters are not a class that is large or influential enough to dictate the flow of their society's political and economic power structures.

Nor does any worker. That's part of the deal with a society where things are communally owned, you know, socialism. If you want an individual to be influential enough to dictate the flow of their society's political and economic power structures, you're looking for a rich capitalist.

You seem determined to try to come up with a way to pretend that clearly socialist parts of a mixed capitalist/socialist system are not socialist, while maintaining that the parts that are capitalist are still capitalist. You can't have it both ways.

[–] PugJesus 1 points 6 hours ago