Can't go allowing Western propaganda about "personal liberty" to interfere with our grand plans. But we're definitely not authoritarian. You will grow to love the options we give you.

  • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I wouldn't say those terms are entirely liberal bullshit. Imagine whatever socialist utopia you'd most prefer; it doesn't involve the police unnecessarily intruding on your daily life. It's also applied at aspects of the U.S., like our policing.

    I'd say those terms are sometimes used as propaganda shorthand, like many terms are. They're not inherently bad, as they describe real situations we want to avoid, but when applied to one of The Bad Countries they're often tossed around at fairly ordinary stuff and any sort of explanatory context is ignored or stripped away.

    • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I mean the point of marxism is to not deal in utopias, obviously anyone would prefer to not have to take measures to control information and keep track of people but thats often necessary as a consequence of the real world.

      The reason they become liberal bullshit is that they essentially describe these things as ideologies in themselves, that they are the end goals from the start, and that basically paints any socialist that is ok with previous states as a distinctly evil person to the core and someone who wishes harm and torture upon innocent people.

      • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
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        4
        ·
        4 years ago

        the point of marxism is to not deal in utopias

        Marxism involves an end goal of a moneyless, classless, stateless society. It absolutely has some utopian elements, even if subsequent Marxist revolutionaries were justifiably more practically oriented.

        The reason they become liberal bullshit is that they essentially describe these things as ideologies in themselves, that they are the end goals from the start, and that basically paints any socialist that is ok with previous states as a distinctly evil person to the core and someone who wishes harm and torture upon innocent people.

        This is liberal bullshit, yes, but I would argue this use of "authoritarianism" is not the only use of the term. In addition to (occasionally) being directed at the U.S. police state, it's also directed at Nazi Germany and the various fascist dictatorships we propped up during the Cold War (e.g., Pinochet). The term has a real, useful meaning outside of its propaganda use.

        • Huldra [they/them, it/its]
          ·
          4 years ago

          You literally used the actual ideologies of those dictatorships though, using authoritarianism and totalitarianism is nothing but an attempt to generalize between socialist states and fascist states and to both sides them into either radical centrism or anarchism(lol).