Pffffffffft! You point to Bezos and Musk as ‘free market’ guys yet Bezos in prticular made his monopoly through non-compete practices and Musk through govt subsidy. Bro, plz. These are the oligarchs. Dont put them anywhere near a gas station worker! Further, these are people, not markets. I dont… I just dont, lmfao.

Yep, that’s the free market in action. What do you think free market capitalism is all about? It means less regulation, more freedom for capitalists to do what they want. And neoliberalism has ensured that capital is completely protected by the state.

Monopoly is not a problem with capitalism, it is a problem with government. Of coure a business seeks to grow/profit.

Lmao you literally described the problem of capitalism. “Of course they want to grow!” Yeah - because capitalism. Capitalism requires businesses to seek growth, because otherwise they’d fail. That literally isn’t a problem outside of capitalism.

But govt was supposed to protect consumers from monopoly. They didn’t. Clearly. Do I blame Bezos/Musk (whom I give $0) or the government that was supposed to protect me (whom I give a significant percentage of net-wealth). Arguably, we would not have our current oligarchs without the collusion between State and corporation… Whats the word for that again?

Neoliberalism? Corruption? Capitalism?

Socialism has existed since capitalism began? So are you calling Communism Socialism now?

…No? Why would one entail the other?

Do you agree with V. Lenin when he said ‘The goal of Socialism is Communism.’? The slope is slippery, lmao.

Yes, that is the goal of socialism. And what slope do you mean?

Its funny, man. You’ll play appologist for the USSR (re: Holodimur)

…excuse me? Here are my exact words:

1. The soviet famine was largely the result of natural factors.

2. It was then worsened considerably by a very slow and negligent response from Stalin.

3. It affected more than just Ukraine. Kazakhstan and even Russia itself also suffered.

4. Stalin did send help - but not enough, and it was sent secretly so as not to let the outside world discover the famine.

In summation, it was far from deliberate, but Stalin’s response was cold and insufficient, and cared more about appearances.

All in all - not very damn communist. Because, surely you know, The USSR was not communist? The first clue is it has a damn state. That’s a big clue. I’m generally not a big fan of the USSR and the big fuckin state is one of the reasons.

That is not USSR apologia. That is condemning them for failing to do better.

but then go to say no, it wasnt real Communism. This strikes me as an inconsistency. Its easy to find flaws in things that actually exist ;]

But it’s not communism. It has a state. Like I said. It was a Marxist-Leninist socialist state. Where’s the inconsistency?

The infrastructure for water kind of exists in the West. But its also pretty piss-poor.

So it needs to be improved.

I live near Detroit/Flint. It took ~9yrs to fix the shitty infrastructure.

So they need to fucking do better.

This how I know you’re an idealist-- You’re diminishing the seriousness of the differences in the problems.

No, I’m really not. I’m not calling any of this easy.

Water is baby-mode compared to food.

Whatever you say.

Consider my experience of public services. Roads: Detroit. Schools: Detroit. Living standards: Detroit. Police response: Detroit. Fire response: Detroit… The public sector is a joke.

Because neoliberal capitalism insists that the state must stay out of everything, and any service it provides must be put to the market to compete and neutered, because the intention is to remove all public services and leave them to the whims of the market. Neoliberals believe every facet of life must be a competition, and all aid is wasted tax dollars. And when they’re in power, they work hard to make sure this is true and that the public sees it as an inevitable failure of services that inherently can’t work, rather than intentional sabotage of critical infrastructure to enrich their cronies.

This is why the neoliberalism is cancer to society. And capitalism inherently leads to this - capitalism cannot exist without a state to protect its private property. And this relationship develops parasitically until the state is merely an organ for capital to oppress the people.

Go back to the very beginning where I mention Thomas Sowell. You have the anoited vision, you think that impossible things can be achieved with enough money (which is tantamount to force).

That’s an incredibly dishonest representation of socialist theory. I really don’t understand how you can think that’s what I’ve said.

I don’t, I think some problems are legitimately impossible by their nature.

Why? You really haven’t explained your view on this. You’ve just said, basically, “it hasn’t been done therefore it can’t.”

If you shrug off food shortages and starvation as a ‘capitalits’ problem then I know you guys are damned, lol.

Who the fuck is saying that? It’s a multifaceted, complex problem, but capitalism is at the core of it. A few questions:

What is the actual reason homeless people exist in the richest nations on Earth?

What is the actual reason millions struggle to feed themselves in said nations?

What is the actual reason millions have to work for bullshit pay on behalf of the richest corporations in the world?

It IS a hard problem. Try and tell me that it’s not.

Why do you seem to expect it would be hard for me to say, “this is a difficult problem”? What gave you the impression I thought this could be done easily?

You can assure me that I wont get the bullet, but what if Im only gulag’d? :p

You’re just not taking this seriously. Why am I?

What if you’re just some prole and have no say?!

The vast majority of us are already proles. It is is who will be leading the revolution. I think you have a distorted view of what communism and socialism are. It is fundamentally democratic, inherently so, led by the people on the ground who are themselves motivated to improve their own conditions for the good of their society.

People like me are a problem for you guys.

Stop fantasising that you’re some outlaw.

Once you get enough FORCE you wont be talking with me…

Why do you say this? Like I’ve said, communism is led by the people. Anything that is led by authoritarian force has no business calling itself communist. Why can’t you get past this? Why won’t you learn? I’m really trying here to help you understand. You have to work with me. Just understand I’m not lying to you. Why is that so hard? You’re fundamentally resisting the information I’m giving you.

This talking/pseudo-intellectual phase is merely the boot getting put on the foot.

Why call it pseudo-intellectual? Why call it a phase? Why do you think there is some secret master plan for domination?

Where do you see this in socialist theory? Which socialist writer promoted anything like this?

Please answer.

I know, Ill be re-educated and made to say I love the State.

FFS man. Listen. Communism is stateless. Why won’t you listen?

Why do you say you’ll be re-educated? What state will you be made to love?

Please answer.

Hell, maybe you’ll get an extra [widget] if you turn me in ;]

You’re just not listening!!! This is hopeless.

Im going to go to work, but I would like to make a little consensus between us :] “Fuck this bullshit neo-liberalism.” Agreed?

I don’t think there’s anything else we’ll agree on. But at least consider what I’m saying isn’t a cover for some master plan for world domination. I don’t want power. Socialists don’t want power vested in any individual or minority of elites. Socialists want workers to have control of their own lives, to be able to choose their work of their own free will, to better society because they truly want to.

Force is how we labour now. These fears of yours are our current reality. You cannot truly decide how you work or how you live your life. You have options to choose between, but all of these options have been provided for you by the symbiosis of State and capital, and all of these options enrich them at your expense. The only option that doesn’t exploit you is not working, and unemployment is deliberately as unappealing and tenuous as possible. Poverty and homelessness are tools of coercion employed by capital to keep you as afraid of unemployment as possible.

Being forced to love the State? What is the Pledge of Allegiance? What are mandatory holidays commemorating servants of State? What is the pomp and pageantry associated with election campaigns?

Re-education? What is prison, to which you can be sent for offences as minor as possessing substances for personal use, or peacefully expressing your distaste for the State in public?

Yes. Fuck neo-liberalism. Fuck the capitalism that birthed it. Fuck the State.

All power to all the people. That’s what I want. That’s what socialists want. Please understand this.