Communist Discussion thread

[Bolnoa]

Well, I don't - at least not intentionally. But arguing that point every time someone brings up the USSR gets tiresome after a while, and is counter-productive, since it's basically just arguing semantics and leads to the discussion going nowhere.

So I've started using the widespread terms "communist government" and "communist rule" even though they are inaccurate. In my head, I'm using them as shorthand for "a government run by a Communist Party". And I am careful never to use the word "communism" itself, or "communist society", to refer to Soviet-style arrangements.

But you're right, it's not good to perpetuate the inaccuracy. So from now on I will use the more accurate terms "Marxist-Leninist government" and "Marxist-Leninist rule" instead.

Why not just use "deformed worker's state" or "proletarian state"?

On my phone so please excuse the issues here

Those terms would be acceptable as well as worded properly as well. Though some would not use those terms as that sounds negative as well as....to some unfitting.

[Unitaristic Regions]

Well, I don't - at least not intentionally. But arguing that point every time someone brings up the USSR gets tiresome after a while, and is counter-productive, since it's basically just arguing semantics and leads to the discussion going nowhere.

So I've started using the widespread terms "communist government" and "communist rule" even though they are inaccurate. In my head, I'm using them as shorthand for "a government run by a Communist Party". And I am careful never to use the word "communism" itself, or "communist society", to refer to Soviet-style arrangements.

But you're right, it's not good to perpetuate the inaccuracy. So from now on I will use the more accurate terms "Marxist-Leninist government" and "Marxist-Leninist rule" instead.

Why not just use "deformed worker's state" or "proletarian state"?

Because he might not be a Trot?

[Constantinopolis]

Why not just use "deformed worker's state" or "proletarian state"?

Well, "deformed workers' state" is a technical term with a very specific meaning, and it is associated with a certain brand of communist ideology (Trotskyism), which I mostly agree with, but which I don't entirely subscribe to. Also, the term does not apply to all Soviet-style societies - some are called "degenerated workers' states" instead. The "degenerated" ones are those that started out as proper workers' states (with the working class in power) and then became ruled by an undemocratic bureaucracy, while the "deformed" ones are those that were ruled by an undemocratic bureaucracy from the very start.

As for "proletarian state", I've never heard that term before, but it means exactly the same thing as "workers' state" (without any adjectives), so it doesn't really seem like a good description for states that were, after all, NOT actually ruled by the working class as such.