Hacker News Reader

Comment by optimuspaul | Hacker News Reader

it's not ironic if you really understand socialism.

Patreon seems like a very libertarian environment to me. I'm not sure how I could see it any differently.

A lot of the original libertarians were...socialists. The term today has been rebranded to mean strictly anarcho-capitalists but it originally included anarcho-communists and libertarian socialists.

Well, I'm using the word as it is used today. That doesn't really address my confusion.

Patreon is a world were value produced is both determined and rewarded by a free market of consumers choosing where to spend their money.

I do find it ironic that a socialists are at the top of the Patreon food chain and yet the comment:

> it's not ironic if you really understand socialism.

says I shouldn't. I'm looking for someone to explain to me why.

Many socialist-adjacent philosophies are anticapitalist. Hence, the irony.

Yes, yes, I know that it's not hypocrisy for anticapitalists to use money. I also know that not all socialists are anticapitalist. Still ironic.

Some people seem to conflate capitalism with free enterprise. A deeper study would reveal them to be near opposites.

A not-anti-capitalist socialist is not a socialist. TLDR: Capitalism is when production is determined by people holding capital. Socialism is when production is determined by the members of society. So the question being, should an economy be democratic or run by the rich.So long as socialists workers work democratically, there is no hypocrisy in earning money.

Even the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_socialism says you're right. Huh. TIL.

I bet they subsist on food that was produced via capitalist enterprise too. Not ironic.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com