Quote Originally Posted by PanzerJaeger View Post
Oh boy….
Every time communism has been attempted – and it’s been attempted in many, many countries, both in the Soviet style and others – you end up with an economically stagnant nation ruled by a corrupt military dictatorship. At best, said dictatorship is fairly benevolent and only tortures and kills political opponents (Cuba); at worst, they torture and kill a fair chunk of the entire population (USSR). And we can’t forget the incredibly incompetent communist-inspired “land reforms” that killed millions by themselves (China). Sorry bud, but that is communism. Every ideology has a pie-in-the-sky ideal of itself, but practically applied, communism is disastrous. Even taking away the millions who died at the direct hands of communist governments, you’re still left with an internal management system that nukes GDP and leaves millions dead from gross neglect... err collectivization.
Just where do you get information like this?

Yugoslavia, for example, during communism enjoyed unprecedented GDP growth for several decades. It was among the poorest countries before communism and in the top half during communism. Even USSR had a decent GDP growth from '45 onwards.

It doesn't look too great when you compare it with the West, but that wouldn't be really fair, now would it? Compare it with what they used to be. Compare communist regime with non-communist regime from the same country. How many km of roads and railroads were built? Ports, airports, hospitals, schools, universities... Compare literacy rates before and after, infant mortality rates, average life length, percentage of people with university degrees, number of people working in agriculture... Actually, choose a criteria and compare, before and after...

In most countries, communism actually brought an increase in human rights and civil liberties. Do you think that civil liberties were abundant in China before communism? Or in Russia or Yugoslavia, not to mention really backwater places like Turkmenistan or Kazakhstan? In those places, communism was a blessing, for the first time people had the chance to go to school and to see an actual doctor when they're ill. Women enjoyed some rights for the first time in history, they were encouraged to get jobs, to go to school, get an education... Villages and small towns got electricity for the first time, plumbing, radio whatever. H

Communism created middle class in many of those countries, the same middle class that is basis of democracy, that later asked "what about our rights". It simply didn't exist before communism in many instances.


I'm not a communist, never have been. I was born in communism but grew up in a different system. On the other hand, I can not ignore many good things it brought. Of course, no one can turn a blind eye to the many atrocities committed by various communist dictators, but to try to sum up communism as only that show either a great lack of knowledge or an irrational hate...