In which the egregious little shit tries to draw a comparison between communism and capitalism.
Rightwingers point out the horrors of Stalinism, yet forget the human misery their favoured economic model was built on
Tell that to the Kulaks. Oh, you can’t, can you? Stalin had them all murdered. Capitalism may have flaws, but it is the mechanism by which millions have moved out of absolute poverty. Communism, in all its forms, merely increases poverty and misery – for those it does not kill.
“communism” is synonymous with tens of millions of deaths and nothing else. Capitalism, by contrast, is presented as a largely bloodless, blameless engine of human prosperity.
Yup. That’s about it. Communism relies on violent force in order to work. Capitalism does not. I am not aware of capitalists building a wall to keep people in and shooting them when they tried to escape. Fucking idiot. The millions of deaths are a feature, not a bug. They are not some unfortunate by-product of a crazed dictator who happened to operate under the flag of communism, they are part of the overall plan as Eric Hobsbawm once admitted; the losses were justified as part of the grand plan. No one has ever suggested deliberate mass murder as part of the capitalist plan.
By all means point out that capitalism is flawed. Indeed, you may argue for light touch regulation and you would have a point, but to try to compare this system with the evil of communism is mere idiocy. But, then, Owen Jones, what do we expect?
Owen Jones really is a fucking idiot.
I wouldn’t call him a fucking idiot. That would be an insult to idiots. He’s more of a complete fuckwit. Anyone who takes him seriously needs reminding of all the communist regimes that have been complete bloodbaths. In short, all of them. Every last single one.
Indeed. Along with its baby brother, Socialism, force is needed to make it work (although it still doesn’t) as it goes against the very nature that makes us human. It is ultimately authoritarian and misanthropic.
Dear Mr Sticker,
As a Chartered Fuckwit (complete), I take issue with your categorisation of Mr Jones as, and I quote, “a complete fuckwit”. As a fuckwit (complete) of many, many years standing I am offended at merest hint of such an association. Indeed, according to my 50+ years of utter fuckwittery, I would argue that Mr Jones is a complete and total bellend, tool of no use to man, nor beast, and an intellectually vacuous waste of carbon.
In short, I demand an apology on behalf of complete fuckwits everywhere.
Yours etc,
Ha!
A term I have seen used to describe him is “wankpuffin”.
I prefer spoiled cry baby
Owen Jones tantrum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9YZ08QcZvo
As for his cap. vs com. – classic left diversion tactic which we see through.
Ah but you are talking about the wrong sort of communism. When Jones and his mates are running things it will all be different. Leaders of countries that we don’t like will be refused entry, businesses that supply things to people we don’t like will be shut down, people with opinions that we don’t like will be silenced!
See! Completely different!
Well, yes, the no true Scotsman fallacy rests at the heart of their case. Always has.
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1022532293750140930
Infamy. The bloke really is a nasty piece of work – and an idiot to boot. 😀
Incidentally, on his Twatter page, he talks about us losing the battle of ideas. Like his socialist chums, he is offering no new ideas, merely rehashing the same tired old claptrap.
Going by the responses he is getting on Twitter, I think he might be losing that battle of ideas. Ahem.
Is not the Korean Peninsula a pretty good controlled experiment? North Korea – Communist, South Korea – Capitalist. Run the two systems side by side for a few decades and then have a look to see which one has worked the best. I have a Korean car, a Korean phone and I use Korean tech in connection with my job. Maybe Mr. Jones would like to take a guess as to which half of the Korean Peninsula produced these items.
When discussing the dark side of capitalism, I presume he is referring to things like sweatshops. Unpleasant as they are, it would seem that these are a necessary step in any society’s journey toward prosperity. An important point is that those who work in them do so through choice. Admittedly it is a very limited choice, they could just carry on with subsistence farming, but they do choose not to. Sweat shops tend to disappear of their own accord once that the society becomes prosperous enough for workers to have the choice not to work in them any more. Of course in communist societies this never happens.
He is also referring to the the empire and slavery as one would expect.
So communists states don’t do slavery presumably.
Indeed. They don’t do empires, either – just don’t mention the Soviet Union…
He compares red China with “capitalist India”. Here’s the Preamble to the 1949 Indian Constitution. Spot the problem for Owen’s case. (The capitals are in the original.)
In fairness, they amended the “SOCIALIST” bit out in 1976. But Part IV of the world’s second-longest Constitution sets out the “Directive Principles of State Policy” that basically lock socialism into the fabric of the Indian state anyway. For example, Article 38(2), inserted by the 44th Amendment two years later in 1978:
Idiot? That’s being generous.
Indeed. He also refers to empire and slavery, yet both of these predate the ideas behind capitalism by thousands of years. They both started to crumble about the time that capitalism started to take hold. Idiot is unfortunately the best description I have available – although I see one or two competitors on this thread.
Go to any country and you will find a market. Even in North Korea there are markets as even that regime knows they work.
That’s what morons like Jones either cannot or will not see. That people will enter into exchanges willingly for mutual benefit. That’s all the market is. And as you say, even in totalitarian socialist regimes, they will do it even if it’s simple bartering, because that’s human nature and that is why socialism in all its guises does not work and is ultimately evil. It goes against humanity.
Ironically the article at Adam Smith is headed by an illustration of a street scene, presumably in India, with in the foreground a street market. https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/india-and-the-tragedy-of-socialism