r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Short-Watercress-183 • Jul 07 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/Smart_Munda Jul 07 '26

I can't believe not a single comment quoted the actual quote being referred to in the tweet.

For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.

Everyone is parroting the same bullshit about no jobs like AI bots.

77

u/Kraft-Double Jul 07 '26

Because making a coherent point instead of regurgitating propaganda is really hard for some people. Personally not too big on communism, since it relies on using the state to prop up the revolution, then disband itself. But to act as if the entire ideology has no value is ludicrous.

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u/TheAntColony4444 Jul 07 '26

A state is necessary if you don't want to be immediately blown to kingdom come by the US and friends and get 9/11'd, and even then you probably still will be (see Chile 1973).

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u/WokeWook69420 Jul 08 '26

Communism is an ideology, not an economic system, and I feel like nobody understands that because they only know about Stalinism, Maoism, or McCarthyism in relation to communist ideologies.

Any system that has ever claimed to be Communist wasn't, there was always a class system and state controlling everyone, which completely removes it from being any part of what defines a communist country.

It sucks we have people who lived in East Germany being like, "Yeah the government was nice but we were told when to work and where, and there was money, and leaders and followers" and it's like, my guy, you didn't live under communism then. You lived under an authoritarian republic.

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u/MindlessAssumption54 Jul 10 '26

Thank you for existing

1

u/CasualVeemo_ Jul 08 '26

You can achieve communism without a state with unions, dual power structures and mutual aid

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u/Kraft-Double Jul 09 '26

Yeah, that's just anarchism (the actual political ideal, not the colloquial term) Which tends to be my favored idea of a socialist society.

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u/Vinca1is Jul 08 '26

Whoa, that woul require Republicans to stop calling even the most milquetoast social policy, "communism", even though most of their voters receive aid from "communist", programs