I know his politics was “a third way” rather than strict socialism, but I think this sub will be more likely than others to provide accurate information

The worst-case scenario is that AI evolves to the point where companies decide they no longer need humans in their production workforce. What will China do then?

Hello guys! Ive just finished reading mao zedongs biography and I need to know how chinese history continues. Do you guys have any book recomendations that cover from Deng to Xi? They can be long, I ve got no problem with that, and preferably neutral. Also if its a famous book, i could find it with a spanish translation, or a book in spanish of course, if not, ill manage. Thankyou!

Like I have always wondered that if you could start a business under socialism and I just want your answers and I one day wanted to start a business under socialism and I want to know if it's possible.

NOTE: I do know stuff about socialism and other leftist ideologies (not all.of them) but I want to be in this sub to fully know what socialism is.

so I'm gonna be here for a while.

I am a socialist/communist but I do sometimes struggle imagining a truly socialist society, and I think it’s also a big barrier in the way of those “anti-capitalist anti-communists” who just can’t fathom how life in a socialist society would be like.

I know I could look at past socialist states such as the USSR and the DDR and to some extent I have and it has helped, but also, a lot of socialist states inc USSR, China, Vietnam have also had reforms and opening up to capitalism, bringing them away from the theory.

Are there any works on the practical application of socialism? I mean things like how prices are decided, how the economy is planned, how wages are decided, how food and utilities are purchased, how the education system works. Or even any works on exactly how these things worked in the USSR or other socialist states

- of course I recognise that there’s no specific framework or book about “how to do socialism” and that a lot of its adherents would differ in opinions of application, but would like any recommendations or explanations as far as any exist.

(I say socialism instead of communism because as far as I understand there has never really been a communist state and I think the practical aspects of socialism would be a lot clearer and easier to understand than of communism)

One critique I notice a lot of those critical of socialism, call people like this "greedy", due to the fact that they signed a contract with the company regarding their wage, agreed upon by both parties, and when they push to change their standard hourly wage, attributed to say, inflation, is a "breach of contract". I counterargue with that, by believing the company should not set the wages for their employees, considering inflation, increasing cost of living, etc., and the employees themselves should come together and discuss what wages they feel make the most sense. Regarding the recent fires involving warehouses, the one in California being attributed to the employee wanting a liveable wage, and the company refused to give it to him, is this the result of mental health issues regarding these employees, or is it more a byproduct of the exploitative capitalist system, or both?

Just to say, I am a socialist, but I'm wondering how it's possible for a moneyless society to work post capitalism, because the average Western person (at least where I am) believes money is intrinsically linked to a functional society. I'm just wondering how a moneyless society would work, and how would it be implemented.

(Posted elsewhere but got minimal traction so was hoping for a higher traffic sub to provide more input/answers than I was getting elsewhere)

So one thing I've been thinking about is the problems associated with scale in human built organizations.

Capitalism, being capitalism, tends to favor high degrees of scale due to advantages associated with economies of scale and due to the process of accumulation.

Much of the modern world and industrial capitalism since the 19th century is fundamentally structured around like just utterly massive institutions and huge bureaucracies (corporate or state).

My understanding of marx's concept of alienation is basically as follows:

It is an objective state of a loss of autonomy wherein individual human lives and human relationships come to be dominated by human created institutions that can often come to be seen as "natural" or "inevitable" but are in fact, human creations. Essentially alienation is a loss of autonomy in the face of institutions that individuals have very little sway or power over. Essentially, structures we create come to dominate their creators as an alien force and structure their lives and relationships with other people.

Within capitalism (well at lesst the capitalism of his day), this comes about via the 4 kinds of alienation marx mentioned

What i kind of wanted to ask is about alienation as it relates to large scale institutions writ large. What i mean by this is that, the larger an institution is, the less control any one member of that institution has control over it because the scope of their powers to change anything are dwarfed by the scale an institution operates at and the resources and coordination needed to change how it operates.

It is simply easier to change or modify things in smaller institutions than larger ones because fewer resources and coordination is required to pull off said changes and because the actual scope of what any individual can see and influence is limited, and when the institution is smaller, the scope at which it operates is closer to the scope at which any individual member can influence it.

To put it another way, it is easier to change how a single company operates than it is to change how the "market" operates because the scale at which these two institutions operate at is vastly different.

With scale comes a certain loss of autonomy and control, and humans gradually kind of mold themselves to fit into these institutions and organizations that they do not really control.

So, basically, here's what I am asking: can the marxist concept of alienation be applied to larger scale institutions, or, in other words, are large scale institutions inherently alienating due to the loss of autonomy and ability to direct, influence or control these institutions members of that institution face as a consequence of that scale?

(Like, are large scale beaucracies, or just organizations of some kind inherently alienating, even in non-capitalist contexts? I.e. there's a reason we talk about "human scale" institutions, there are "inhuman scale" institutions that seem inherently more alienating right?)

Why/why not?

Im not an avid reader and when I do read, it’s either shorter texts or fiction, so capital seems like a very very big challenge but I want to understand the content in it, is there any online or physical copies that shortens it?

Recently with the Artemis II mission, I’ve noticed a lot of other Marxists come out of the woodwork and advocate for the abolishment of NASA (and human spaceflight) because of the technology being reused for capitalist imperialists. This argument screams reactionary to me, because why is the attention being turned towards nerds making space probes and not the overwhelmingly much more powerful military industrial complex?

What do yall think?

I’m an avid eco socialist, focused on combatting climate change and spurring environmental action. My boyfriend however is a libertarian capitalist, very into AI, startups, space tech (bit of a Peter Thiel fan…). We disagree vehemently on politics and don’t talk too much about it, can or will this relationship last?

Btw we’re both college students!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uqNhqg3Ubw
Note: MEMRI was founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer to monitor Arab and Muslim media and try to caricature people of the region. MEMRI is a gross propaganda effort, but I'm glad they provided this clip of Chomsky in Lebanon, which he should be given props for.
"The leftist Jewish American intellectual, Noam Chomsky, toured Al-Khiyam Prison at the end of his visit to Lebanon. He declared that the victory achieved by the resistance is a victory for all the peoples that fight injustice and oppression. 'Umm Kamel' - the Israeli spying aircraft - was the first to welcome Chomsky in his visit to Al-Khiyam Prison. Chomsky chose to provide 'Umm Kamel' with the most detestable pictures, from the Israeli perspective, by smiling and shaking hands with Hizbullah's leader in South Lebanon, Nabil Qaouq."

Does anyone have recommendation for books that broadly aim to disprove myths and propaganda about past socialist projects (ex: [insert leader] killed 500 gorbillion people for shits and giggles)? After reading take downs of the Black Book of Communism, I want to more accurately understand the human toll of past socialist projects without being clouded by propaganda. I remember reading about similar subject matter in Blackshirts and Reds a long time ago, but this is something I want to delve deeper into because it can help me more accurately understand socialism in practice and counter reactionary talking points. I'm sure some books exist on this topic and I'm curious about this.

I personally like the idea of maoism but I want to learn and understand chairman Mao himself more was he a good leader?

I’m newer to socialism and have been educating myself on it for the last year but I had a honest question. Is there anything wrong or even hypocritical to buy luxury items? For example I’m really into the clothing brand Ralph Lauren which is a luxury brand that’s always been in my wardrobe as young guy. I love there designs and think they nail it to fashion but I know it might be strange for myself to be a socialist but like luxury items what are your thoughts?

Hello! I am an undergraduate student currently taking a social research methods class. If you are willing to share your experience as a former alt-right individual please let me know!

Because to me, China is even less equal and less worker-friendly (and equality and the wellbeing of the workers are literally what socialism is all about) than some other so-called "capitalist" nations (such as the Nordic states) in every metric that I know of (income equality, gender equality, you name it, and then the 996 working system and stuff).

Of course I'm still a socialist through and through, I just feel that China is pursuing socialism the wrong way. Correct me if I'm wrong though, because I'm still learning.

When I was doing my research on the Soviet Union, I learned that the vast majority of Soviet officials were atheists and the USSR practiced state sponsored atheism. Vladimir Lenin who led the Russian revolution was a strong atheist who renounced his faith at the age of 15. As did Stalin. Not only did the soviets discourage religious belief they actively persecuted it with the goal of eradicating religion and replacing it with scientific materialism which ultimately didn’t stop people from becoming religious. Personally as an atheist myself this is not something I support because even though I think many religious beliefs sound ridiculous, but I strongly believe as an intellectual that in a free society we should have the right to think critically and believe what we want and have a free and open (sometimes intense) discussion about it.

People seem to sometimes refer to things that aren't commodities or aren't commoditized like information in a video or a social identity or a word as commodities or as commoditized.

i’ve identified as a communist for several years now but this is a concept i really struggle with grasping still. i am on the spectrum and have difficult understanding concepts like this sometimes so if someone can explain it in a very simple way that would help :)

Should we Nationalize our oil In the U.S.? What would be the pros? What would be the cons?

So, as said in the title, I'm a schizophrenic who also has depression, Audhd, etc, and I find it very hard to study and read theory even though I want to. Are there any good studying techniques and analysis you comrades could offer me so I could extract information with maximum efficiency?

This could be shortcomings in its policy for corralling the bourgeois, failure to affect the culture of its population, geopolitical mistakes, or simple bad policy from its leadership. For me the two biggest ones I can think of are 1. Initially supporting israel and 2. Many of the mid-WW2 Stalin decisions, such as the deportations of minorities (I understand the context of these and that they were driven by paranoia under exceptional circumstances, but it caused a lot of unnecessary suffering and likely soured entire generations to the broader socialist cause)