distal

True. Early researchers like Svante Arrhenius were true geniuses

These fucks are so stupid. No one knows that denazification was a purely formal procedure and not a method of cleansing Germany of reactionism, it was never meant as such. The purpose of denazification was to tie Western Germany to the US and UK. These people can't even argue correctly.

This has been blatantly obvious since the 90s

You need to realise that Marx is just a guy. Marx wrote things that can be interpreted as being in support of reformism and things that can be interpreted as being against reformism. He was very racist at times and at others he was woker than 95% of BLM protesters. Marx isn't a god or a hero, nor is he someone who had a dream per-se. He went actively against dreamers and utopians because he saw it as a real danger to make promises that might not conform to reality, while of course opposing naive realism or bargain bin political realism. He was in the truest sense a scientist, a critic, someone who was much closer to a nihilist than a naive activist. He revised his views multiple times throughout his life, as he went from being a romantic to something closer to a systems theorist. To put him into diametrical opposition to Lenin tells me that you understand neither beyond a Wikipedia level reading and that is being charitable.

To say that Lenin personally created the VChK without crediting the chaos and antagonisms is absolute insanity. It's even crazier to say that he was a power hungry monster, as if it were a property that came out of a vacuum. There was a war going on. The stone you sat on while taking a break was a power hungry monster, this isn't even a discussion, nor is it telling us much.

The provisional government failed, and not by some "evil" Leninist influence but because of the PG did not want to drop out of WWI partly because they were banking on being good with capitalist nations, which is a big big big deal. The SR had been in a cul-de-sac and the Bolsheviks yanked the movement out of it. The persecution of the SR needs to be questioned, no freaking doubt. Dismissing the Leninist vanguard however, the success of the Soviet Revolution, is deeply disrespectful to the proletarians who were at the base of the movement.

I have to repeat that I am not even a Leninist. I really do not believe that he should be worshipped and there were certainly questions of organisation that could have been handled differently. You are misrepresenting things egregiously.

First of all, supposing you are not posting under your government name, how are the Chinese supposed to know who is making posts if they are not made on sites controlled by Chinese firms? Secondly, do you not think that they know that a lot of Americans and Europeans flying into China have less-than-positive views? At this point the top officials who design policy are expecting it to some extent. It would be unsustainable to be repressive in that way.

Just to recheck, you’re saying that Scandinavian countries are authoritarian?

Yes of course I am. I am Scandinavian. Have you ever travelled across the Öresund Bridge in a bus? They stop 50+ passengers for upwards of 45 minutes, pull out all the black and arab people seeking work, as well those who look particularly poor, subject them to highly invasive searches and then send some back if they feel like they can get away with it. Or take entering Gothenburg's harbor by ferry. The send a military ship out to escort your boat. They don't really have to do this, but they do it to really show you who is the boss/who has authority. When you arrive, something similar to the bus example happens. Take the all the black people into special rooms, make people walk past drug sniffing dogs (that have incredibly high rates of false positives, but that doesn't matter because it's about creating anxiety), and metal detectors. it's not just designed to scare minorities, it's also meant to incite fear in regular people.

Also, search SÄPO, they are so lacking in transparency that even Swedish government media can't deny their lack of oversight and unbridled power.

And, you realize that some capitalist countries with private property and capitalist markets, in practice approach anarchy?

I do. Anarchy of production is the chief reason why climate change can't be battled by capitalism. I am not an anarchist, I don't know why you are bringing this up.

Yes, necessarily so if we were to take the epithet that is "authoritarianism" seriously. We just don't talk about what women in marriage have to put up with (the old adage of not biting the hand that feeds one), how we treat children and how accepted it is to subject people to dismal working conditions. It's considered normal, this is the status quo. You need to enforce property laws with deadly force, suppress movements and the organic formation of opinions and views, in order to for the system to keep functioning as it has.

I hate posting Reddit links: https://www.reddit.com/r/chinalife/comments/1h2aodg/winnie_the_pooh_sold_in_miniso_store_in_shanghai/

Winnie the Pooh is not "banned" in China, nor does posting comparison pictures to Twitter or wherever bar you from entering. This is a tiny tidbit that has been blown out of proportion by sensationalist media. Forgotten pretty much everywhere but remembered in the US and Europe. Yeah, you have die-hard China stans in the comments, but my point still stands.

https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-50166474

Winnie the pooh being censored is absurd and I wouldn't exclude it from having happened once at any point (shit like this happens on Reddit all the time with US state interest aligned moderators), but you know what's even more absurd? Harping on about it as if it were this big thing that Chinese authorities deeply care about. The joke making a joke out of the joker is something truly unique to the media circus. Reminds me of Japanese people who literally think that London is being firebombed and looted by migrants.

I sense you would also moralise about Napoleon being a "fucking monster". Lenin was a historical figure and he found himself guided by forces of the time. Aside from his rhetorical skill he wasn't particularly special, nor was he a super nice person. It wouldn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things if he was.

I am not saying this to dismiss your qualms. Mistakes were definitely made. Revolutions need to be learned from and its conducive to revolutions that violence is kept at a minimum. But let's not fool ourselves into believing that we can all hold hands and dance socialism/communism into existence. This sort of change has a lot of potential to be messy. I don't need to tell you this, but the Russian revolution was deeply troubled by a strong counter-revolution.

Let's get to your point about going to China. Libertarian professors are employed at Chinese universities, there are regular expressions of protest that don't land the protester in jail, think of nail houses, and social media figures as well as journalists who have criticised China in the past have travelled there without too much trouble. I don't think the state cares all that much about your dislike, they have bigger fish to fry. The populace is also quite content, so your agitating, if you were to commit to it, would attract confusion more than anything else. Sure, you might have the cops called on you. What happens then though? At worst you'll be sent back to whence you came as China doesn't want to get into diplomatic rows. You are unlikely to become an O. Warmbier.

Shh.. they are taking the piss out of the argument of the person you are responding to lol

I am sorry, how is this any different from say Germany where they just put you under EU sanctions without trial for criticising the Gaza genocide, because it supposedly plays into Putin's hands (despite Russia not having as much of a stance in contrast to Iran)?

I didn't say anything about the authoritarian personality and I don't really care that some people have figured out something they view as being integral to comprehending society. Honestly, I find life under the systems people like Fromm consider least authoritarian, think Sweden in the 70s, to still be be very brutal towards the masses.

But you know what, I believe your conclusion is also party correct. People with an "authoritarian" streak can be used to guard a worker's movement.