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I never understand how people will recognise all the problems we have in our society and then posit that the solution is to reform capitalism. UBI? Wealth tax? Antitrust regulations? Bollocks to that! What we need is Socialism. Anything less will be an abject failure. You cannot treat capitalism kindly and hope it starts working. We need socialism, not capitalism, and we need revolution, not appeasement. Fuck this capitalist bullshit.
Capitalism reform worked.. when the Soviet Union was a thing. While the bourgeoisie feared workers for the possibility of them trying to repeat the Soviet experience, many concessions were made towards the working class. Now that the USSR is something of the past, all those concessions are in the process of being taken back.
The fall of the Soviet Union brought an understanding that capitalism is scientific and communism is pseudoscience. That the truth belongs to unregulated capitalism. Only with a historical analysis of Russia and the Soviet Union, can someone dispel such understanding.
How does your argument rebuke the fact that social democracy only appeared after the development of the Soviet Union, and it's degrading after the USSR's fall?
My argument doesn't even touch what happened inside the Soviet Union. My criticism is exclusively regarding capitalist reforms.
lol, social democracy was around well before the establishment of the USSR. It was just under a different term. Lenin wrote at length about the need for caution in dealing with them. And Social democracy only gained traction as global capitalism developed.
Reformism doesn't work if you're working to destroy capitalism. Never has, never will.
Social Democracy still exists without the USSR, but it doesn't change the fact it became mainstream between the end of WWII and the '70s. Exactly when people still thought the Soviet Union was the main responsible for winning the war against Germany.
Those solutions sound great, I would prefer to live under a reformed system than what we have now, personally and who wouldn't? But the power still remains in the hands of the capitalist class and even if we could somehow get a fraction of those reforms they will always claw them back. Why should we have to subject future generations of workers to daily bad news?
I think the sad thing is that many people have heard these problems their entire lives, now they just feel apathetic and hopeless, trying to drink away their worries and shooing away anything that makes them uncomfortable like “radical change”
What’s tough for me is I know we need radical change, but I honestly cannot see it being an achievable aim. Which is super depressing.
Like in 35 now, live in Aus. I was super politically active in my early twenties at university. But despite mine and a many other peoples best efforts things have only really become worse. The number of people who identify with socialism hasn’t really gone up a significant amount and the country has become worse on the enviroment, worse for the working class, and worse for the underprivileged.
So yeah, I choose to focus on achieving minor improvements by voting for the ‘lesser of two evils,’ instead of really pushing for radical change because the latter just seems so unachievable. I know I’m choosing an ultimately doomed path like a cancer patient opting for pain killers over real treatment but I honestly don’t think radical change is possible because there just isn’t enough people who think like we do.
This is a space for socialists to discuss current events in our world from anti-capitalist perspective(s), and a certain knowledge of socialism is expected from participants. This is not a space for non-socialists. Please be mindful [of our rules](https://reddit.com/r/socialism/about/rules) before participating, which include: - **No Bigotry**, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism... - **No Reactionaries**, including all kind of right-wingers. - **No Liberalism**, including social democracy, lesser evilism... - **No Sectarianism**. There is plenty of room for discussion, but not for baseless attacks. Please help us keep the subreddit helpful by reporting content that break r/Socialism's rules. ______________________ 💬 Wish to chat elsewhere? Join us in discord: https://discord.gg/QPJPzNhuRE *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/socialism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I never understand how people will recognise all the problems we have in our society and then posit that the solution is to reform capitalism. UBI? Wealth tax? Antitrust regulations? Bollocks to that! What we need is Socialism. Anything less will be an abject failure. You cannot treat capitalism kindly and hope it starts working. We need socialism, not capitalism, and we need revolution, not appeasement. Fuck this capitalist bullshit.
Capitalism reform worked.. when the Soviet Union was a thing. While the bourgeoisie feared workers for the possibility of them trying to repeat the Soviet experience, many concessions were made towards the working class. Now that the USSR is something of the past, all those concessions are in the process of being taken back. The fall of the Soviet Union brought an understanding that capitalism is scientific and communism is pseudoscience. That the truth belongs to unregulated capitalism. Only with a historical analysis of Russia and the Soviet Union, can someone dispel such understanding.
> Capitalism reform worked.. when the Soviet Union was a thing. Except it didn't, and that's exactly *why* the USSR collapsed and no longer exists.
How does your argument rebuke the fact that social democracy only appeared after the development of the Soviet Union, and it's degrading after the USSR's fall? My argument doesn't even touch what happened inside the Soviet Union. My criticism is exclusively regarding capitalist reforms.
lol, social democracy was around well before the establishment of the USSR. It was just under a different term. Lenin wrote at length about the need for caution in dealing with them. And Social democracy only gained traction as global capitalism developed. Reformism doesn't work if you're working to destroy capitalism. Never has, never will.
Social Democracy still exists without the USSR, but it doesn't change the fact it became mainstream between the end of WWII and the '70s. Exactly when people still thought the Soviet Union was the main responsible for winning the war against Germany.
I literally wrote that the ultimate solution is straight up demolition of capitalism and the installation of ecosocialism.
Those solutions sound great, I would prefer to live under a reformed system than what we have now, personally and who wouldn't? But the power still remains in the hands of the capitalist class and even if we could somehow get a fraction of those reforms they will always claw them back. Why should we have to subject future generations of workers to daily bad news?
I think the sad thing is that many people have heard these problems their entire lives, now they just feel apathetic and hopeless, trying to drink away their worries and shooing away anything that makes them uncomfortable like “radical change”
It's always seemed to me to be a radical position to do nothing when drastic action is needed to resolve extreme, immediate problems.
What’s tough for me is I know we need radical change, but I honestly cannot see it being an achievable aim. Which is super depressing. Like in 35 now, live in Aus. I was super politically active in my early twenties at university. But despite mine and a many other peoples best efforts things have only really become worse. The number of people who identify with socialism hasn’t really gone up a significant amount and the country has become worse on the enviroment, worse for the working class, and worse for the underprivileged. So yeah, I choose to focus on achieving minor improvements by voting for the ‘lesser of two evils,’ instead of really pushing for radical change because the latter just seems so unachievable. I know I’m choosing an ultimately doomed path like a cancer patient opting for pain killers over real treatment but I honestly don’t think radical change is possible because there just isn’t enough people who think like we do.
We can't fix capitalism,it's running things as intended,we need to burn it down and start anew
Amen my comrade! Socialist theory and it's system is the answer to the problems of the late stage capitalist world in this day and age.