My Relationship with Communism

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Hey, what's up, weirdos. Hey, yo, me. Shit. I got me a little song rode the lights alone. We're about to chop it up with Abigail on the Manic Pixie weirdo podcast, a safe space for weirdos of all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds to relax and speak their piece. So grab a glass of wine and grass, the chief as I get off the mic, so the main word Oh can speak. Peace, peace.

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What is that word as you're listening to the Manic Pixie weirdo and Abigail, your host, and this is the podcast where we talk about all the different kinds of relationships that you can have in your life. This week, we're doing it, we're doing the big mean, scary boogeyman the

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you know, the monster under your bed? Communism, or doing my relationship with communism?

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Yeah, so why did I say all that sort of like bullshit in the beginning, because that's sort of like, the idea that, like, I got, I was taught from a pretty early age, that communism is like,

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you know, the boogeyman under your bed, it, it's coming to get you it is evil, it is horrible. It is,

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you know, that, that system of government that is going that is out to get you that is about, you know, control and

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not freedom, and all of these things.

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So, I went on a quest to figure out what communism was. And we're going to talk about it. Because so like, as it turns out, coming to them, when you boil it down to like, its base roots in its most pure like form. Communism is okay.

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Communism is when you boil it down.

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It's that idea is you know, when you're a kid, and you know, you talk about like, world peace, and like that world that like fantasy world of like unicorns and like rainbows and like, you know, everything everybody has, like, everything that they need, and like, nobody is suffering. And, you know, there's no there's no more hunger, there's no more famine, there's no more like, you know, whatever that like utopian like world peace, like society.

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That's fundamental idea about of like,

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of communism, as I understand it, that is what communism is.

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In like, its most basic, like purest form.

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So we're gonna get into the research, so Okay, so I really like this this way of some, I'm gonna quote from the citizens journal.us

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This was an article written in December eighth on December 8 of 2021.

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Sorry,

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and it talks about the title of the article is what is communism Are you a communist?

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And so, it says, and I like this, this sort of like, in very simple words, communism is the idea that every individual in a society receives an equal share of the benefits derived from labor. In such a society the state would own everything implying nothing, business produce, whatever would be owned by individuals, the wealth would be redistributed and equally divided among all individuals in a society such that the rich will become less rich and the poor would become less poor, and ultimately, all will achieve the same economic status.

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Okay, so that's sort of like, in a nutshell, what it is, if you want more like a clinical definition of what communism is,

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that would be something like a political theory derived from Karl Marx advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

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So first of all, I kind of I kind of want to go on a side question real quick. So that's a really common thing that is talked about. It is a quote

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it is a quote from each according to his ability to according to each according to his need. So that is, that is a really common like thing when you tie your you would hear it often and you

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Like communist circles is that phrase. So what does that phrase mean? So

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I looked it up, because I wanted to, like, make sure.

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You know, like I understood.

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So it's the principle that refers to free access to, to end distribution of goods capitalism services. It is derived from Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha program.

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And that's

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it guess it's helpful. But

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like, what does that actually mean? So

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to each according to his contribution was a concept

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opposed by many members of the socialist and labor movement, the terms means simply that each worker in a socialist society receives compensation and benefits according to the quality and value of the labor that he or she contributed. And

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so that sort of

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that.

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But I just wanted to, like quickly go over like that, what that is,

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before we kind of like got into, you know, all the other stuff.

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So, okay, so

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communism itself, like the word is a Latin word.

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Front row, the words that really sorry, communism comes from the lat. So this is from Corporate Finance Institute, again, I feel like I've used them a lot. But they do have some like, good stuff to say, I would say, and this is from

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an article that they did, called communism, it was updated March 12, of 2021.

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So keep that in mind.

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So it says that like, and this is under the historical account of communism, communism comes from the Latin word communist, which means common or shared. So communism is thought to come into existence in ancient times, as considered in Plato's Socratic dialogue, the Republic, published around 375 BCE, Plato considered an ideal state in which

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a governing class of Guardians serves the interests of the whole community by living as a large family, sharing the ownership of goods and labor are and people so but that would be like labor.

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Other early examples of communism, or in Christianity, the formation of the Masonic Order and others, so I went in, I kind of was like, interested in that

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for a second.

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And as it turns out, yes, this is true. Um, they, so the idea is, like, so okay.

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So this is from Investopedia. And this is like, understanding communism and like what it is, but it's a really old and this kind of surprised me is that it's a really, really old idea of like, it's not and this is not new, this is not anything that like has come. Like, because like I would, I would venture to guess that most people would say that, like, you know, communism is a relatively like, new form of government that like it's, you know, like, it's been around only for a brief period of history, like considering the fact that like, capitalism has been around for like, ages. Since you know, whatever, Babu

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but no, as it turns out, communism has been around forever.

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So the idea

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you know, like, the idea actually, like I said, has been around forever. And

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the book of Acts actually describes first century Christian communities holding property in common according to a system known as Koinonia which inspired later religious groups such as the 17th century English diggers to reject private ownership

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and I think that's highly interesting

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that it's you know,

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like it started like so long ago you know what I'm saying like it started like forever ago we just like the communism that like we understand

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is just fairly new because I mean, like so if you want to know specifically like

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the passages and acts that like they're talking about, specifically are acts for book four verses 31 through 37. Just in case like if you want to go look that up yourself like by all means, go look it up.

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But like, that's where the slick that's

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they were talking about.

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Like they it's sort of like one of the first references other than like Plato's Republic that talks about like, the first church regarded none of the possessions that they had as their personal property like it wasn't it.

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It shows up really, really, really, really early like in

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like, historically speaking, it shows up really early. So it's been around forever. But this article in Corporate Finance Institute

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continues on and says, like, however, the emergence of modern communism was instigated by the industrial revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries, so.

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Yeah, so like the modern version that like you think of today

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has only really been around for like, a couple 100 years. But like, but the concept, the idea of communism has been around forever, like, since beginning of time, kind of thing.

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Which is kind of cool. Actually. I kind of like find that like, really, really interesting.

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Okay, now, why do I find that super interesting, because I feel like that part has always sort of like conveniently left out.

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One talking about communism, like, it seems like, especially from a historical context, like

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when you're when you're being taught about communism, and like what it is, nobody's ever like, Oh, yeah. Hey, by the way, this idea has been around forever. And

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yeah, so it even like as early. Like, it predates Christianity, kind of a thing, which is old, which is, like really old.

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So I don't know, I just find that like, really interesting. Because like I said, it's sort of like, I feel like it gets conveniently left out, that like how old it is. And like, that this idea has been around forever. And that like, this idea of like, world peace, and this again, fantasy this, because that's what it is. It's that fantasy. It's that fantasy that like, you know, that perfect world that like everybody wants to live in when you're a kid that you like, you know, I mean, there's jokes about it, and like, you know, modern media, you know, like that Miss Congeniality scene, where they're like, and world peace, like, but this is what this is what that is this, like, if there was ever a word to like, talk about what that

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was, like, if there was a word or a system of government that like encompasses world peace in the sense that like, quote, unquote, phrase

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like it would be communism.

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So okay, so now let's, let's get into the modern stuff, okay. So this is again from Investopedia.

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Is from Investopedia, updated March 19 2022. What is communism learn the histories, pros and cons. So

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we're gonna get into right now we're gonna get into like the Communist Manifesto, and like that piece of it, because that's sort of like

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the most, I guess, referenced version

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of communism and like the most well known.

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So it says modern communism ideology began to develop during the French Revolution, and its semi tack, and its seminal tract, excuse me, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels communist manifesto was published in 1848. The pamphlet, the pamphlet,

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rejected the Christian tenor of previous communist philosophies, laying out a materialist and a prop. Pro, and its Proponents claim scientific analysis of the history and future trajectory of the human society. The history of all hitherto existing society, Marx and Engels wrote is the history of class struggle. The Communist Manifesto presented the French Revolution as a major historical turning point, when the bourgeoisie, the merchant class, that was in the process of consolidating control over the means of production, turned the feudal power structure and ushering in the modern capitalist era. So basically, what they're talking about is just that, like,

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capitalism is just like a modern version of is, is, well, it's just the modern version of like, the feudal system, where like, you know, you have like the serfs that like, do all the work, and, like, don't get any don't really get anything from it.

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Like the people that get like the most out of like the work is the merchant class or the bourgeoisie.

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So

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It's just capitalism is just like that modern version of like the viewed, it's just been updated, like capitalism is just the updated version of Feudal of the feudal system.

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The Revolution replaced the medieval class structure which pitted the nobility against the serfs, with the modern one pitting the bourgeoisie owners of capital against the proletariat, the working class who sell their labor for wages, okay?

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In the Communist Manifesto, and later works, Marx and Marx Engels and their followers advocate and predict as historically inevitable. So they, you know, they're making predictions they're talking about, like things that like, the potential for things to happen, a global proletariat revolution, which would usher in the first era of socialism, then of communism. So like, first you have to go through this socialistic like period where it but that transition period we talked about in socialism episodes

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on like, that part is necessary, you have to go through that part before you get to like the communism like part of it like that world peace that like fantasy, it because it takes a long time to make a fantasy or reality kind of thing. The final stage of human development would mark the end of class struggle, and therefore of history, all people would live in social equilibrium, without class distinction, family structures, religion or property, the state too, would wither away the economy would function as a popular Marxist slogan puts it from each according to its abilities, to according to each according to his needs. See, there's that thing that that that that phrase that pops up again.

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But so, that's what they're talking about, like they

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they're saying that, first of all, is going to the problem with trying to take a fantasy

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and making it

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sorry, and making it like, a reality, like in this physical, like, real world kind of thing is that one, it takes a long time. It takes a it takes a freakin long time you guys. But like, there are steps that need to be taken in order to like, get to this ultimate goal of that, like utopian world peace, like that fantasy society. And in that fantasy society, all of these things that people would live in social equilibrium, without class distinction, family structures, religion, property, like all of these things would be

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like, we wouldn't exist anymore. And not in the sense that like, they wouldn't exist, like, like, forever, like, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be like, it's not like they just like disappear or go away, it's more of I think, it's, it's much more of this idea that like,

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like, people would be able to live in a world where, like, with tolerance, kind of a thing, and people would be able to live in this world, where, like, you know,

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you, you wouldn't have to worry about things like, you know, is my water gonna get turned off?

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You know, next month, because I can't pay the bill. Like, that's not a concern in this world. You don't have to worry about like, where your next meal is coming from, because like, you have money to go buy groceries, or like or money doesn't even exist, like in this in this, like utopian world, like money, money is not a thing anymore, like money does not exist. There are examples, there are many, many examples of like,

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you know, of societies that

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were moneyless and classless that like, didn't have any of those things.

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The thing is, is that like it

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it's hard, it's really hard to like, get to that place and so it's gonna take a long time. Like, if that is our ultimate goal as humanity is to like, get to this utopian world peace stage, it's going to take time, it's going to take a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of effort. And there are steps that like need to happen before like we can even get there because like, you can't just like overnight go from

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you can't just like overnight, go from like, you know, the hellscape to the fantasy world.

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Kind of a thing.

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So there are like there are steps that have to be taken. Now I do believe that um, like Marx and Engels were kind of big on the whole like, like the revolution

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kind of a situation where like, like, it would take like that's what it would take it would take like a

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giant group of people coming together. And basically saying, No, this is what we want, this is the world that we want to live in, and we don't care anymore, that like, you know, the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many kind of a situation, which is what it would be in like a capitalistic society where the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. Um, so,

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yeah, so there's that. Um, now obviously, there are many, many examples of,

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like, communist countries. And

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there are several examples of like, communist countries. So like, obviously, the Soviet Union, Communist China.

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Some, like lesser Cuba would be another big one. That is, you know, like, you know, talked about a lot. I think that the, I think that Cuba is really talked about a lot because just of proximity to the US, it's so close to the United States.

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That that's one of the reasons why, like, you hear about it a lot. You also hear about, like, China and Russia, I would say a lot too, because they sort of like, you know, made their marks No pun intended.

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Like, on the map kind of thing. They're so they're like,

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they're so adamantly like against, or they're so like, adamantly for, like this idea that like it, it, it almost kind of backfired in a way, where like, it's like,

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like, they're just like, Have you ever met somebody that's like, super into something. And then and they're just like, so into it, that it's almost kind of like annoying.

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That's kind of like, that's sort of how I like view it. But that's sort of how we know more, that's why we know more about like, the Soviet Union, or communist China. Now, I will say this, everything that I have ever learned about, well, not everything, but a lot of the things especially when I was younger, a lot of the things that I like, uh, you know, learned about as far as like, common the,

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like, communist Russia, or communist China has been tainted with a capitalistic lens. And the reason that it has been tainted by a capitalistic lens is because I live in a, like, I live in a country where capitalism is, is the ruling king. And so it's, like, of course, everything that like I understand and know, maybe not everything, but a lot of the things that, like, I understand and know, about these other countries

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are viewed through that capitalistic lens of being like wool. This is like bad, because we are so like,

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like, capitalism is so like, against communism, in that sense, that it's just like it.

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Basically, they're like,

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to two ideas that are just like,

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they're those two friends when you're when you're in high school that like, just for whatever reason, like can't get along, like that you have that just like, can't get along, for whatever reason, like they Everybody's got their own reasons. They don't, you know, they don't really, you know, they're not really like, you know, good reasons. They're just kind of like, you know, they're, they're kind of like toothpaste, like toothpaste and toilet paper, like reasons, you know, if that makes sense, where they're just kind of like, yeah, I just don't like them. And you're just like, but why? And it's like, well, because I just don't, and you're like, okay, but that doesn't like, there's nothing

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you don't I'm saying, like, that's sort of how I view like, capitalism and communism as far as like the way that it is viewed.

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So, okay, so like in the Silic, the Soviet Union. Okay, so let's talk about the Soviet Union for a second.

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So Marx and Engels theories would not be tested in the real world until after their deaths in 1917. During World War One, there was the Russian Revolution. Okay. Now, a lot of people don't know a lot about the Russian Revolution. That's fine. We're gonna go into a brief history, where there was okay, an uprising in Russia toppled the Tsar and sparked a civil war that eventually saw a group of radical Marxist led by Vladimir Lenin gaining power in 1922. Okay.

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Yeah, that's the Russian Revolution. Okay.

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It was

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this whole idea that these people were going to rise up against the Tsar and because people were starving people were dying. People were suffering so much that they were just like, Yeah, fuck this guy

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and his family, and we're going to, you know, we're going to take over and we're going to try and make a better life for everyone in that lives in Russia. That

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That's what we're gonna do that was like that was the idea was an the group was called the Bolsheviks founded the Soviet Union on former imperial Russia territory and attempted to put in a communist put communist theory into practice, right. Okay.

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Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, slash the Russian Revolution, look it up. It's really, really fascinating. It's really interesting. I quite, I hate to say enjoy, but I do enjoy learning about the Russian Revolution.

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If you want to get like sort of into

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a, like, if you want to watch like a movie kind of thing about it. Don't watch it Anastasia. Even though great movie Love Anastasia, the 20 century fox. Yes, I definitely saw that in theaters. Sorry, Southwest, anyway.

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Anyway, so Okay, so prior to that, Lenin had developed the Marxist theory of Vanguard ism, which argued that a close knit group of politically enlightened elites was necessary to usher in the higher the higher stages of economic and political evolution, socialism, and finally communism. Okay, so I don't know how much of that I like, where it's like this whole idea of like, you know, this small close group of people that like, you know, are the leaders of it, like, I understand that, like, you probably need those people. Like, I get it, like, you probably need those people. It's just one of those things where it's like, it seems kind of little sketch as far as like, because if you give those people power, like absolute power kind of corrupts absolutely. So like, you better make sure that like, you pick really good people to be I guess, like, that sort of my like, caveat to it is that like, make sure you pick like, like, like,

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really good people to like, be in those like, sort of positions of leadership, because otherwise like, yeah, absolute power is going to corrupt. Absolutely, obviously. So Lenin died shortly after the Civil War ended in Russia. But the dictatorship of the proletariat led by his successor, Joseph Stalin, would pursue brutal and ethic and ideological purchase as well as forced agriculture. cultivation. So, yeah, 10s of millions of died during Stalin's rule from 1922 to 1952, on tops of 10s of millions who died as a result of what you know, Nazi Germany and all that kind of stuff.

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So, so that sort of like that, that's just like a little bit of that, basically, Joseph Stalin, like kind of took the idea of like, the proletariat, and like this Vanguard Islam and like Marxism, and basically kind of ran with it.

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It was just like, implied Mistakes were made, like big mistakes were made.

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The thing is, though, is that like, I kind of feel like you could say that about, again, you could say that about, like,

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any form of government, that, like, there are leaders that, you know, just kind of like ran with stuff. And then and you're just, like, looking at it now from like, you know, like, hindsight is 2020 kind of thing where you're just like, yeah, so that wasn't the best choice. Like, I definitely wouldn't have done it like that. But, you know, like, you tried, I guess.

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So, okay.

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So that's sort of, you know,

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that that's a little bit more about, like, the history of like, the specific like, Russian version of like communism, I, I have been able to, like, do a little bit more like digging and research. And what I found from, like, people that lived in communist Russia, like,

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all of their accounts are kind of the same. Now, the people that I like, you know, was able to sort of talk to, you know, they,

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they fully admitted, you know, they, they didn't really, they didn't live during, like Stalin's rule. This was like, after this was, you know, like, sort of, during that, like, other transplant this, like, this other period, where, like,

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all of that was kind of like,

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like, over and, like, their parents might have, like, grown up in that, but like, they didn't. And so, like, their experience was very different from like, you know, you know, somebody else's expect, like, their parents experience, for example, would be different than like theirs. But they, um, you know,

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they definitely described it as, you know,

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like,

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equality is everywhere, like, there's no

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like, first of all, like, not a lot of people would have like, say a car because public transportation is so good and like they have really good roads, and,

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you know, like, things of that nature where like, you know, they have like,

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you know, the infrastructure is there.

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For them to be able to like, like, you don't really need a car, you just kind of you just take the public, like the buses or whatever, like everywhere you need to go because, like, it's so reliable. Um, another thing that they said they caveat kind of thing is that, you know, like, so medical care, yes, everybody has access to medical care, however, it's,

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you know,

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it like, if you needed something like an MRI, you would have to, you'd have to travel to like a bigger city, because like, like little towns like the town that like I live in, per se, wouldn't necessarily have, like an MRI machine, you'd have to go somewhere else, you'd have to go to like a bigger city, like a major metropolitan area.

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Before like, you would be able to get an MRI done, because just simply because, you know,

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that's where the MRI machine would be kind of a thing.

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And so things like that. But as far as like equality and stuff like that, go like, like, if you want to be a doctor, like by all means, you can be a doctor, if you want to be,

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you know, a teacher, like then fine, if you want to be a whatever, what, just whatever, like, you can do that.

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In this sort of society, and, and you would get paid to each according to his ability to according to each according to his need. What is it? Oh, my goodness,

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from each according to his ability to each according to his need. Okay. Oh, my gosh, do you think at this point, I would know, I don't short term memory. Um, so Okay, so here we go. So rather than withering away, the Soviet state became a powerful one party institution that prohibited dissent, and occupied the commanding heights of the economy, agriculture, the banking system and industry production, were subject to quotas and price control laid out in a series of a five year plan, this system of central prudent planning enabled rapid industrialization, and from 1950 to 1965 growth in the Soviet Union, so the gross domestic product outpaced that of the US, in general, however, the Soviet economy grew at a much slower pace than its capitalistic and democratic counterparts. Now,

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again, viewed through capitalistic lens, however,

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you know, it, it's that

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again, I take issue kind of, like, with the,

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with the execution of like, the plan kind of thing. It's one of those things where it's like, you make the plan, you like you make the plan, what is it you make the plan, you execute the plan, the plan goes to shit you like, get rid of the plan, like, when you're like,

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obviously, trial and error is the thing like it's going to take multiple different, like, times like to try and, you know, figure out what exactly is going to like work, you know, in the real world, like it's even Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto, at least in the copy that I have, has said within like the first few pages that this system will not work because humans basically

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like it's a great idea on paper but like, even but like humans ruin it kind of a situation and so that's why like it's so it's, it's such a slow going thing like it's going to take forever if this is the world that we want to live in this world peace utopian like society where everybody's equal, everybody has everything that they need, everybody like

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is able to you know, eat and sleep and do like all of the things that they need to do.

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It's going to take for ever it it truly is, it's going to take time because what you're trying to do is you're is you are trying to change a fundamental value system of somebody else. And when you're trying to change a fundamental value system or belief system of somebody else, then that takes a really long time because you have to, you have to kind of ease your way into it. You can't just like yell and scream at somebody and say and expect them to change their mind like this is going to be something that like takes forever it's going to be something that takes a really really really long time. Like possibly hundreds of years because you know, you are you kind of have to go like one by one like individual by individual because especially in a capitalistic society because we do live in such because it is such an individualistic like, way of thinking and value set that it is going like you're changing you have your you're changing that thinking and changing someone's thinking is very, very, very hard to do. It can be done. It is not

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Aren't impossible, it can be done, it just takes a long time. And you have to kind of

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go really slow, and like ease into it.

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You can't just like throw it all at the wall. I mean, you could, an argument can be made that like, you know, you throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. And, um, you know,

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I would I would argue that like, to certain extent certain countries have done that.

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But other countries I think have like, understood, you know, that, like,

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you know, it is gonna take a long time.

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So, okay, so then it goes into so this article keeps going into and it keeps talking about, you know, like, which is fine. Um, you know, it talks about like China,

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and how, like, you know, 15 million people were killed 40 Or perhaps more, more, like 45 million, which got me curious, it got me thinking, so how many people has communism killed? Okay, let's just, you know, how, like,

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you know, how many people is communism killed?

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So, a rough estimate, is that communism kill has killed like, 100 million people. Okay.

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I'm sorry. So I know, it's, it feels like I'm skipping around a lot, because I kind of am but I'm also trying to, like, cram as much into this episode as like, humanly possible. I'm sorry. Um, so yeah. Okay, so.

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So this is an article from 2018, July 27 2018. And it says, if communism kills, kills millions, how many has capitalism killed? Because I'm curious. Like, okay, let's say for example, like this article says, okay, it goes around every few years communism killed 100 million people. All right. 100 million people.

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Sorry, 100 million people.

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It's a lot. There's a shitload of people.

37:11

But like, how many has capitalism killed? Right? Because like that, that's what we're comparing it to is capitalism. So in this article, it starts and says, Okay, let's start in the obvious place. 13 million slaves were sold to the new world, America, North and South. In the United States by 1860. Just 400,000 North American slaves had become 4 million new ones born into slavery. That's 17 million people. Okay. Capitalism started out strong. 17 million people great.

37:47

Fast forward a century a war, the World War or UPS thanks in large part to a historians agree to a global depression. But what was called but what caused the Great Depression, capitalism, the speculative frenzy and inequality of the of the of the rip roaring 20s Sorry. rip roaring 20s So how many people died in World War Two? It is estimated 25 million of just soldiers 1550 Not 1555 0 million including civilians? 80 million people including famine war crimes and disease.

38:24

So then, the Cold War it wasn't so then like you know, that's an so then the Cold War Happy? Happy realism. Yep, capitalism. The Cold War happened. That's what they're saying that's another 2.5 million people roughly died.

38:44

And then

38:46

before that, though, we did the we don't discuss it much today was the Chinese Civil War in which America and Soviet Russia fought by proximity how many died about 8 million people? Just those two hard wars of the Cold War, there were

39:00

many more adding another 10 million to our tally making it 80 million. So we're up to 80 million people already. And that's just up to the Cold War.

39:10

And then this goes on to talk about how many people died of course of colonial mercantile mercantile empire. In the Congo alone, 10 million died.

39:21

And noted Indian parliament has estimated 35 million died under colonial rule.

39:27

And then let's see. Yet in many places, those wounds haven't healed Congo still exploited for its natural resources. But wait for it capitalism, rubber, diamonds, metal, some of which are probably in your smartphone and unhappy another war in the 21st century, which killed 5 million.

39:45

So what is our number now in the last round, we added 50 million to 70 million people. So now we're up to 120 million and that's still conservative. So this this person is saying like this is this we're up to 120 million people already.

40:00

and that,

40:02

and that's a very conservative estimate, because there's so many other things that like haven't been included.

40:08

There's this other article

40:11

that says why capitalism doesn't kill 20 million people a year. Okay? This is more of like a critique on.

40:21

Like, why this number of 20 million people a year isn't true.

40:27

And so we're gonna just like explore that for a second. So it says, First, let's look at the numbers this, this statistic cites that 8 million deaths are due to not having clean drinking water. Seven 7,665,000 due to do

40:43

die due to hunger. 3 million a year die to vaccine preventable diseases and 500,000 die of malaria a year.

40:52

If you're curious, yes, it does roughly add up to 20 million. The problem with these numbers is that 93% of the malaria deaths take place in Africa. So they're their whole critique is that like, well, it's, you know, it all takes place like in in a place that's not you, the United States, for example.

41:10

So it like, I feel like the whole point of this article is that like, well, it doesn't count. Because it's like it. It's not it within the US. And so I got curious, I was like, Okay, well, then how many people like in the US? does it kill? Sorry, sorry, I should have put my phone on silent.

41:33

Okay, but we are going to take a quick break before.

41:37

Before we go into this other thing. So bear with me. But yeah, we're gonna take a quick break. And we'll be back in a second. What is up you guys, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our sponsor for this episode newsleave. It's an audio app for iOS and Android, where they basically take articles from all over the world, and all the trending topics that are on the web at any given moment. And it reads them to you. And like a natural voice like a human being would, it's basically the first time of in the history of the internet, where the entire web becomes listenable. It's really cool. You guys, they have all different kinds of articles from all different kinds of topics that you can like stop scrolling, and start listening, which I really love. You can follow all that you know, any topic, all the topics, whatever topic you want to talk about, or listen about, from sports science, Bitcoin, you know, even the Kardashians, like everybody, they have all the latest articles, and it reads them to you. So it's super easy. They also have podcasts, which is why I'm talking to you guys about it, because our podcast, along with podcasts from over 50 Other countries are on the app. So that's really, really cool. You can start listening there as well, it can download and use newsleave for free right now at www dot newsleave dot N E or you can do you can use this link in the description. And when you use the promo code P 1x. One E P zero, d c a s t that will give you a free month of premium subscription to newsletters. So go check it out you guys. And thank you so much generously for sponsoring this episode. And we're back. And we are talking about my relationship with communism.

43:19

So yeah, so before we took the break, I was talking about like, how many people has capitalism killed versus how many people is communism killed.

43:29

And the article that I referenced was why capitalism doesn't kill 20 million people a year.

43:37

And that was an article released

43:40

April 27 2020.

43:44

And like I said, it's kind of the whole like, feel of this article. The vibe of this article is that like, it doesn't count because it's another country other than the United States. So I was like, Okay, fine. How many people does capitalism kill in the United States every year? And as it turns out,

44:02

I found an article written December 26 2022. And it says capitalism kills nearly 1 million Americans per year. Don't worry, I am going to put all of this stuff in the notes. So that if you want to go back and read it, you absolutely can I encourage you to absolutely 100% Go and do your own research and read about all of this.

44:26

But so Okay, yeah, so the title of this article is capitalism kills nearly 1 million Americans per year. So okay, so a million Americans a year how are they getting that number?

44:37

How exactly are they getting that number? So the study that so as to Okay, so the exact number.

44:45

Okay, so it says

44:47

it's

44:49

a shock, consider and total number of Americans who die each year. Okay, so, it's even more shocking to when you consider that the total number of Americans who die each year is just over 3 million. So shocking.

45:00

In that you might be wondering where the numbers coming from and how this is totally fair. The exact number is 874,000. And that comes from a Columbia University study conducted in 2011, which study deaths between 1980 and 2007. So this is a very big study, it's very long study. Because of the age of the study, because of the age of the study and the worsening economic conditions we've been facing over the past several years, we may as well have broke the 1 million mark by now. So the study found the following data for the year 2000. Low education accounted for approximately 245,000 deaths. Racial segregation accounted for approximately 176,000 deaths. Low social support accounted for approximately 162,000 deaths, individual level poverty accounted for approximately 133,000 deaths, income inequality accounted for approximately 119,000 deaths, area level poverty accounted for approximately 39,000 deaths. The researchers refer to all these things as social ills, aka byproducts of capitalism. So how does it like, kill all these people?

46:13

So in this article talks about like, capitalism

46:19

can become a factor in, in an endeavor in an individual's death in various ways. It can be as straightforward as not being able to afford sufficient food or shelter and dying from malnutrition or exposure, capitalism or sometimes a fear of any other system. But capitalism is a cultural force that keeps Americans paying astronomical amounts for Medicare. For medical, like for health care, oh my gosh, for health care. Capitalism keeps higher education, both exclusive and expensive. It also keeps people overworked, underpaid, and too beaten down to organize and engage in their communities. Capitalism is what is what keeps people living and dying in poverty. So that's the argument for this article.

47:02

And this is not the only article that I found that, like references this. So you know, it.

47:13

Basically what I'm saying is that, like, the numbers show, even a conservative number, like a very conservative estimate is that like, so let's just first say, for the sake of argument, say that communism kills 100 MK has killed 100 million people.

47:31

Well, capitalism has killed at least that if not more, so. Because we haven't, there's so many different things that like have not been accounted for, as far as like the death toll is concerned.

47:46

So, you know, that's interesting, I think. We don't really talk about that very much, you know.

47:55

So I guess like, Finally, before we like close out, I would kind of like to go over. So I found this salon article. Ironically, salon, I know, coming in hot.

48:06

And the title of this article, it was written in 2014. So it's not like the most up to date. But I just find it interesting that like salon did publish that. And it did publish it. And the whole title is why you're wrong about communism, seven huge misconceptions about it and capitalism. And I kind of want to go over. And the reason that like I looked this up, was because I was like, well, so like, what's the deal man? Like? Why? You know?

48:34

Why do Americans like hate communism? Like, what is the deal? Like, what what are these common misconceptions that people have about communism?

48:43

That like just simply aren't true? So like, and this is, these are seven reasons. So the seven reasons that salon says are one, only communist economies rely on state violence. Obviously, no private equity Baron worth his weight in a leveraged buyouts will ever take will ever part willingly with his fortune, and any attempt to achieve economic justice, like taxation will encounter stiff opposition from the ownership class. But state violence, like taxation is inherent in every set of property rights a government can conceivably adopt, including those that allow aforementioned hypothetical Baron to amass said fortune

49:24

in capitalism.

49:29

Sorry, in capitalism, competing ownership claims are settled by states willingness to use violence to exclude, but all to exclude all but one claimant. So they're saying that like, you know, it, it, violence is being used to in order to keep the ruling class, the bourgeoisie, the in, like in place, you know what I'm saying? Like violence is used. So, where there isn't state whoever

50:00

has the most where there isn't a state whoever has the most violent power determines who gets the stuff be that a warlord a night, the mafia or a gang of cowboys in the Wild West, either by vigilante vigilantes or the state property rights rely on violence. So it's just violence begets violence kind of a thing.

50:20

And

50:23

then it goes on to talk about like,

50:25

this is true of both personal and private property. But it's important not to confuse the two property implies not a good but a title deeds, contract stocks, bonds, mortgages, etc. When Marxist talks of cultivating ownership claims on land or the means of production, we are in the realm of property.

50:45

So that's what they're talking about, like, just keep that, you know, just keep that in mind. Um, the next one is that capitalist economies are based on free exchange, which is untrue.

50:56

I mean, again, in a perfect capitalist world, yes, that's how that that's how it works. But humans fuck it up. So we don't actually have like a free market, we don't have free exchange, like in a capitalist society, in the capitalist society that like we know. And, to a certain extent love I would argue,

51:16

especially like here in the United States, you know, free market, free market, free market, you hear all this stuff about free market, free market free market. And it's like, Yeah, but that doesn't exist, that does not exist, we already have, like, we're already taking steps in this country that to like, have socialist like programs, they're just for the rich, you know, you just we basically say that you just have to have enough zeros in your bank account in order for you to deserve it. In order for you to deserve all of these things. You just have to have like a certain and I don't know what the magic number is. It seems like the magic number changes that used to be like a million dollars you know, like now it's like, well, if you have billions of dollars that like it is the goalpost is constantly moving.

52:01

For like, in order for you to, quote unquote, deserve what you get it or not, we're not what do you get, but like in order to deserve like help or

52:12

that kind of thing?

52:15

So okay, so here we go. Communism killed 110 million people for resisting dispossession.

52:23

Not true. Not true. Apparently.

52:27

They do reference you know, like,

52:31

hence 100. So

52:34

let's see.

52:39

Recently advocated the position that only the threat of death can prop up a left wing dream because no one in their right mind would ever volunteer for this crap. Hence, 110 million dead in declaring this got field Greg Gutfeld. He is the host of Fox News apparently.

52:56

I've never heard of him. I don't know who he is.

53:00

Gut filled and his ilk insult is referring to millions of people who died under Stalin, Mao and another other 20th century communist dictators. Yeah, so he's, that's what he's referring to. But again, it doesn't go. Nobody ever talks about how many how we just did how many people have died under capitalism. Like, if you're like you, if you're going to talk about like all of these deaths within communism, you must also talk about the number of deaths that and we may never know, we truly may never know, like, the actual number of deaths that occurred

53:39

and that are still occurring every single day due to capitalist like due to capitalism, we and we may never know what those actual numbers are.

53:49

But it's a lot. It's, it's at least like I said, a conservative estimate is that it's at least the same amount. So like, at best, the it's a wash, like comparatively like, you know what I'm saying? Like it's a wash.

54:02

But I mean,

54:07

because we will never know the true numbers of how many people capitalism has actually killed throughout its history. It you know,

54:18

it's probably not like capitalism has a higher death toll, I would say.

54:24

So, number four capitalist governments don't commit human rights atrocities. That's 100% Bullshit. We all know that that's 100% Bullshit.

54:32

You know, the slave trade indigenous indigenous extermination late Victorian Holocaust and war genocide, a massacre occur carried out by the US and its proxies. proxies in an effort to defeat communism. So yeah, there you go. Millions of it even says here millions of deaths resulting from those countries transitions to capitalism, like, you know what I'm saying like it's, again with the numbers like we may never know but you know, it is

55:01

disheartening

55:03

as far as you know, and that doesn't include, you know, climate famine, like all like all of these things.

55:11

So number five is 21st century American communists was would resemble 20th century Soviet and Chinese horrors. I'm

55:22

so sorry, you guys. Oh my gosh, so sorry.

55:27

So that's, you know,

55:31

again,

55:33

change, like, it doesn't necessarily have to, like it doesn't.

55:38

And that starts with understanding that starts with like, it doesn't, like, that's not necessarily the truth that like 20th century American communism would resent like, no, like, nobody said, we couldn't put our own spin on it. Like nobody said that we couldn't try, like our own take on it. Just take what didn't work, get rid of it. And, you know, figure out the rest kind of thing, like, we don't, you don't have to start from scratch. If this was going if we actually wanted to, like, achieve this like utopian world, like, you have to start small. And so you have to, like, you know, it would start with pockets of like, you know, it would, it would start with pockets of like these, you know,

56:18

have like little pieces of like light, if you will, throughout, you know, like the world and

56:25

like if America wanted to, like take the reins and say like, Okay, we are going to strive for world peace, this is what we're actually going to do, we're going to we're going to try it like it, it would look very different from what you know, it used to look like, you know, after the Russian Revolution, or after Mao came into power in China. Like it would look very different. It wouldn't it would be our own, like it would be our own brand, sort of like of communism kind of thing.

56:55

So yeah, so number six is communism fosters uniformity untrue.

57:01

Apparently, lots of people are unable to distinguish equality from homogeneous, Homewood homogeneous homogeneity?

57:10

Perhaps this derives from the tendency of people in capitalist societies to view themselves primarily as consumers. This dystopic fantasy is the supermarket where in one state owned brand of food is available. Yeah, see, and it's just talking about like, this is not, that's not like, you would still have variety, like, you just might not have 800 versions of like, olives or whatever. Like, you might only you might only have like, 10, which to be perfectly honest, there have been studies that show that, like, app, there's a threshold for like, the number of choices that people can make. And within that threshold, like, there is such a thing as like, too many choices, because people will get overwhelmed, like and then they just kind of like give up. So

57:59

I mean, you know what I'm saying like it

58:04

that's just like, it's not this like, gray sort of like idea, like communism is not that communism fosters uniformity. Like that's not true. Because like, that's not what communism is. Communism doesn't. Communism wants you to, like communism is all about, like, freedom of like, is about freedom. It's about like, being able to kind of do whatever you want to do, like when you want to do it, without having to fear that like,

58:32

I don't, like I can't eat today.

58:36

And it's not this like, gray washed, you know, like, colorless world where, you know, nobody. Everybody does, like everybody has everybody wears the same clothes. Everybody, like, everybody, you know, does the same thing. Like and you go and like, like, that's not No, no, no, that is the capitalistic colored, like glasses that like have shaped what people view communism as but it's not, that's not necessarily the case. If any of that makes sense, please let me know. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. And finally, capitalism fosters individuality. So this is the last

59:17

you know, like debunked thing so it says, instead of allowing all people to follow their entrepreneurial spirit into the endeavors that fulfill them, capitalism applauds the small number of entrepreneurs who capture large portions of mass market this requires producing things on a mass scale which imposes a double uniformity on society tons and tons of people all purchase the same products and tons and tons of people all perform the same labor such individuality is flourished amid this system is often extremely superficial. Yeah, so it's like it that they're talking about like the illusion of choice.

59:52

I think that's that's sort of like what I gather from it is like they're talking about the illusion of choice.

59:58

Because it's all like tailor made

1:00:00

it and so I mean

1:00:04

yeah

1:00:07

yeah so that's where we're at I just kind of wanted to close out with that there are other there are a couple of other like

1:00:17

things from like the freedom man online and Cora that I will reference in the notes so that you can kind of and it talks about and those are sort of like why do capitalists hate communist so much? Um just to kind of give you like an A better understanding and like idea of like, why people don't like why people in capitalist countries are like so opposed to you know, communism.

1:00:44

Just like for a better understanding, but um, yeah, so that's sort of like all I have, I'm sorry, it was like fast and furious and like kind of all over the place. I was really just trying to get like everything into into this episode. I hope you guys enjoyed it, I hope I hope it was okay.

1:01:01

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1:01:50

I really appreciate that. You know, hit that like and subscribe button all the things. We really appreciate it and we you know we love you guys. So thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. As always be kind and Stay weird. Have a good one, y'all. Bye