this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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[–] [email protected] 92 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (34 children)

the point is not to exploit others labor by expropriation of the means of production, no one cares what you do with your own labor

[–] CascadeDismayed 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yes I think the point is the entirely missed by others.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Then so be it, but it seems like it would be beneficial to do so

I could go out in the woods right now and try to live on my own, but I'd have a much better time in a community with other people

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If an individual wants to gain an individual benefit from their work instead of giving it to the community, what would prevent them from bartering for more personal good than they'd get otherwise?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Sharing one's fruits with the community not only benefits the community itself, but the individual as well. This is anarcho-communism. I'm not the best person to describe it since I'm not that knowledgeable about politics, but I'd encourage you to read The Conquest of Bread, it's actually a pretty straightforward read: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-conquest-of-bread

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[–] Comrade_Spood 3 points 1 year ago

The whole point of anarchism is free association. If two people agree to something that is their business. There is no exploitation in what you described. If they were to hire someone then that is an example of it being exploitative. Someone could join them in their labor as long as both parties get all that they produce.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well then they do not get the benefits of society? Idk im not Communist but that seems like the best option to me

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What keeps individuals from benefiting from society without contributing to it? Who determines appropriate contributions? I don't know if you can do that in an anarchical framework

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (10 children)

The community itself would make those decisions in a way that works for them. Us telling them in the future now from the past how to live their lives is tyrannical

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does the majority need to agree with the decisions? Or could the majority appoint people to make the decisions? Or could one person simply take charge and unilaterally make decisions as a dictator? Would any of those be acceptable?

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[–] Comrade_Spood 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The community themselves decide. If it's enough of a problem, the community will organize to address it how they see fit. That's the whole point of anarchism. We don't have all the answers and we don't claim to, the people that run into these issues will find the solutions that best suites their needs.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So does the community vote on everything then? If there are too many decisions, could they appoint someone to make some of the decisions on their behalf? Or does every little decision need to be voted on by everyone? If not, I don't see how it's different than democracy

[–] Comrade_Spood 2 points 1 year ago

Decisions concerning the community as a whole would probably be voted on, or at least discussed and a decision made by the community as a whole. Otherwise the only people that need to be concerned with something is those that are involved.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Democracy and capitalism are not synonymous.

And about capitalism, rich people (and by "rich", I mean people that don't need to work to stay rich and stay getting richer) have more access and influence on decision making them anybody else. Decision power should be spread more evenly, your society can have people delegated to take decisions, but that decisions should reflect the interest of the society as a whole, not only who gets economic power.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Valid point... Didn't account for the anarchy part

[–] NewDark 27 points 1 year ago

I mean sure, but what we have now are people not sharing the fruits of other people's labor. Your favorite billionaire did not earn that wealth through their own labor.

[–] Cruxifux 23 points 1 year ago

Communism isn’t just about division of labour so fruits are spread equally, and is far more about the worker getting screwed in the deal that is capitalism, and a better way to actually divide the fruits of labour so the people actually DOING everything get a fair share.

Capitalists and their supporters won’t read any actual books about this that aren’t written by other capitalists and their shills generally, and it’s far more complex and has many different ideas of how this works even within strictly communist circles, so whatever. People just gonna do buzz lines and memes because of what Ben Shapiro said on Joe Rogan this week or whatever, and I get why it’s so much easier to do that, because theory is boring and exhausting, but it is frustrating to see sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago

Just my own $0.02, but...

If people are hoarding and stockpiling, at least part of the response needs to be to look at the motivation these people have to stockpile and address that motivation. A hoarding problem is probably a valuable signal of some deep societal issue of distribution that needs resolved.

The vast majority of scarcity we face in this capitalist-controlled world is manufactured, so I wouldn't think actual scarcity would often be an issue, but if hypothetically it was and someone was stockpiling more than they could use of some basic need like food allowing others to starve, I'd say the starving taking the surplus (the portion the stockpiler can't use) by force would be justice.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Wondering how they expect to have the ability to produce anything to be their fruits if they refuse to cooperate with society

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

They will be lined up with the other anti-revolutionaries.

[–] herrwoland 6 points 1 year ago

I think "his labor" and how you define it is the key here. For example it's different if it's an individual or the manager of a factory.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm no specialist in communism or anarchism but it's the first time I see the term "Anarcho-communism". And AFAIK anarchism and communism are movements that are looking for different paths to their means (or even different means).

Is "anarcho-communism" a thing? Or is just a made-up term to be a counterpoint to anarcho-capitalist? or just strawman?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well, that's new.

Anarchism is a sub-ideology of communism that seeks to abolish all kind of unjustified hierarchy, including capitalism. It's the farthest left ideology.

"Anarcho-capitalist" is a strange concept that's very recent and only seem to exist in the USA, that tries to reimagine feudalism in the industrial age, meaning that very rich people are free to have their own army and own massive area of land, where people living there will subjected to the laws of that lord, with no possibility to remove them through voting. It really doesn't have anything in common with anarchy.

You can read more on the wikipedia page, it seems to be pretty good.

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