> In his essay, Yes, We Have Noticed the Skulls, Scott Alexander notes that any intellectual movement that has been around for a while has made some mistakes, and is probably aware of them, so if there's some obvious failure of a movement, the people who still believe in the movement probably have learned from that failure. Communists are aware of Stalin murdering people and are wary of totalitarianism.
I'm not so sure about that. So far, we've had dozens of implementations of communism all over the world and 100% of them ended up being authoritarian (i.e. if you disagree with the ruling party, you go to jail) or straight up murderous. This uncanny correlation suggests that it may not be impossible to actually implement anything like communism without it being evil. Jordan Peterson explores reasons for why that might be so.
> So far, we've had dozens of implementations of communism all over the world and 100% of them ended up being authoritarian (i.e. if you disagree with the ruling party, you go to jail) or straight up murderous.
sigh You read a post saying that "but look at these skulls!"-type arguments are naive and arrogant, and your response is a "but look at these skulls!"-type argument? Really?
Which of these[1] pacifist[2] communes[3] do you think fit into your 100% number that you made up without researching?
I'm not defending communism or Christianity here, I'm saying find out what people actually believe and why they believe it before you criticize, instead of criticizing high-profile failures of their movement which they probably recognize and disagree with.
> Jordan Peterson explores reasons for why that might be so.
The fact that Jordan Peterson is exploring reasons for why something might be so which isn't so, tells me all I need to know about Jordan Peterson's opinions on the subject: they're uninformed opinions.
All of these examples are not societies implementing communism, but just merely small groups of people who do so, in a safe bubble provided by a non-communist society (US or Israel) which surrounds them. They benefit immensely from the wealth and protection coming from the surrounding non-communist society. These conditions do not translate in any way to larger scale implementation and it's not what majority of people mean when they discuss communism. I'd like to see one example of communist society of let's say even just 1 million people that is not a colossal failure.
> All of these examples are not societies implementing communism
How so?
> but just merely small groups of people who do so, in a safe bubble provided by a non-communist society (US or Israel) which surrounds them. They benefit immensely from the wealth and protection coming from the surrounding non-communist society.
If you talk to communists, I think you'll find a lot of communists agree with this.
EDIT: That said, I think you may be underestimating the degree of independence these communes have. Keep in mind, Maoz Haim was founded in 1937, before Israel existed, which makes it a bit hard to argue that it's dependent on Israel. All three of these communes have a high degree of food and energy independence.
> These conditions do not translate in any way to larger scale implementation
So what? I think if you talk to communists, you'll find a lot of communists agree with this as well.
Sometimes solutions don't have to scale. A famous communist once said, "Growth for the sake of growth is the idea of a cancer cell." (Okay, maybe it's a bit of a stretch to call Edward Abbey a communist).
> it's not what majority of people mean when they discuss communism.
So what? The majority of people don't get to tell communists what communists believe. A straw man argument doesn't become valid because the majority of people believe the straw man is real.
Your argument stating that communism is evil everywhere its implemented is ridiculous - communism exists at varied scales, so of course, there have been huge authoritarian states, but also many communes, worker cooperatives and cities which didnt turn out like the nightmare you make it to be.
I'm not so sure about that. So far, we've had dozens of implementations of communism all over the world and 100% of them ended up being authoritarian (i.e. if you disagree with the ruling party, you go to jail) or straight up murderous. This uncanny correlation suggests that it may not be impossible to actually implement anything like communism without it being evil. Jordan Peterson explores reasons for why that might be so.