Informed Tankie

I've read everything in both those links and either I didn't understand it or it was plainly contradictory and bad.

First, I never saw any reason that the group of people who make up the new government would serve the people. Not once was there a reason that a dictatorship for the proletariat would actually be for the proletariat. In fact, it seems like the exclusive role of the government is to oppress somebody, and the proletariat's a really easy target. Even if you and all your friends pick up arms, overthrow the government, and try to set up a state that acts in the interest of the people, your new government is going to be made up of people who act in their own self-interest, and the interests of the government as a whole will reflect that.

The idea of the state withering away, as I understand it, is based on the idea that the state is an instrument of oppression by one class against another, and when a classless society emerges, the state will lose its purpose and role and then slowly vanish. BUT the very fact that there is an oppressive state (that's busy oppressing the remnants of capitalism) means that there's a class divide (rulers and ruled, oppressed and oppressed, that whole shebang). Thanks to the immeasurability of when the capitalists have been defeated (Lenin stated that he couldn't know by what practical measures the defeat of capitalism will be known) the oppressive state is going to stick around indefinitely, oppressing more and more people.

In simpler terms, there's some dictator in charge of the dictatorship of the proletariat (or at least, there are high ranking members in it). During the extinguishing of capitalism, this dictator will have lots of power and authority granted to him by the people. He won't want to lose it. This man will do everything in his power to maintain total domination for himself forever. He will create imaginary threats, oppress people, frighten them, manipulate narratives, concentrate more power, punish insurrection, whatever it takes. If he doesn't, someone who will will take his place. This is human nature, the human nature you see in the bourgeois.

Secondly, the idea that the state is created by one of the two classes to oppress the other is either not true or a self-fulfilling prophecy. Was Genghis Khan a false mediator? The state exists because people in pre-history had really big armies and wanted to control people to obtain wealth and power for themselves. It turned out that people being alive and prosperous was really helpful for that, so states started supporting that, so people often submitted. This isn't the bourgeois creating a state to adjudicate disputes between them and the proletariat in the former's favor, it's just militaristic (or perhaps political or social) conquest.

I had lots of other problems with both the articles you linked, especially the article from Liberation School, but I don't really want to write a full paper on the errors of communism.

Instead, let's bring it back to the idea of freedom of the press. If the state is a purely oppressive tool used by one class to oppress another, a state-controlled press is bad. It doesn't matter who you're oppressing, or who you're claiming or actually doing it in the name of, it's bad because the result is truth is thrown out in favor of manipulation.

In a post-class society (I don't think that this is possible, but that doesn't matter right now) you actually would have a free press, because there's no government or state restricting it, and this would be great. However, something like this wouldn't come about through state oppression and control of the media. In fact, this dictatorship for the proletariat having power over the news ensures that there'll always be stories about the new, evil things capitalists are doing that your loving dictator needs more money and authority to squash.