What is your opinion about Communism?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Communism (at least as practiced): Just another way of selling utopia to the gullible masses while a few corrupt individuals at the top get all the reward while those at the bottom toil and get very little but patriotic statues and speeches.

Just like they do with democracy.

[The Valkyrie]

Communism (at least as practiced): Just another way of selling utopia to the gullible masses while a few corrupt individuals at the top get all the reward while those at the bottom toil and get very little but patriotic statues and speeches.

Just like they do with democracy.

Precisely.

[brewer]

In theory, if everyone contributes to the common good, society advances.
In practice, you need to get everyone on board with this idea and that just doesn't happen. When you see your beautiful plan not working because the people are uneducated or simply disagree, you force them to comply... And thus a dictatorship begins with the obvious crappy results.

Who gets to define "contribute" and "common good"?

[Edwardo Piet]

A good idea in theory is a good idea in theory.

Your example about drunk driving is terrible. That's obviously a bad idea in theory and in practice.

I don't need to give any examples of a good idea in theory because I know what "in theory" means, Jesus.

In theory, if everyone contributes to the common good, society advances.
In practice, you need to get everyone on board with this idea and that just doesn't happen. When you see your beautiful plan not working because the people are uneducated or simply disagree, you force them to comply... And thus a dictatorship begins with the obvious crappy results.

Exactly right.

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In theory, if everyone contributes to the common good, society advances.
In practice, you need to get everyone on board with this idea and that just doesn't happen. When you see your beautiful plan not working because the people are uneducated or simply disagree, you force them to comply... And thus a dictatorship begins with the obvious crappy results.

Who gets to define "contribute" and "common good"?

If we're talking linguistic definitions, then usually that's the stuff of Webster and Oxford, but if we're talking conceptual definitions, then that's usually the stuff of philosophy.

[brewer]

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Who gets to define "contribute" and "common good"?

If we're talking linguistic definitions, then usually that's the stuff of Webster and Oxford, but if we're talking conceptual definitions, then that's usually the stuff of philosophy.

Add the word decide to define. I see some application problems.

[Edwardo Piet]

That's what philosophy tries to address. Your question.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Only because the US wont let it work. It came close to working in cuba then America started attacking it, its come close to functioning a few times around the world and each and every time it does the US intervenes and install dictators.

So it is unfair to blame the communist system itself, but rather the environment on which it sits.

Or maybe it failed and you want to blame something/someone for that failure.

You're going to ignore how many times Castro was targeted for assassination by CIA? It is said to be "the most" ever, more than 600 attempts. The advancements I mentioned Cuba made on the educational and Healthcare front were all made despite heavy push back from capitalists and blocking every attempt of Cuba to grow and develop. The most deaths Cuba suffered were under the military dictatorship of Batista(guess which country backed him). Things to keep in mind.

[Astreja]

There's a bit of a quandary in communism. It would work if people played nice and shared stuff, and if they did do that it wouldn't need to be politicized.

[Whateverist]

I'd be happy to have what Norway is having, culturally and the government that supports it.  If the climate were more to my liking I'm sure I'd be very happy there.  Very hard to recreate that here in our huge and diverse country though.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

The past is a target rich environment of people who should have been thrown into the wood chipper. Marx and Engles and their gang are some of the top contenders for the #1 spot.