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Why did communism always turn into a kind of dictatorship? (gregtech.eu)

submitted 2 weeks ago by gregor@gregtech.eu to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Afaik this happened with every single instance of a communist country. Communism seems like a pretty good idea on the surface, but then why does it always become autocratic?

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[-] fubo@lemmy.world 38 points 2 weeks ago

Ideologically, Leninism supported vanguardism, a variation on Marxism that said that the Communist party was supposed to drag the early-20th-century proletariat into the revolution, instead of waiting for late capitalism where the proletariat would (according to Marx) naturally become revolutionary. This, and the notion of "false consciousness", authorized Communist parties to go against the expressed (democratic) will of the proletariat, on the theory that the proletariat's judgment was clouded by false consciousness, while still claiming to act in the interests of the proletariat.

Basically, "we (the party) know better than you (the people)" was ingrained into Leninism from the beginning, and the major communist revolutions either were or became Leninist. Maoism was a branch off of Leninism as well.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 11 points 2 weeks ago

Keep in mind that it wasn't even the proletariat that accomplished the Revolutions, it was the peasantry. Marx wasn't against the idea but he would have been surprised.

[-] Pili@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Marx wasn’t against the idea but he would have been surprised

Towards the end, Marx actually expected Russia to go through a communist revolution, and that it may even be the start of the revolutionary wave in Europe. See the preface for the 1882 Russian edition of the Communist Manifesto for reference.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

I love learning new things that had just never occurred to me before. It happens a lot more here than it ever did back on Reddit.

this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2024

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