Its a shame because they’re prominent voice on lemmy. Good on the admins for not tolerating this. I don’t understand the point of targeting a person you don’t like on the internet just because they said something that upset you and spamming their post with downvotes. If you don’t like someone block their ass and be done with it. I agree with the perspective that its harassment (and an incredibly petty ineffective form of it at that)

  • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    -2•3 days ago

    Nah, the PRC is democratic, and so was the USSR. Both are examples of socialism in the real world.

    “Democracy is when there’s one candidate approved by the government, and you can only vote for them.”

    Okay, fascist.

    • Cowbee [he/they]
      6•3 days ago

      Lmao, you and I both know that isn’t how democracy works in the PRC and it isn’t how it worked in the Soviet Union. You should also be aware of the historical tie fascism has with anticommunism. You’re just doing word salad now, please just do yourself a favor and take a break for a few days or something. You’ve been all over this thread.

      • davel [he/him]English
        3•3 days ago

        He’s reporting you, ofc. When he doesn’t have mod power to silence people, he demands to speak with manager to do it for him.

        For someone who calls people boot lickers and power trippers so often, he sure likes wielding & appealing to authority. 📽

        • Cowbee [he/they]
          1•3 days ago

          Deeply unserious. I feel bad for them, seems they feel dogpiled on and are trying to defend themselves, but in doing so they are lashing out even at people not directly mentioning them.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
          6•3 days ago

          I recommend you read Soviet Democracy by Pat Sloan, an American who visited the USSR in the 30s, participated in its elections, and documented the electoral process. There’s also this article that gives a brief overview of how they functioned. It even has this neat diagram:

          I’m not sure what purpose you fulfill in just linking me a Wikipedia page we both know I’ve already read. The Wikipedia article even mentions Pat Sloan’s work as a source, so it should be good reading for you.

          Finally, again, fascism is a bourgeois system fundamentally reliant on private property rights over the large firms and key industries. It’s capitalism using its full toolset in times of crisis to stick together. Communists are not fascists, we support collectivization of production and economic planning to better fulfil people’s needs.

          I again recommend stepping away from the keyboard, you’re just crashing out at this point and willy-nilly calling leftists “fascists.”

          • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            -2•3 days ago

            I’m not sure what purpose you fulfill in just linking me a Wikipedia page we both know I’ve already read. The Wikipedia article even mentions Pat Sloan’s work as a source, so it should be good reading for you.

            Excellent literacy

            • Cowbee [he/they]
              6•3 days ago

              Reference 35 on the Wikipedia page for Soviet Democracy

              Other historians like Robert W. Thurston argue, while the top of the soviet system became largely bureaucratic, the local levels of society remained largely participatory.[34] He writes “while sane, calm, and sober, no worker would have dared to say that socialism was a poor system or that Stalin was an idiot” but then goes on to argue that these bounds still allowed for citizens to have meaningful participation on their immediate situation and this local participation meant “ultimately relatively little was controlled by the government or party decree”.[34]

              This is supported by some historical accounts. For example, in Pat Sloan’s historical account of participating in a Soviet election, he wrote:[35]

              I have, while working in the Soviet Union, participated in an election. I, too, had a right to vote, as I was a working member of the community, and nationality and citizenship are no bar to electoral rights. The procedure was extremely simple. A general meeting of all the workers in our organisation was called. by the trade union committee, candidates were discussed, and a vote was taken by show of hands. Anybody present had the right to propose a candidate, and the one who was elected was not personally a member of the Party. In considering the claims of the candidates their past activities were discussed, they themselves had to answer questions as to their qualifications, anybody could express an opinion, for or against them, and the basis of all the discussion was: What justification had the candidates to represent their comrades on the local Soviet?

              It isn’t the exact same Wikipedia page, to be charitable to you, but again I don’t see why you immediately jump to insults rather than asking for clarification. We both know I’m a communist, we both know I’ve read these pages, we both know I’ve read beyond them. Just drop the insults, step away for a moment, and breathe. You’re fine.

              • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                -4•3 days ago

                It isn’t the exact same Wikipedia page, to be charitable to you,

                I’m not sure what purpose you fulfill in just linking me a Wikipedia page we both know I’ve already read. The Wikipedia article even mentions Pat Sloan’s work as a source, so it should be good reading for you.

                “It’s literally not what I said, but to be charitable to you…”

                Yes, very charitable to suggest that somewhere unspecified on Wikipedia your source was quoted after previously implying that it was on “The Wikipedia article” that was linked and being discussed.

                The source is quoted as nothing but a contemporary account, and the entire talk page is about what an awful state the article is in. But you keep licking those literal Stalinist boots. Do they taste like the blood of Crimean Tatars, or Poles?

                Just drop the insults

                This you, fascist?

                • davel [he/him]English
                  6•3 days ago

                  For the love of god, learn what fascism is already, or withdraw from the sphere of political discourse.

                  At what point in the past did your political consciousness become completely ossified and unimpeachable, Archie Bunker?

                • Cowbee [he/they]
                  5•3 days ago

                  I legitimately do feel a bit bad for you, you’re getting called out on a thread here and it looks like everyone is dogpiling on you, but being this abrasive and bad-faith is only making it worse. I really don’t think my point of Soviet Democracy by Pat Sloan being mentioned on an adjacent page as a source is a bad thing on my part, and you’re right, the Cold War has resulted in tons of blurry sources that can make it difficult to tell what’s real and what isn’t.

                  Helpfully, the Soviet archives were opened, and contemporary historians have been able to make great progress on clarifying a lot of debated topics, and Pat Sloan’s account has survived that and been affirmed.

                  I don’t really think you’re mean, per se, just crashing out and lashing out. I don’t take any of your insults seriously, just like I wouldn’t a Flat Earther. You haven’t presented any new information, and keep resorting to calling a Marxist a “fascist.” It’s historically and categorically false to lump Marxism in with fascism, it obscures the fundamental ties to capitalism fascism has, and the history of anticommunism in every existing fascist movement.

                  Again, I recommend taking a break.

                  • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    -3•3 days ago

                    I really don’t think my point of Soviet Democracy by Pat Sloan being mentioned on an adjacent page as a source is a bad thing on my part,

                    “I don’t think making a false claim is a bad thing on my part”

                    Yes, that is very apparent.

                    Helpfully, the Soviet archives were opened, and contemporary historians have been able to make great progress on clarifying a lot of debated topics, and Pat Sloan’s account has survived that and been affirmed.

                    Jesus fucking Christ, have you read no scholarly works in the past thirty fucking years? The lack of Soviet democracy was overwhelmingly affirmed by internal documents, not disproven, especially in the Stalinist era. But like the Holodomor and the genocide of the Poles and Crimean Tatars, you deny that too.

                    , and keep resorting to calling a Marxist a “fascist.” It’s historically and categorically false to lump Marxism in with fascism, it obscures the fundamental ties to capitalism fascism has, and the history of anticommunism in every existing fascist movement.

                    “My magic word protects me”

                    Calling yourself a Marxist and rejecting everything Marx stood for means jack fucking shit.

                    Again, I recommend taking a break.

                    I would recommend not simping for a genocidal fascist state, but we both know you won’t stop that.

      • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        -2•3 days ago

        You don’t know fascism from a hole in the ground, horseshoe theorist.

        You’re literally sitting here defending single-candidate elections as democratic and socialist.

        What’s your favorite flavor of boot polish - the one that tastes of Uyghur genocide, or the one that tastes of Ukrainian genocide?