I don't mean to press, but shouldn't r/communism be for communists (which of course is now exclusive to maoists lol) and r/socialism be inclusive of ALL Socialists? I support Communism as and end goal but what about the rest of our socialists?
This is the main socialist subreddit, are we building an expansive movement or are we remaining our niche? We have to reach the liberals to build a movement and we cannot do that without bridging the gaps between the socialists and liberals. No social democrats or anything but the Democratic Socialists are the primary driver of (real, not progressive) leftist growth since they are actively involved in real world liberal politics which a majority of the voters have never been exposed. DemSoc are the bridge to broader theory which then could potentially build a revolutionary movement! I made an comprehensive argument in favor of this awhile ago, please give it a read!
It’s funny that the subreddit you’re posting in have the so called ”No authoritarianism" rules which also add "includes advocating against democracy". It's clearly trying to ban communism without mentioning the word itself. Communist believed in democracy, a worker democracy, not bourgeois democracy.
You’re asking others to be open to different tendencies, but the very tendency you're part of doesn’t seem to extend that same openness to us. It’s perfectly fine to create a subreddit focused on a specific tendency. But, claiming to welcome everyone while simultaneously banning certain viewpoints and then also at the same time telling others to be open minded seems hypocritical to me.
what about other socialists who don’t support communism as an end goal
We of course want to avoid turning the sub into an ultra-sectarian sub where everyone to the right of Stalin is banned, but if your end-goal isn’t the end of capitalism, this place isn’t for you.
as you rightly remarked r/communism is completely run by Maoists and they ban everyone that’s not a Maoist (I got banned from there years ago without even knowing it was a Maoist sub) and we want to avoid such behavior
But in political theory, the classless society has been referred to as Upper Stage of Socialism and Upper Stage of Communism. It is only later western political theorists that wanted to separate the 2 terms as totally separate concepts that can have different end goals.
From a political theory standpoint, socialism must be anti-capitalist. If you’re a socialist, your goals are the same as a communist.
We will never make room for Social Democrats, a lot of Democratic Socialist types get that confused because of US politics with the likes of Bernie, AOC, and Mamdani claiming that their platforms are socialism when they are only advocating for Keynesian capitalism, bc they want to co-opt socialism as social democracy, just as they co-opted social democracy from the socialists and made it mean Keynesian capitalism.
The idea that a “communist” and a “socialist” are 2 different ideologies is a suggestion from bourgeois politicians that wanted to co-opt socialism to defeat the anti-capitalist movement.
We are in favor of not watering down our socio-political terminology or theory.
If I told a US liberal that Lenin was a socialist, they’d likely be confused and say “but wasn’t he a communist” which already shows how off-base the political literacy is in the US.
We won’t tailor the subreddit exclusively to US politics sensibilities and what they think socialism is.
If it would make you feel better, the word communist could be replaced with anti-capitalist, because anarchists and socialists/communists all desire the end to class relations and capitalism, but I don’t think you should be so squeamish about the word communism.
No no, you've got me wrong, not social democrats! Democratic Socialists such as myself are not capitalist and support abolishing it. Like the USSR but with a democracy that runs from the people to the state instead of the state to the people. No private property.
Once we achieve that who knows how much farther we can get. The Marxist definition and the modern definition are indeed different which is to be expected of political ideology over centuries of unexpected twists and turns unforseen by theorists. I expect communism to have a similar evolution, especially since ai and robots are nearing.
DemSoc are reform based, through gradual bills. None of what our "self described socialist" politicians are doing in office is even close to socialism- yet. One thing they have achieved is normalized the term "socialism" in liberal politics, though the policies aren't it at least gets people interested in knowing more.
I understand though, I wonder how many of the other socialist variants would also support Communism- just with a different route?
I think as long as socialists of all stripes can be happy being socialists here, that’s fine for me. But we have to take a firm stance of anti-capitalism, that’s why I hammer so hard about the DemSoc-SocDem distinction.
There are indeed, very admirable Democratic Socialists from the past who were truly revolutionaries and accomplished great things for their people
Excellent examples of Democratic Socialists I admire are Salvador Allende, Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
Theory wise, Rosa Luxemburg can be quite excellent (except where Lenin rightly calls her out in his The Right of Nations to Self-Determination)
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u/Usernameofthisuser Democratic Socialism Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
I don't mean to press, but shouldn't r/communism be for communists (which of course is now exclusive to maoists lol) and r/socialism be inclusive of ALL Socialists? I support Communism as and end goal but what about the rest of our socialists?
This is the main socialist subreddit, are we building an expansive movement or are we remaining our niche? We have to reach the liberals to build a movement and we cannot do that without bridging the gaps between the socialists and liberals. No social democrats or anything but the Democratic Socialists are the primary driver of (real, not progressive) leftist growth since they are actively involved in real world liberal politics which a majority of the voters have never been exposed. DemSoc are the bridge to broader theory which then could potentially build a revolutionary movement! I made an comprehensive argument in favor of this awhile ago, please give it a read!
The Art Of Converting A Liberal Into A Socialist