87.5% of Americans can't Define Communism!

[AProgressiveThinker]

APFP Polling presents...!

[Leme]

1. I couldn't either.

I did know off hand or could not remember. I know that in practice it leads to other things such as dictatorship, centralization of power and loss of many "rights". It does not seem to work on a large scale.
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com·mu·nism
noun \ˈkäm-yə-ˌni-zəm, -yü-\

: a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property

[AProgressiveThinker]

2. The Eastern Bloc, China, North Korea etc.

Was not Communism in practice, it was State Socialism that eventually devolved into State Capitalism. This was a natural tendency that arose out of this system because the system that was tried was a system manipulated by the intelligentsia during revolutionary times known as "Marxism-Leninism" with a "vanguard party" to guide the revolution from Capitalism to Socialism to eventually Communism. There are many problems with this system internally that lead to it being authoritarian and undemocratic because of the fact that a revolutionary Party that was supposed to represent the population of their countries had all Constitutional, political, and economic power rather than the people themselves. Not only this but these countries were always sanctioned, embargoed, and undermined by the Capitalist countries who have the monopoly on global capital which was never given to any of the Socialist states which helped lead to their demise and authoritarian policies.

A revolution against the Capitalist economic system and the bourgeoisie needs to be waged with workers' councils representing the working class on the political front and unions representing them on the economic front which will replace the Capitalist economic system with a decentralized, planned, and directly democratic economic system where everyone's needs are provided for through a planning authority and everyone receives the contribution of their labor.

[GTurck]

8. No that's not communism...

The general idea is to hold the things necessary for human life in common. It was communal as in the early days of Christianity when no one went hungry, or unclothed, homeless, or was ill. Marx tried to write a Utopia for economic and class issues. He wrote: "from each according to their abilities; to each according to their needs".
That sort of thinking got mixed up with power politics and all sorts of sociopaths used the name and the thought to impose cruel dictatorships. Just as sociopaths in this country are using democracy to make us an oligarchy/plutocracy.

[Taitertots]

3. Economics education in America is laughable. Almost no one knows anything.

It is the only reason we continue to slave away for a tiny cabal of unimaginably rich overlords.

When I talk to anyone about communism, the first thing I do is ask if they have read Marx. When they say "no", I know it is safe to ignore everything they say about it.

[Leme]

4. I tried to read it once

But it seems that many who have read have been unsuccessful in doing it. At least on a large scale.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. An educated citizenry is a clear and present danger to the unyieldingly selfish 1%.

Keep 'em dumb, and keep 'em in line.

[Leme]

6. well, I would change that some to

An informed citizenry is a clear and present danger to the 1%, that's why they own and control the media as much as they can ala Goebbels.

[PatrickforO]

7. When the people together own all property and means of production

Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world. You may say I'm a dreamer; I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the world will live as one.

Most families operate as little communist states, because each person contributes to the best of their ability, and is given things according to their need.

There's some question in my mind as to whether our species is mature enough to manage ourselves in this way. If we could, it would arguably supply everyone on earth with enough food, shelter, clothing, transportation.

The great thing about Marx is that he does an excellent, really thorough job of revealing the evil propensities inherent in capitalism, but then when he speaks of what to replace it with, not so much. The immoral thing inherent is capitalism is that eventually we have a situation like we do currently, where the 85 richest people have MORE wealth than the bottom 3.5 BILLION people. That's just wrong.

In truth, we are a loathsome, greedy, violent species - the only species on Earth of whom it can be said that if we went extinct, ALL other life on the planet would actually be better off. Now, in my mid-50s, I have come to believe the highest and best civilization we're capable of is the small tribal society, operating on stone age technology, separated by VAST geographic distances.

Can we truly elevate the collective human spirit on this Earth by sending our own love and healing into the universe to work for the highest good? Before it is too late for us?

I hope so.

[Perseus]

10. I read your post after I posted mine, but you hit the nail in the head

GREED is the problem with any political ideology implementation.

[Perseus]

9. The mistrust is due to the fact that it has failed

Until the human race can get rid of greed no political ideology will work 100%, and communism is one of those where everything is left in the theory and rhetoric but the implementation has just created hunger and repression, ending in dictatorships.

Capitalism has also failed because of greed, same as socialism.

I am not surprised that 87% did not know the definition of communism because it has been used in the USA by the McCarthy-type politicians, the GOP, and Reagan as codeword to push their personal agendas but never explaining to the people why they were against it, and the lack of curiosity of the US citizens stops at the TV, very few people go past that point to verify what is said by the talking heads and their politicians.

If I recall correctly, about fifteen years ago Barbara Walters went around College campuses asking students what was the capital of the USA, and more than 50% failed, the most popular answer being New York, so how can you expect the people to know what communism is?

[fasttense]

12. The problem with the past and current societies that call themselves communists

is that the state and the party (translates into politicians) own the means of production NOT the PEOPLE or the WORKERS. After the US invaded Russia and then departed, Russia put all the factories and such into the hands of a centralized government. Instead of allowing the people who worked in those factories to decide what to do in the factories, Russia's communist politician decided what the workers would do. Nothing changed for the workers. They came to work and left and got paid. The political parties and government officials took over the roles of CEO, Board of Directors and Top Executives. So, instead of the workers deciding, the government decided. Russia thought they could vote out any politicians that became corrupt and out-of-control.

In China, they have dropped any semblance of communism and are a complete and utter tyrannical government working against it's citizen in order to enrich the top political leaders. They gave control of the means of production to the state and the political party too.

These top politicians and political leaders became like our CEOs, with vast amounts of wealth and power. They give themselves lavish salaries and bonuses. They demanded more and more from workers while giving them less and less. That much wealth and power concentrated in one area eventually leads to a tyrannical political system, much like it is doing to the US right now under capitalism.

We are deteriorating much like the Soviet Union and China deteriorated. Concentrated wealth will destroy any and all societies. The uber rich are a hazard to a stable society. They top 1% are leaches sucking out the life blood of a nation. They are dangerously unstable and hazardous. The uber rich need to be gotten rid of, or outlawed, in order for a society to function smoothly.

[RufusTFirefly]

13. Even reasonably well informed people make the mistake of equating socialism and communism

There were quite a few communists and socialists in the U.S. in the 1930s. And guess what? They hated each other!
Or, more accurately, the communists hated the socialists and considered them to be fascist enablers.

Yet we use the two terms interchangeably all the time.

George Orwell is sometimes considered a darling of the Right for his scathing critiques of communism. Yet Orwell was a socialist!

[Leme]

11. i googled a little

People equate Marxism theory/observations and Communism implementation.
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just not the same thing at all.