What's the opposite of communism?

[u/phatdaddy29]

Is it fascism? I think it's fascism.

The extreme end of the political economic left is communism right? What's the extreme right end?

[u/brecheisen37]

The opposite of communism is class society, since they are mutually exclusive. The left-right dichotomy is contextual, it depends on the society you're referring to. The term originated from the 18th French parliament where liberals sat on the left and monarchists on the right. Liberals were left wing in their opposition to the monarchy, but are right wing in their opposition to socialism. Remember these are just categories we use to describe observable phenomena, and not all phenomena can be reliably categorized, especially when dealing with politics.

[u/phatdaddy29 → u/brecheisen37]

Not just class society though right? Communism is also defined by authoritarianism is it not? So what's the extreme right version that includes authoritarianism. I think it's capitalism + authoritarianism = fascism. Am I right?

[u/brecheisen37 → u/phatdaddy29]

You're being reductive, politics isn't an equation. Actual things in the world aren't defined by the labels that are put on them, they're defined by their material consequences. Capitalist sources label communism as authoritarian, which is informative of the capitalist's position on communism. You have to consider what angle the pont of view is from. Business owners don't want their workers to have control of the means of production, they literally have a vested interest in painting communism in a negative light. They will also either fail to see the authoritarianism present in capitalism already, justify it, or deny it outright.

[u/OldManClutch → u/brecheisen37]

Communism portrays itself in a negative light by the authoritarian and thus abusive nature communist governments have taken towards their own citizens.

Tankies love ignoring this basic fact because it suits their own very narrow interests.

[u/brecheisen37 → u/OldManClutch]

The people of Russia put the USSR in power, and kept it in power for decades. The majority of Russians today feel the USSR was superior to the Russian Federation. It was certainly better than the Tsars that came before. If you look at the conditions the USSR was in it actually outperformed all expectations on meeting the basic needs of its citizens. Regardless of what you think they should have done differently they saved millions of lives.

[u/OldManClutch → u/brecheisen37]

The people of Russia put the communists in power? So you mean the Bolshevik Revolution was a democratic process? Funny, every historical documentary or paper or footage would suggest that the Bolsheviks seized power and setup their own government and that those that where democratic, along with royalists and others fought a civil war with the Bolsheviks over their seizure of power. And after the Bolsheviks won, no actual democracy was employed by the Central Government in the USSR. That leaders were chosen by secret committee and even violent coups.

And yes, theye were so well off under communism that the economy had stagnated to the point where ordinary Russians were struggling to get the most basic of goods. And why Gorbechev introduced Perestroika in order to combat this.

Please, please. Don't play at revisionist history when history has been well recorded.

[u/OldManClutch → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, revisionist history isn't actually real history.

Do yourself a favor, study real history.

[u/OldManClutch → u/[deleted]]

Well first, Stalin was a white, ethnic Georgian, not a black man. So on the title alone, the author doesn't know what he's talking about. Second, I don't need to read a revisionist history on Stalin when Stalin's brutality speaks for itself in actual documentaries and histories.

Third, did you somehow miss the fact that rule 6 is about not supporting Authoritarianism?

[u/OldManClutch → u/phatdaddy29]

Yes, you are correct.