Rare?
""rare""
you mean common symptom of capitalism :p
That's a myth, it's actually quite common.
The cure is Socialism. Fascism is Capitalism in decay, ergo to prevent fascism we need to prevent Capitalist decay, and the only way to do that is to move beyond Capitalism and into Socialism.
For any new Leftists, I created a Read Theory, Darn it! introduction to Marxism reading guide, complete with a section on how to conduct yourself as a Leftist. It also includes a section on fascism, what causes it, and how we can banish it forever, right in the beginning with Michael Parenti's Blackshirts and Reds.
This isn’t meant to be some kind of “hurr durr Stalin” kind of rebuttal or anything like that, and I hope it doesn’t come across that way. I’m as dissatisfied with everything as you are. But I’m not well versed in socio-politico-economics, so I’m genuinely curious: what is the plan for avoiding what happened in the USSR with a socialist nation? What pitfalls did they fall into that spoiled the word “socialism” for everyone else?
WWI complicated things, eg Ukraine was given up as part of the deal to get the Leninists out of the war. WWII probably didn't help, at least in some ways. It did help with unity but a lot of Soviets died, either directly in combat or as part of the Nazi purge (Slavs/Russians weren't seen as much better than Jews by the Nazis).
There were several factions in a civil war (Leninists, other communists, anarchists, capitalists) and all the alliances and betrayals that goes along with that. Plus outside capitalists didn't want to see socialism or communism succeed and played interference, though I don't think that ramped up that much until after WWII, where wars were fought to stop the spread.
Stalin had a bias for "communist-like" scientific theories, and there was one about how to grow food that came up just as a lot of farm land was being reallocated from long time landowners to people who didn't have much experience farming. These theories weren't very successful but those involved had a personal vestment in making others think it was working rather than failing (because gulag vs living nicely). So reports said there was tons of food being produced while there wasn't, leading to famine, which makes it harder to bring up a brand new economy.
China also fell for those false reports and adopted the fake science themselves, which contributed to their own famine.
I don't recall a lot of the details of that fake science, but a couple of the ideas I do remember: fit as many seeds/plants as possible into any given area because the plants will work together to strengthen their comrades. If you store seeds in the cold, it will make them more cold resistant, allowing crops that wouldn't normally grow in some areas to thrive there.
Just those two things plus the land redistribution resulted in people who didn't know how to farm trying to grow more crops than the land would support, sometimes picking a crop that wouldn't even grow in that area over less desirable ones that would.
And of course it didn't help that the Kremlin still feasted while (false) reports said there were tons of crops being produced, which were also taxed as if the production numbers were valid, so those farmers were also starving, which killed the public support momentum and they had to deal with Stalin's brutality on top of that.
That's an incredibly complex question, and if you aren't well-versed in economics, politics, sociology, etc then I promise you, you aren't going to be able to walk away satisfied from a Lemmy conversation. The best answer is that the USSR came with a ton of good, and a lot of difficulty in being the first Socialist state, including a great deal of bad, unfortunately.
I recommend you check out my reading list, and read the two books in section 1. Well, the essay and the book in section 1. Principles of Communism is very short and can help with terminology, and Blackshirts and Reds is a historical analysis of both fascism and Communism as they have existed, and their adversarial relationship.
Alternatively, I recommend the "Yellow Parenti" lecture in section 1 from the same author as Blackshirts, though I won't stop you from reading and listening to all 3. I invite you to read them with a critical eye and question whatever seems off.
I apologize if this is unsatisfactory for you, but analyzing AES properly takes a great deal of myth dispelling and contextualization in a world dominated by the US, which has material interests in slandering AES states at every single opportunity. That does not mean AES states are perfect, but that they are real, and come with real problems and real victories.
Hope that answers your question in a semi-satisfactory way, at least! You can also ask questions in the linked thread, which would selfishly be beneficial because common questions can be answered in one space that I plan on linking whenever it's relevant, and having readers capable of seeing questions answered in the comments I think would be a good thing for my list 😉
You'll find that some of your questions are likely already answered there (among the jokes and jests from fellow comrades).
Trotsky's Permanent Revolution actually describes what has happened in the United States.
The few mega-rich will bend the national discourse with money to capitalist decay and avoid the dictatorship of the proletariat. The likes of Bezos and Musk fit that bill to a T.
Thank you for putting in this effort!
No problem, feel free to offer any input!
Seriously, it's time to quarantine the US and seriously purge Europe before it gets any worse
Cancers aren't contagious, which means this is a pox.
Unless you think of earth/humanity as one organism.
I've been mulling over getting some "I DID THAT!" stickers of an ass oh.. I mean Trump pointing with that text above his head for when he inevitably raises prices of everything.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Do NOT make it trump. His health will likely take him out before that.
Bring it on to point directly at 2 people: Musk and Vance.
We actually will see those two in 2028. Stop focusing on the distraction. All Trump is right now is a distraction.
Passing doesn't mean he didn't contribute to it. I see your point nonetheless.
Laws do not apply to the terminally ill.
zing! You said the fascism word, and you made it “clever”!
Does anyone have a cure?
Yea we do!
Pretty neat huh.
Yep, and Socialism is necessary to prevent it from cropping up again.
People think it's a jokes but that what non fascism American will have to do if they ever want another election in their lifetime
That was clever and dark as most of his works.
It's not the original line.
E: it's the suggested cure for insomnia
Is it rare? I doubt that.
Definitely not rare, more like malignant, aggressive, terminal..
But the cancer analogy does work, because you can't cure it with band aids (like elections), you have to cut the fucker out at its core, radiate the remaining tissue to make sure none is left behind (via education and a complete overhaul of how society functions, with zero tolerance for bigotry), and continue to get regular check ups to make sure it hasn't returned, and if it does, radiate the fucker again before it metastasises.
Rare in that it doesn't happen that often here.
It's metastasized rather quickly, however.It could be terminal if we don't get the right people to excise it quickly enough.
“Right people” might be how we got it. /rimshot
I think capitalism is the cancer. Fascism is just the symptom of late stage capitalism.
100%. Fascism is a defense mechanism for dying Capitalism. Dr. Michael Parenti helps explain fascism's causes, interests, and characteristics in the first chapter of Blackshirts and Reds.
Agreed
It's not that rare unfortunately. It's spread across more than half the globe.
The last time this happened we needed a world war to root it out. It's looking increasingly likely that we're gonna need another one.
The Nazis were copying the US practices towards blacks; was it really rooted out, or just some secondary tumours?
Germany lost, fascism won
Are you sure It's not low information voters who spend most of their time politically deactivated, feel disenfranchised from the economic controls that rule their lives, and have poor media literacy?
Those are symptoms of capitalism... So is fascism
you think socialists can't be dumb? the russian propaganda sure is working on you
For that diagnosis, that will be $28,865.89 and an additional $56.76 per day of none payment.
