Vaush 🙄, statism
okay, so i still watch him way too often but he had an interview with a chinese lefty and i thought it was pretty good. but as soon as the caller leaves Vaush goes like "well, as bad as china is, it's pretty nice when the government gives everyone a smartphone, with some apps on it"…
this fucking naivety right after hearing the outcome of extreme government control. a government that's bible-thumping the same marxist nonsense that he is, no less…
statism
there is this assumption in mainstream ideologies that "if it's important, the government should do it", like that would be obvious and you have to justify the exceptions (like the press).
but yeah, if you assume the state exists for a good reason, then you'll probably also assume it's involvement in important social institutions is for some social good, and not just to grab power.
and of course there is the whole state-democracy thing, because suddenly coops aren't democratic enough…
marxism
@sofia Ah that makes sense. I'm not around tankies very often. Mostly liberals and left-anarchists.
marxism
@mauve if only it were just tankies. i don't think most marxists (or state socialists) are extreme authoritarians. but i feel it's spreading among otherwise liberal and egalitarian people.
which on one hand is just personally demotivating as someone considering myself on the "left", but also makes freedom less and less "thinkable" in public discourse, having watched it basically completely disappear from the "right".
marxism
@mauve well, i'm not quoting anyone here. but i think it's fair to say that marxists dislike the idea of competing institutions.
i think for them cooperation isn't really about consent but about working according toward a common end. for them, people doing things in different ways and pursuing different goals is "wasteful conflict", that's why they love that whole central planning thing.
even more market-tolerant marxists like Vaush wouldn't like coops to replace core state functions…