Comment by nickpp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nickpp | Hacker News Reader

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Because every time I encounter such capitalism haters they turn out to be marxists in disguise. Usually pushed and promoted by people that never lived outside of their comfortable capitalist wealth bubble, written on capitalist devices, here, on this very venture capitalist's forum! The hypocrisy boggles the mind, really.

It's like the lack the most basic understanding of economics and they never read any history. I mean, communism has failed everywhere it was tried and there were so many A/B test that plainly show each system's results: North vs South Korea, Eastern Europe before vs after 1990, USA vs USSR, Argentina during the last hundred years, Venezuela before and after Chavez, etc.

Or they push socialism under new names ("democratic") as if it's a new thing, not just a watered down form of communism, with authoritarian communism being the logical end game of socialism - because "at some point you run out of other people's money" and you need force to keep fleecing them. Just like it happened in Venezuela...

Lucky for you, I'm not a Marxist. There is a very large current of people who are socialists but not Marxists, and have spent literally over a century analyzing history, economics, and capitalism itself, without insisting on the coercive hierarchy of Marxism or capitalism. And it has a long history of working in practice, even if in the modern day it tends to be crushed by both Marxist and capitalist forces, because who knew an authoritarian structure could allow you to command huge armies and oppress others?

You seem well aware of authoritarian communism, but generally unaware of libertarian socialism. They are distinct, and the latter has a decades long history of despising the former as much as you do, though for being based on the same primary issue as capitalism: coercive hierarchy.

It all starts with assuming the freedom of human beings, and that the only way to organize a system has nothing to do with efficiency or profit, and everything to do with maintaining that human freedom. It must be based on human freedom, and the concept that no one knows how to run your life better than you do. That no one deserves to be able to force you to do things. Whole systems arise from that fact, that have a long basis in history. As I've said elsewhere, you don't end up with men on the moon or dollar stores, but you do get people who are in control of their own lives.

I've seen mainstream "socialists" (Obama, Sanders, countless Europeans) embracing and sustaining authoritarian communist thugs like Chavez, so...

We've seen here in EU socialist policies cripple our economy to the point we're lagging the USA and we can't even defend ourselves from the blood-hungry psychopath in the east.

> libertarian socialism

Is this a real thing? Any examples of being implemented anywhere? Cause it sounds like a oxymoron to me. Socialism means regulations and confiscation from the productive members of society (taxation). Those must be enforced with the threat of force so less liberty there...

> no one deserves to be able to force you to do things

So I shouldn't be forced to pay my taxes? How would then a socialist government implement its expensive social policies?!

> Is this a real thing? Any examples of being implemented anywhere? Cause it sounds like a oxymoron to me.

Let me catch you up on 150 years of capitalist alternative, theory, critique, and analysis, that answers every single snarky little "gotcha" remark you have: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/the-anarchist-faq-ed...

I'm not going to spoon-feed you anymore because you're clearly not interested in a conversation, and are quite happy with the status quo. I hope for your sake you don't end up on the wrong side of capitalism.

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