Dissecting John Stossel's Anti-Communist Lies

[ThunderKiss1965]

Every country whether socialist or not has its gulags. Have you ever visited a jail or prison here in the United States? They're horrible. Many prisons here in the United States pay their inmates' twenty-five cents an hour, manufacturing products for private companies. The Russian gulag had a sentence maximum of ten years, whereas today in 2022, in many American prisons there are convicts serving 1200-year sentences. Are you aware of that?

You want to play the "uuuuu you people are so bad, so violent, so bad uuuuu bad, we are angels, we have halos glowing our heads in capitalism but you socialists uuuuuuu, uuuuuuu, so bad so bad".......Give it a rest. I'm an American communist, not a Russian or Chinese communist. Socialism in America will have American characteristics. American communists will always remain armed to the teeth, with combat rifles, and ammunition. American communists will always have oversight and control over their government through the people's councils, which is a much more effective democratic tool than elections every two or four years. You elect your government officials through the councils and can recall them, immediately replacing them.

Hands down, the socialist system of democracy, as described by Marx and Lenin grants us more power and freedom.

Yes I have and they are nothing compared to the forced labor camps of every Communist country in history. Also Communism is Communism no matter what coat of paint you try and slap on it. Every country that has tried has killed a significant portion of their population. “Those Who Do Not Learn History Are Doomed To Repeat It.”

I like my Republic and took an oath to defend it. Just the rednecks in my state of Alabama have more firearms than you loons combined and would wipe you off the face of the earth.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

The stupidity is tiring...

Indeed.

 

[Unkotare]

That's a silly cop-out argument because they can be released somewhere else. ....

They remained because we couldn't find a country that wouldn't also kill them or return them to the country that would kill them, you heartless idiot.

 

[westwall]

It's not how you start the race, it's how you finish it that matters. It took centuries for capitalism to replace chattel slavery and feudalism, and it will take time for socialism and then communism to replace capitalism. It's just a matter of time.

Why would people want to return to servitude?

 

[Unkotare]

You're the one defending that, ...

Wrong, idiot.

 

[Unkotare]

Not even close, you're quite ignorant of history. Millions of native Americans died as a result of the Western expansion of American settlers. There would be ten times the number of native Americans today in the US if not for them almost being wiped out from disease, malnutrition due to the loss of their primary food source, namely the buffalo, and falling victim to violence.

You said "wiped out," liar.

 

[Soupnazi630]

No, sorry. You are. It's ok though. I realize I can't fix stupid.

Clearly you can't stupid is what you see in the Mirror

No I am not

I am correct you on the other hand are massively ignorant

 

[Red Front]

In 1938 Soviet Russia wasn't poor and backward, it was actually quite developed,

It was a commie shithole. Still is. It's what happens when you kill the innovators and all your economic decisions are made by geniuses like Stalin.

Why should the people of the Donbas and Crimea move to Russia

Why not? Russia is the biggest country in the world. And they're super socialist.
Sounds perfect. They should have moved there decades ago.

The Berlin wall was in East Germany. All of Berlin was in East Germany, so there were several reasons for the wall.

Was one of the reasons to keep East Germans from escaping to freedom?

The defenders of capitalism and the West during the cold war don't have much moral high ground to stand on in view of the economic sanctions they imposed on East Germany and the USSR

They didn't want to trade with the country that enslaved half of Europe? That's awful!!!

They should have traded extra with the USSR, for being so awesome!

More, the fact that socialism didn't replace capitalism in the 20th century is irrelevant,

Right. All the commie nations failed under communism. That's just more proof they're
gonna win next time...........300 years, easy. You'll see. All those loser nations are gonna rise up and
lose even more.

Russia isn't communist anymore, although it will become that within the next few decades.

In 1938 Soviet Russia had the largest steel industry and its agriculture was the most mechanized in the world. So you obviously don't know what you're talking about. Soviet Russia unlike the US and other Western countries that were going through a deep depression in the 1930s, was doing well by 1934. Through Stalin's five-year plans, Russia was becoming one of the most industrialized nations on Earth, rivaling the US and other Western powers. Again, you're ignoring the facts.

The Russo-Ukrainians aren't just ethnically Russian, they're also Ukrainian and shouldn't be forced to leave their homes and their lands just because Western Ukrainians want them to. You're defending Western Ukrainian bigotry and terrorism against Russo-Ukrainians. You support the 2014 coup and its ultra-nationalist, neo-nazi sympathizing regime while pretending to be a defender of freedom and human rights.

As far as the wall, again, it had several functions during the cold war, and one of them was to stop scientists, engineers, and those who received a good education in East Germany and the USSR, from leaving to the capitalist West. Yes, that's true. Most scientists and engineers didn't defect, even when they had the opportunity to do so. The same can be said for athletes who competed in international sports, in different competitions including the Olympics. Most Soviet athletes didn't defect but a few did. Due to the unique circumstances of the cold war, of the conflict between the USSR and the US, there were restrictions for Soviet citizens when it came to traveling to the West.

Read this:

Emigration from the Eastern Bloc - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There are restrictions for Americans to travel to Cuba and other countries as well.

As far as trade, aren't you a defender and champion of free trade? Why should the US government stop American private companies from trading with socialist countries? More, American sanctions don't just stop Americans from trading with socialist countries but the whole world. Any country that decides to establish friendly relations with a communist country, a nation that the US has sanctioned, can't trade with the US and can have sanctions imposed upon it as well. It will be ostracized from the international community, economically and otherwise.

Right now if a merchant ship is tracked by the US government unloading or loading cargo in Cuba, that ship will be barred from all American ports for six months:

779

home.treasury.gov

Cargo-Ship Tracker: MarineTraffic: Global Ship Tracking Intelligence | AIS Marine Traffic

Any ship that uses the Panama Canal and fails to report that it is going to a Cuban or Venezuelan port, will be barred from using the canal, indefinitely. That means that ship has to go all the way down to the tip of South America, or through the arctic sea with an icebreaker.

All foreign cargo ships have to present their port logs to American port authorities when they arrive and if it shows that they were in Cuba, Venezuela, or any other sanctioned country, they have to leave. They can't unload their cargo, at any American port, including territories like Puerto Rico and Guam. If a company buys a product that has more than 10% American parts, it can't be sold to Cuba or any other sanctioned country. Sanctioned countries can't open bank accounts or lines of credit at banks that are regulated by the United States and that's practically every financial institution in the world, with few exceptions. So of course communist countries are in the fight with one arm tied behind their backs.

Your arbitrary demand for communism to replace capitalism overnight or even in one century to prove its validity is simply disingenuous, unfair, and cynical. Self-serving. You're not going to get rid of communism, it's the future, so you might as well become a communist today. Come to terms with it, because that's the natural course of human economics and production, as technology replaces wage-labor. It's not my fault you're in denial and can't admit it. Advanced technology = high-tech communism.

 

[Red Front]

You said "wiped out," liar.

Yes, virtually wiped out. Yep.

 

[Indeependent]

Not even close, you're quite ignorant of history. Millions of native Americans died as a result of the Western expansion of American settlers. There would be ten times the number of native Americans today in the US if not for them almost being wiped out from disease, malnutrition due to the loss of their primary food source, namely the buffalo, and falling victim to violence.

Translation...
They were not able to adapt to wearing clothes.

 

[Unkotare]

Yes, virtually wiped out. Yep.

You didn't say "virtually," and the exact same number is nowhere near that anyway, you ignorant little shit.

 

[fncceo]

The point is that, when technology permits us to automate production without or with little human supervision, that's the end of capitalism.

Au contraire. We have been witnessing an increase in the automation of production for three centuries. It hasn't diminished the role of Capitalism. If anything, it has enhanced it.

More people today enjoy both the surplus income, the access to information, and the extra free time to permit them to participate first hand in market Capitalism. There are more products for small investors than at any time in history and these operate virtually free of state interference.

People purchase more goods, receive more services, and own more property than any time in history.

Trillions of dollars of new wealth has been injected into the global economy just in the past few decades because of the ability of the average person to participate directly in global Capitalism.

If you're looking for a Science Fiction to back up your belief in Socialism, "Star Trek" is a very poor example. Star Fleet is an authoritarian, elitist organization, in many ways fascist, that holds itself above the common throng, while exploiting undeveloped planets for limited resources.

If you're looking for a utopian future that actually makes sense, you need to look at the novels of Ian Banks (an actual Scottish Socialist).

In Banks' "Culture Series", he describes a society of trillions of humans, spread all over our Galaxy that enjoy life in true "Post Scarcity World". Everyone good and product imaginable is instantly available to anyone in the culture. The day-to-day business of The Culture is run by artificially intelligent drones that interact with humans.

In "The Culture", any human (or artificial intelligence) is free to pursue any work, art, or course of study they choose. A culture citizen can change biological sexes to experience life from the other side or, because humans in the culture live several centuries, choose to end their lives.

Of course, this would actually make for a pretty boring subject of fiction so ... most of "The Culture" stories are told by the other cultures of The Galaxy who are constantly at war with "The Culture".

 

[Red Front]

You didn't say "virtually," and the exact same number is nowhere near that anyway, you ignorant little shit.

I don't have to say "virtually", due to the great amount of Native Americans who fell victim to European colonization of the Americas.

 

[Red Front]

Au contraire. We have been witnessing an increase in the automation of production for three centuries. It hasn't diminished the role of Capitalism. If anything, it has enhanced it.

More people today enjoy both the surplus income, the access to information, and the extra free time to permit them to participate first hand in market Capitalism. There are more products for small investors than at any time in history and these operate virtually free of state interference.

People purchase more goods, receive more services, and own more property than any time in history.

Trillions of dollars of new wealth has been injected into the global economy just in the past few decades because of the ability of the average person to participate directly in global Capitalism.

If you're looking for a Science Fiction to back up your belief in Socialism, "Star Trek" is a very poor example. Star Fleet is an authoritarian, elitist organization, in many ways fascist, that holds itself above the common throng, while exploiting undeveloped planets for limited resources.

If you're looking for a utopian future that actually makes sense, you need to look at the novels of Ian Banks (an actual Scottish Socialist).

In Banks' "Culture Series", he describes a society of trillions of humans, spread all over our Galaxy that enjoy life in true "Post Scarcity World". Everyone good and product imaginable is instantly available to anyone in the culture. The day-to-day business of The Culture is run by artificially intelligent drones that interact with humans.

In "The Culture", any human (or artificial intelligence) is free to pursue any work, art, or course of study they choose. A culture citizen can change biological sexes to experience life from the other side or, because humans in the culture live several centuries, choose to end their lives.

Of course, this would actually make for a pretty boring subject of fiction so ... most of "The Culture" stories are told by the other cultures of The Galaxy who are constantly at war with "The Culture".

You obviously don't realize the capabilities of modern, 21st century technology. As wage labor is replaced with technology, the need for socializing and democratizing production will become more and more apparent. Thanks to the exponential growth of technology, this century is going to successfully give birth to socialism and a communist society.

 

[fncceo]

There would be ten times the number of native Americans today in the US if not for them almost being wiped out from disease, malnutrition due to the loss of their primary food source, namely the buffalo, and falling victim to violence.

Actually, there would be many more than that had Native Americans hand a genetic immunity to Smallpox, Syphilis, Measles, or the common Flu.

As for Bison (Buffalo aren't native to North America) being the primary food source of American Indians, most Indians never saw a Bison. They were native only to the prairies and grasslands of North America. Only the Plains Indians regularly hunted Bison as a food source.

 

[Indeependent]

You obviously don't realize the capabilities of modern, 21st century technology. As wage labor is replaced with technology, the need for socializing and democratizing production will become more and more apparent. Thanks to the exponential growth of technology, this century is going to successfully give birth to socialism and a communist society.

It will be the few super wealthy controlling the many super poor.

 

[fncceo]

You obviously don't realize the capabilities of modern, 21st century technology. As wage labor is replaced with technology, the need for socializing and democratizing production will become more and more apparent.

As someone who worked in the technology sector in most of my previous career, I probably know better than you. Today there are more people on wages than at any other time in the past.

You need to give an example of where 21st Century technology has led to the end of Capitalism.

 

[Red Front]

Actually, there would be many more than that had Native Americans hand a genetic immunity to Smallpox, Syphilis, Measles, or the common Flu.

As for Bison (Buffalo aren't native to North America) being the primary food source of American Indians, most Indians never saw a Bison. They were native only to the prairies and grasslands of North America. Only the Plains Indians regularly hunted Bison as a food source.

In Western North America buffalo was an important food source, among other things as well. The capitalist polemicists continue to appeal to death toll arguments in their attempt to invalidate communism when capitalist colonialism and imperialism have killed at the very least, just as many people as communism. At least. Capitalists have no moral high ground upon which to stand and condemn socialism.

 

[Red Front]

It will be the few super wealthy controlling the many super poor.

It wouldn't be that for long. It might be that for a while until the pitchforks come out. Hopefully, we can avoid it by adopting socialism early, and by gradually automating production.

 

[fncceo]

It will be the few super wealthy controlling the many super poor.

You mean like at pretty much most parts of the past?

In terms of wealth distribution, we are pretty much living in a golden age compared to any era in the past.

You can't get much more poor than a Neolithic slave. Everything has been pretty much uphill since then.