Nah, if it was communist propaganda, it would mean that you get no material reward compared to anyone else, but could count on the teacher to pass on a good word for you with the principal, who then might mention your name positively at an education board meeting, who then might mention you to the mayor, the governor, etc, and now you have a real shot of becoming dictator of the single-party government that rules your country.

Value not consumer prizes and instead seek nepotistic alliances, for through them will the material comforts flow. —Mao, probably.

I feel like the meme also works if you put the red box around “Gay. Depressed.” instead.

…No, no—I’ll see myself out.

I mean, it can still be whatever you want it to be even if it’s dirty…it’s just also gross.

Agreed, but it’s not really like you’re any different, is it?

In a lot of vampire fiction, it’s the faith of the cross-holder that matters. I’d like to see a movie where a vampire is turned by a person holding up a teapot.

and it’s the government model that is to blame?

Yes, because it leaves itself so prone to authoritarian takeover. As I’ve said before, this is a feature of communism, not a bug. A single, one-party “transitional” government is intended. You might as well just put up a sign that says “Dictator Wanted.” This is why there isn’t a single instance of communism on a nation-state scale that hasn’t quickly devolved into an authoritarian state. It’s not hard to understand this. Your government model has to account for the reality that people are going to disagree on things and faction out. Your model has to be able to manage that process. Communism insists everyone adhere to the same ideology, and those that don’t just get “re-educated.” It’s a horrible ideology, a horrible government model; naïve utopian fantasy at best, cynical authoritarian scheme at worst.

Lemmy overall is just different shades of red. Picking your instance just allows you to select pink vs. crimson.

“Those shell walls were thin, bitch, and I’m already tired of your shit!”

I totally support this. Political images or images with a political message should have their own forum.

Not going to waste my time with someone who has such absolutist views untethered to reality.

Yes, but you choose to work for a company. Don’t pretend that’s the same as the government of the country you happen to be born in taking ownership of your creations. In a capitalist country, had Alexey Pajitnov chosen to develop the game himself, he would have made much more from it. If he had done that in the USSR, he’d still have his creation and all its monetary proceeds taken away from him.

How’s about a website that generates money, like Facebook or YouTube? Can you own that?

What about products that designed to create ongoing streams of revenue, like a patent on an invention or a piece of art you can collect royalties from every time it is displayed? The USSR famously took ownership of Tetris away from its creator.

Under communism, how does the stock market work? I’m not a big fan of it, but it’s pretty hard to imagine getting rid of it now that the global economy is pretty much dependent on it.

Today, five countries exist that can be said to be communist: China, Russia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba. Of those five, none have achieved actual communism, and several have inarguably embraced capitalism to a great extent. All of them have essentially authoritarian governments. Which is unsurprising, since a dictatorship of the proletariat is central to the Marxist vision of how to create a communist society, and involves the creation of a single-party transitional government that forcibly suppresses all its critics and rivals.

I’m not big into capitalism and I think we should implement plenty of socialist reforms, but I will never understand why some people on the Left—or anyone for that matter—think communism is what we should be striving for.

Cute, and forgive me for getting serious in a humor thread, but I can’t stand how the term “incel” has come to functionally mean “any guy who exhibits entitlement towards women.” I’m not blaming OP for this nor really anyone else, it’s just a disappointing thing that’s happened in society IMO. Incel started as a term for men who felt depressed about being unable to find a female partner, and the subreddit they created was originally a supportive space for them. Then it got taken over by angry misogynists and the term became associated with them, while the original group just kind of got forgotten about. That original group deserves attention and empathy as well as the term they coined; the latter group isn’t even “involuntarily celibate,” as they play a very big role in their own celibacy.

Anyway, sorry for ruining the mood if I have, I just think more people should give some thought to who that term originally belonged to.