FrenLivesMatter

Oh, okay, I think I see what you meant now, excuse me for misinterpreting that.

No, I have never reported anyone for saying “eat the rich” or anything like that, nor would I, because I don’t see it as a credible or immediate thread. I understand that it’s usually just meant as a metaphor; it’s people blowing off steam or venting their frustration, not a suggestion to resort to immediate cannibalism.

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever reported anyone on social media, unless it was spam or advocating for child rape. I might report doxxing if I ever came across it but it hasn’t happened so far. Does that answer your question?

It means I read the rules for this forum and I don't see how I broke any of them in any way that would be significant enough to warrant a mod to take action.

I was respectful and didn't use any harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic like race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion. Unless you want to argue that communism is a religion, which would be quite funny given its stance on religion as a whole.

None of what I said was illegal, nor was it spam, porn, NSFW, or not matching the theme of the community (genocide is, after all, at least mildly infuriating). I also didn't encourage harassment, I just stated some facts and provided proof, and I had a good faith discussion with everyone who responded without resulting to name calling or insults, or following people around the site or anything like that.

If a mod wants to disagree with any of that, that's their prerogative I guess, but it would only prove that communists have a very thin skin and are allergic to any amount of criticism, no matter how factual. Genocide is bad, doesn't matter what color of coat it's wearing or what flag it's waving.

ACAB isn't some international stance the left takes. It's a reaction to the frequently racist, violent and corrupt policing specifically in the USA. And it certainly doesn't mean there should be no law enforcement whatsoever - you'd be extremely hard pressed to find anybody who would take that stance.

Right. As usual, when you press people on it, they'll end up admitting that none of their principles are really absolute and they're always willing to make an exception as long as it's in their own favor.

Counterexamples: the British suffragette movement (which was notably extraordinarily violent, despite its common modern image as a quiet, polite disagreement), the American civil war, the Swedish coup of 1809, the Ukrainian defensive resistance in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war.

Not super familiar with examples 1 and 3, but would you say that violence against women remains an ongoing problem in the UK? Has there really been no political violence in Sweden since 1809? I don't think I even need to point out that America remains an extraordinarily violent society according to leftists (and even many people on the right) or that there literally still IS war in the Ukraine to this day.

"Violence begets more violence" doesn't mean that violence will always continue to escalate (if it did, we'd clearly all be dead already), it means that violence never ends violence. At best, all of its victories will be temporary. All you ever get is a momentary truce once everyone is tired of fighting, but as soon as they recuperate, violence is back on the menu.

And just to be clear, I never claimed that violence was the goal of communism, just that communists seem to universally agree that violence is acceptable in order to reach their goals.

As far as the Ghandi quote goes, I've spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what he could have meant by this, and the best explanation I can come up with is that he may have sought to differentiate between non-violent action and non-action (which is nonviolent by definition). In other words, if you are being demonstrably mistreated, it's better to stand up and do something about it (even if violent), but it's better yet (even infinitely superior) to do something that doesn't involve violence (like protesting peacefully). Violent resistance in the face of injustice takes some courage, but non-violent resistance takes far more courage yet.

And which rule do you reckon I broke?

Okay, but you outright ignored my argument about taxing everything over $1 billion and just went back to parroting “eat the rich” instead.

Okay, thanks for the link, but you act as if that was all I said, and I didn't just make a whole point about how the common denominator in every genocide is almost always the government.

I'm not sure if you realize this, but my goal isn't to win a debate on the Internet, it's to make people realize that any "us vs. them" mentality always inevitably leads to murder and bloodshed, and that any future generations will inevitably look back on it and be horrified, and then they'll be caught in the same dilemma that we are right now, which is figuring out whether violence in the past justifies violence in the presence.

Yes, I know, but what do you expect me to say when you don't respond to any of my other arguments?

Okay, so genocide in the past justifies genocide in the present? That means genocide in the present will justify genocide in the future. I'm not sure how we'll ever get to a better world that way.

Also, most, if not all of these things happened under colonialism. I'm not sure that it's accurate to blame capitalism for that. Rather, the problem appears to be concentration of power in the hands of government. The lesson appears to be that if you give a small number of people enough power to solve all your problems, they'll either murder their way to a solution or decide that you are the problem that needs to be solved. Doesn't matter if their coats are red, yellow, or blue.

What I don't understand is why communists don't spend more time trying to build decentralized networks. Lemmy is actually a good example of the kind of infrastructure there should be more of. But that's hard, thankless work, isn't it? And there's no guarantee of success either. I can see the appeal of mass murder, I really do, but do you really want to face your children one day and explain to them how murdering our way to a better life is just what we do, and if they don't do it first, someone else will murder them? I don't.

At least in capitalism, we try not to murder people systemically, because as you might now, that's kinda bad for business when it's found out. Not bad enough, you might say, because it keeps happening, but as it turns out, whenever it happens on a larger scale, it usually involves the government in one way or another.

No, the only way to ensure a future without government sponsored mass murder is to focus on decentralization. That's the only way the people can take power back into their own hands, by resisting the urge for any quick, and dare I say, "final" solutions, and working to educate others on how to be more self-sufficient instead.

Well I'm glad we can at least agree that genocide isn't ideal and generally a suboptimal way to solve any problems.

Straight from the manifesto, page 12:

In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat.

Accuse me of picking and choosing the most salient passage, but I would say this doesn't leave too much room for interpretation about what the word "forcible" means. And no, you don't get to talk your way out by saying 'overthrowing the status quo via legislation enforced by police would be considered "by force", regardless of whether the police use violence.' Isn't ACAB a quintessentially leftist term? Or does it not apply when the police work for you instead of against you?

Also, just to give a counterexample to your "evil autocrat" problem: Gandhi managed to get rid of British colonial rule without ever advocating for or using violence. So no, the idea that violent oppression justifies a violent response is flawed. Violence always begets more violence, there is literally no exception. You can't murder your way to a fair and just society, it always ends in oppression.

Okay, honestly, would you eat a Bill Gates or Elon Musk? They don't look particularly tasty to me. Bezos maybe, he seems to be in good shape (although likely chock full of steroids), but the vast majority of them are frumpy old dudes or dudettes who probably taste like leather. I don't think that eating them would be particularly enjoyable.

This isn't about whether or not billionaires are essential, but whether getting rid of them would substantially change anything.

Assume, for instance, that we make owning (or earning) more than a billion dollars (per year) illegal by putting a 100% tax on every dollar afterwards. Then billionaires would simply move most of their assets abroad or find some other loophole that lets them avoid this, like setting up a bunch of smaller companies that each have $999 million. Unless the whole world follows suit, it won't change anything, and that's not going to happen because any country that's willing to give them a safe haven would make a killing by doing so.

Also, if this DID happen, what makes you think they'd continue to work trying to make more money and not just spend more time playing golf instead? Whatever revenue you'd expect in taxes would simply not occur because once there's no more incentive to earn more, there's no more incentive to produce. Ironically, it would probably lead to far more quasi-billionaires because other multi-millionaires would likely pick up the slack where the big guys throw the towel, but I don't see how regular people would benefit.

But perhaps you can explain what you have in mind?