And also like, they are?
Maduro is holding office by force right now because of (reasonable) suspicions that there’s foreign influence in the election system.
I don’t know about Cuba currently, but historically they were a dictatorship for the same reason.
Like a dictatorship is just a form of government. Its wild that we assume describing things accurately is a negative statement about the country.
How the fuck else does someone describe these structures?
I don’t know about Cuba currently, but historically they were a dictatorship for the same reason.
It might be more accurate to describe it now as a one-party oligarchy, or a strongman regime, but honestly such nuances are often drowned in American mass politics. In any case, it’s not a commendable situation, even though Cuba is not quite as repressive as it used to be.
The tankies throwing a fit about this, of course, are not interested in nuance, but in bootlicking the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes.
I didn’t even realize that was you PugJesus.
Deeply based in many ways.
I bought a book a lifetime ago about Cuban history from Haymarket books. Maybe its time to read it.
Cuba is so interesting, that’s probably a great read. It might even change your mind about the “dictatorship” thing.
A dictatorship is still a dictatorship if it’s painted red.
A dictatorship is still a dictatorship if it replaces another dictatorship.
What does that mean?
Is Cuba not a dictatorship?
Do you live in a democracy (flawed or otherwise)? You seriously want to live in a country without real elections?
Cuba’s system of governance does not conform to western liberal norms, but that doesn’t make it bad, it’s just different. The Cuban people have a remarkable amount of input into their own governance.
I know tankiejerk is the wrong place to be saying this, and if all you want to do is jerk, have fun. But if you’re legitimately curious, “We Are Cuba” by Helen Yaffe is a cool dive into kind of how Cuba works in general.
Have you ever met a Cuban person in real life? In what context? What was their position in Cuban society? Perhaps you can provide a different perspective from my experience, I am genuinely curious.
I will have to repeat myself:
Do you live in a democracy (flawed or otherwise)? You seriously want to live in a country without real elections?
There is a beautiful irony about your “all you want to do is jerk, have fun” statement.
obama tried to improve relationship by removing embargos, sanctions, but TRUMP immediately reinstated those embargos, because it would upset the floridian, texas? cuban voting base that usually votes hard R.
On a brighter note, FUCK YEAH, MAMDANI VICTORY IN NYC, POP THE NON-BOURGEOIS EQUIVALENT OF CHAMPAGNE
THE NON-BOURGEOIS EQUIVALENT OF CHAMPAGNE
I take it back, bring champagne
NYC is USA. Please peruse Sparkling Wine instead
Fuck that, we have mezcal, moonshine, and maple syrup, we don’t need grape juice.
Alienation’s for the rich, and I’m feeling poorer every day
I feel like I wake up to bad news from the US most days, and yesterday had a shocking amount of good news (NYC, VA, CA prop 50). It was almost disorienting, having hope.
Two buck Chuck? is that still a thing?
Its fine. Those people don’t vote, and I still want them to live in a world which is affordable, where they have dignity, where they can enjoy an expanded sphere of human rights and democracy.
Cuba and Venezuela are indeed dictatorships.
mamdami is not left enough for tankies, they want thier PUTINS, and Xi jinping equivalents.
Also… Isn’t the “dictatorship of the proletariat” a “necessary” part to ensure the path to communism? Wouldn’t they want this to be true?
The answer to that is unfortunately complex.
The actual original meaning of ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’, as used by Marx, is that of a workers’ democracy. For comparison, bourgeois democracy (ie democracy as was and is largely practiced in capitalist nations) was regarded as a ‘dictatorship of the bourgeois’.
Unfortunately, Marx’s high-concept language is sometimes taken at face value, or the notion of metaphorical ‘dictatorship’ taken much further than intended. What Marx meant was that one class held all the (functional) power by the construction of the institutions.
For that reason, you have both uneducated pro-and-anti-communists clamoring that socialism means dictatorship.
To make things more unclear, tankies, while taking ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ further than intended (ie by suppressing the voice of the fucking proletariat), also believe that their favorite dictatorships are actually super democratic and not dictatorships, and the 99% approval rating in elections are just proof of how much the proletariat loves a fascist boot painted red.
Thanks for the clarification! That definitely makes a lot more sense
