The US has floated the idea of using special forces units as an alternative to land invasion, so sabotage isn’t unlikely.

When I say “anti-communist,” I generally mean those who would use pejoratives against Marxists, I’m aware anarchists use it as well as liberals.

Communism as an economic system isn’t some genie you have to trick into giving you stuff, or else you’ll be swindled by malicious compliance simply based on the phrase “according to need.” It’s a mode of production characterized by collectivized production and distribution according to a common plan, not a game of semantics.

I did, and I believe it’s a strong indicator of wishing to return to socialism, especially when combined with other metrics like huge increases in communist party membership and soviet pride.

They do. For starters, famine was ended after the 1930s (outside of World War II), and prison death rates weren’t astronomically high nor were prison populations particularly high either.

• As for increase in communist party membership, over four years, more than 63,000 people have become CPRF members, with most of the new recruits being young people under 30 and “people of prime working age.”.

• “We are now seeing not just nostalgia for the past, but a conscious choice by millions of citizens in favor of the socialist path of development,”

• We restored all ties with the Communist Parties of China, Vietnam, the DPRK, with India, with the Arab countries, with Latin America, with Cuba, with Venezuela, with Nicaragua.

• The expansion and astronomical growth of grassroot movements like the Inmortal Regiment. This movement grew so large that plenty of countries around the world organized a similar march. It started small until it grew in a international movement.

There are other examples, but it’s clearly on the rise.

The US.

That doesn’t explain the rise of communist party membership, nor can you wash away the fact that quality of life metrics were higher in the soviet union for the most part than they are today in post-soviet countries.

No, it doesn’t lol. There are still open sauce packets and napkins. People don’t have endless greed for that which they don’t need, especially if their needs are already met by strong safety nets like they are in socialist countries. Even in capitalist hellholes like the US, you still find restaurants with free napkins and plastic utensils, etc, and people don’t generally grab as many as they can.

I do read the primary data, and it’s also true that in many formerly socialist countries there’s surging sympathies for socialism and surging communist party membership.

Kinda? Tankie is just a pejorative for Marxist or anti-imperialist, generally. It’s a strawman with exaggerated characteristics that anti-communists fling at people to avoid actually listening to what they have to say.

As far as “authoritarianism” is concerned, all Marxists support the working class wielding its authority against capitalists, fascists, etc.

The transition from capitalism to socialism will nearly always be through revolution. It simply isn’t feasible to ask the ruling class to give up the very system that entitles them to their plunder, elections are carefully controlled so as to not allow genuine socialist or communist victory. Even when communists like Allende won in countries like Chile, they are couped, just like the US is attempting against Maduro. Revolution is authoritarian, it’s the forceful will of the majority against the minority. As Engels put it:

Have these gentlemen ever seen a revolution? A revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is. It is the act by which one part of the population imposes its will on the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannons — by the most authoritarian means possible; and the victors, if they do not want to have fought in vain, must maintain this rule by means of the terror which their arms inspire in the reactionaries. Would the Paris Commune have lasted a single day if the communards had not used the authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie? Should we not, on the contrary, reproach them for not having used it enough?

Historically, revolution has unfolded the same way, as the majority enforcing its will upon the minority. The French Revolution, Russian Revolution, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cuban, Korean, etc have all been such examples. They have been enormously liberating for the working classes, and terribly authoritarian towards capitalists, landlords, fascists, colonizers, etc. I’m not going to erase that that violence happened, but I’m not going to minimize that these were and are popular movements supported by the broad majority either. None of these countries are utopias, but all are real, with real working class victories.

Socialism is a mode of production, characterized by public ownership being the principle aspect of the economy. The western European countries don’t have socialism, they have social safety nets within the boundaries of capitalism. They fund these safety nets with the spoils of imperialism, ie international plunder of the global south, not through their own labor. The USSR, PRC, Vietnam, etc are socialist, not western Europe, and moreover do not depend on imperialism for their safety nets. Western Europe is not moving onto communism because it isn’t even socialist yet, and is under the dictatorship of capitalists.

Communism is a mode of production where all of production and distribution has been collectivized and run according to a common plan. It’s stateless, classless, and moneyless. It is post-socialist in that socialism is where production and distribution are gradually collectivized, erasing the basis for class, and the basis of the state as a consequence. Personal property remains, ie you can keep your toothbrush, but production and distribution are collectivized.

If you want a good introduction to Marxist theory, I wrote an intro Marxist-Leninist reading list. Feel free to check it out!

Sorry, only fun communist memes here.

BRB going to take all of the napkins, fire sauce, and salt packets next time I go to Taco Bell because “human nature”

The USSR was democratic, so it isn’t in contradiction. I’d prefer more surveys to be taken that directly ask questions on preference for socialism vs capitalism, ie a return to the soviet system directly rather than simply asking if they are better or worse off. What we do know is that in countries like Russia and Belarus, there is a strong resurgance in soviet pride and communist party registration.

I’m not surprised anti-communist western orgs don’t like Cuba. Cubans like Cuba, though, and participate in their elections to achieve the incredible results socialism can get them despite intense siege. The Meidner plan still relies on imperialism, and failed.

I linked to a thread that links to numerous sources from Reuters to the World Bank to the Economist and more. It’s a comprehensive list of sources gathered by one person that posted it on Twitter, the validity of the thread is in the sources linked, not that they are linked on Twitter.

Secondly, I also linked Wikipedia and their actual page. What do you disagree with, the fact that you’re a fan of a far-right christian nationalist, US state funded propagandist, or that this propagandist has been caught lying numerous times?

Cuba has fair elections, and maintains extremely close ties with China out of solidarity. China has been providing solar panels and other means by which to help alleviate Cuba’s energy crisis right now.

The Nordic Model relies on imperialism to function. The social safety nets are funded by plundering the global south, and control of industry is kept in the hands of capitalists. They are less democratic than countries like Cuba and China, and serve as plunderers of the global south, unlike Cuba and China.

As such, the Nordic countries are declining alongside the general decay in western imperialism, while socialist countries like Cuba and China are rapidly improving.

Here’s his page on the Victims of Communism website. The Victims of Communism Foundation is a US State Department created propaganda outlet, and Adrian Zenz in particular has been caught lying and fabricating evidence numerous times. You’re upholding a US State Department funded, far-right Christian nationalist, anti-communist propagandist. It’s time to turn off Fox News.

Did you ask an AI? You’re prominently featuring Adrian Zenz, a paid propagandist for the Victims of Communism foundation that has been caught fabricating evidencd and lying numerous times. He claims China is the antichrist and that he was sent by God to stop them. This is a farce.

That’s not what people mean by saying “from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.” There’s no Robin Hood figure robbing people at gunpoint. What it means is that all of production and distribution is collectivized and run according to a common plan in order to satisfy everyone’s needs.

China is socialist, public ownership is the principle aspect of its economy and controls the commanding heights of industry. Even if you’re (wrongly) defining socialism as cooperative ownership, the PRC has one of the largest cooperative sectors in the world, though it’s subservient to their public sector. Huawei is an example of a cooperative. They have real elections and real democracy.

Russia is a capitalist country, yes. It’s supported insofar as they align themselved with socialist countries and the global south, as well as having increasing numbers of those supportive of returning to socialism.