Is authoritarianism genuinly the worst thing ever?
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Depends who’s wielding the authority.
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Yes, so long as there is a correct understanding of what is meant by "authoritarian".
In the US geopolitical consciousness, this word is often used to denounce foreign regimes and legitimate war, cutting from the Reaganite cloth. In this view, Authoritarianism is when governments Do Stuff, such as resist imperialism in an organized way.
I would say that the real doctrine of authoritarianism is the same as that of rationalism: a denial that experience is the source of knowledge. For example, a regime that keeps going on doomed-to-fail wars.
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@foobarbaazquux Well said
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There's fewer more distressing sights than that
Of an Englishman in a baseball cap.but yes authoritarianism is awful . even the little kinds like when people make comments regarding their particular world / life view and apply it outwardly to how others see/feel about/interact with the world. like maybe you like being a dandy and flaneuring around and its really fun. and this guy thinks that its not even an option so they dont appreciate it.
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Yes it’s the worst thing ever, especially when backed up by people’s idéology of communism.
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@Ecstatic_Hamster I find that capital-C Communist movements have done the best job of Actually opposing Authoritarianism, with their victories in Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, Rhodesia, South Africa, the USSR, and most critically in our modern times, China. Expanding to radical liberals and proto-communists, we have Napoleon, George Washington, Julius Caesar, and Christ, all working to increase Universality by means of specific action and organization.
China executes people for contaminating milk powder, for example, and it is the most materially advanced country. Meanwhile, in the US, we have an anti-human nutritional program which recommends brain-dissolving oils as prime food for infants. Just today, a chemical fire in Georgia, spraying chlorine into the environment, results in no punishment, and the demand that people continue coming into mostly meaningless jobs. That is Authoritarianism.
Generally, popular anti-communists are united in a denial of reality, and it explains their preoccupation with fiction and/or "personal choice". Nietzsche will complain (using fiction, of course) about the Christians, for example, but the historical fact is that Christ WON, while Nietzsche died insane. The nature of reality is specific, because it is... a specific, shared reality. And as such any coherent system has to work in harmony with this particular reality, and the particular experience of being human. Just in the way that us on this forum identify the SPECIFIC nature of oxidative energy production in the mitochondria, the action of hormones, etc: the "personal choice" to consume Fast Food, or Finasteride, is just about objectively wrong, but such things blossom in the relative privatization and privacy of Fascistic and Capitalist societies.
The Western-Fascist worldview identifies this tendency towards specificity as "Authoritarianism", but the reality is almost the opposite:
Monotheism can offer Truth and Development, whereas Paganism only produces Arbitrary Opinions and Squabbling. -
@foobarbaazquux dude i didnt read your post fully before i start to reply because it seems so idiotic what youve written i rushed to reply to tell you how stupid i think you are
ok china executes milk poisoners and melanine poisoners
but in usa that doesnt even happen in the first place; the idea of someone in usa purposefully adulterating milk to water it down does not happen . you say meanwhile in usa seed oils are put in. um dude you think china doesnt use seed oils? what the heck are you even on about
in fact usa fda CAUGHT ecudaroian company putting lead in cinnamon powder and the only reason the maker isnt prosecuted is because ecuadorians wont do anything about it
and wait, you are pointing to the usa chlorine leak/explosion to compare to china? excuse me? comparing to china for industrial accidents? you never seen liveleak my nigga? you never seen chinese industrial site explosions? come on nigga what
usa politicians may be lapdogs of the zionists , yet USA is literally the best country on the planet. go to many so called “based” places in world like argentina, spain, some eastern europe countries, many places you keep a poopy wastebin by the toilet because sewage system doesnt even handle toilet paper without being destroyed. i have seen in brazil they use electrical wires in shower to heat water, this isnt some ragtag thing a person does, they buy this at the shop, it is legitimate, THEY USE ELECTRICITY IN SHOWER. you ever been to china? i was visiting beijing once and smog was so bad i wasnt sure how airplane would land safely. USA has many problems but there is still a functioning justice system . nobody is doing third world retarded shit like russia sending tens of thousands to die in trenches, you see KD ratio of america in last few wars? they hold human life to a higher value and standard, even when they bomb muslims they have to applogize when they kill kids. even israelis are savage desert people comparitively. just look at their electrical plugs.
come on man . get real, stop bullshitting us.
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This commie scum blocked me so I can’t see what he said, but I agree with you…
I bet he’s really ugly too…
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This post is deleted! -
@sneedful and i said all this things about brazil etc which are not communists but to compare to usa and how much better it is than other parts of the world.
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Communism seeks to remake mankind and its adherents believe in the blank slate hypothesis. They will go to any lengths to try to implement their system and millions upon millions have died because of it.
The USA was founded on enlightened principles that are far more in alignment with the best of human nature. I believe in complete freedom and the non aggression principle. Seems obvious to me that this is the best way to live so we have maximal freedom.
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@sneedful said in Is authoritarianism genuinly the worst thing ever?:
but in usa that doesnt even happen in the first place; the idea of someone in usa purposefully adulterating milk to water it down does not happen
A number of milk brands in the US contain Propylene Glycol, in order to act as a solvent for added D and A vitamins. It is not listed in the ingredients list for various reasons.
I mean, I can appreciate what you're saying about poverty in the third and second world. And it is the case that the US is in some ways the most materially comfortable country. I can also tell you personally that Putin's regime dramatically increased quality of life in Russia relative to the oligarch years, and it's objectively reflected in greater life expectancies. AMLO and Sheinbaum work to bring about similar results in Mexico.
they hold human life to a higher value and standard
Kind-of-sort-of. There are some positives to our liberal values. We "just" have to work to live up to them more often.
And since China hit their renewable energy target 6 years early, and is the most advanced country in terms of nuclear power,, the smog situation is much improved.
Communism seeks to remake mankind and its adherents believe in the blank slate hypothesis.
This seems like an understanding of Communism downloaded from Prager University or something. Dialectical Materialism, the philosophy of Marx, is exactly the opposite of the "blank slate hypothesis": it is the idea that the material conditions of society and people determine their nature (of course, it is a recursive relation). Is it the recognition that humanity is not a slate, blank or otherwise, to reason about in the abstract, but exactly and specifically the result of developing against the environment. It is very much in line with the mentality of Ray Peat which holds that materially changing diet can have radical consequences on brain action. It is a concept validated by the fact that you are here.
They will go to any lengths to try to implement their system and millions upon millions have died because of it.
Life Expectancy in the USSR and PRC increased dramatically.
The USA was founded on enlightened principles that are far more in alignment with the best of human nature. I believe in complete freedom and the non aggression principle. Seems obvious to me that this is the best way to live so we have maximal freedom.
I mean, sure. The fact is that the US was also founded in a condition where half the country practiced chattel slavery. This is more-or-less the whole contradiction that Hegel and Marx worked to reason about: how to reconcile the so-called bourgeois ideals from the ACTUAL reality. Much of what they were talking about has already come to pass, because their theory is correct. So as not to tear itself apart, the United States now exists in a "bankster socialism", where we have public schools (of admittedly varying or dubious quality that all teach Regime Science), but simultaneously, the majority of people pay >30% of their income in rent. This is the new contradiction to be reconciled. I think Michael Hudson gives perhaps the best evaluation of the current power situation in his book 'Superimperialism', focusing on how the US uses its role as the worlds' chief creditor and holder of the world reserve currency to achieve political aims.
Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality will have to adjust itself. We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present state of things.
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.
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it's a common tactic to criticize the USA and how things are run as if that is the opposite of this ideal Communist world.
I'm not defending the USA. I'm defending the principles of freedom from authoritarianism, the freedom to do whatever you want so long as you aren't hurting others, the freedom to keep your own labor and the fruits thereof, the freedom to extract resources from the world and make them your own.
The USA is hardly a capitalist paradise. It's corporate fascism largely with some freedom around that. It's still better than many if not most places if you value freedom and the ability to get ahead on your own initiative.
But the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom to make it or fail, above all freedom to OWN GUNS, is what makes the USA a special place and far better than most other places.
I work with people around the world and they are not even allowed to own a firearm. This is fundamentally putting them at the mercy of their government. Here in the USA, we have an armed militia, consisting of almost everyone, and that goes a LONG way towards fighting the worst authoritarianism.
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I'm defending the principles of freedom from authoritarianism, the freedom to do whatever you want so long as you aren't hurting others, the freedom to keep your own labor and the fruits thereof, the freedom to extract resources from the world and make them your own.
The USA is hardly a capitalist paradise. It's corporate fascism largely with some freedom around that.
The fact that the former ACTUALLY produced the latter, this is why Communism is a relevant idea in spite of abstract arguments about Freedom being all that is politically necessary. Do you fight the corporate fascist machine with isolated assemblies? No, someone needs to build the interstates and the hydroelectric dams: the solution is to form a Party which is unapologetically, militantly, Pro-Human.
The US Founders had an ideal of Freedom of Speech. But Mao Zedong said:
Unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it. Isn't that too harsh? Not in the least. When you have not probed into a problem, into the present facts and its past history, and know nothing of its essentials, whatever you say about it will undoubtedly be nonsense. Talking nonsense solves no problems, as everyone knows, so why is it unjust to deprive you of the right to speak?
In an era of widespread scientific fraud , which kills millions, and leaves millions more in a hell of subclinical hypothyroidism/mental illness, I think Mao's idea more correct. There exists a real social responsibility to have correct ideas about the world.
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@foobarbaazquux dude didnt mao create a fucking famine lol
and propylyne glycol isnt in chinese milk? what the shizz are you blithering about? so lets be specific, if chinese milk dosnt have additives like western milk, are we going to go down additives by food line by line and show that china has none? like what the flying fudge is your point? do you think im such a fool that i take your point as valid on a logical basis?
i saw a college guy wearing a hammer and sickle shirt in public and i pointed and yelled “a communist with an iphone!!!!” lololololol
your point about correct ideas is hilarious
who decides? some politician loser moron ? -
I can't abide people who think communism is a good idea, so I shall refrain from further posts. Thank you for your views anyway.
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@sneedful You are being unserious. The practice is fine for running a whataboutist smokescreen against a positive claim, but it will not get you closer to Truth.
History, and nothing else, will demonstrate what is correct.
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@foobarbaazquux man you must be trolling at this point
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Just in case they're not...
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@foobarbaazquux said in Is authoritarianism genuinly the worst thing ever?:
Do you fight the corporate fascist machine with isolated assemblies? No, someone needs to build the interstates and the hydroelectric dams: the solution is to form a Party which is unapologetically, militantly, Pro-Human.
Do you "fight" it by consolidating it? I don't know. What would I know.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26603249
https://www.wellesu.com/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26603249
