this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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"We'll kill all our enemies and their voice will never be heard again" is a dead end policy, because all those ideas will emerge again, and we better know how to counter them on an ideological level.
I'm not saying the transition to the communist society will be peaceful and nice - it won't be - but we should differentiate between the armed resistance and brutal oppression. You won't shut them up. But you can make your voice heard loud.
My point was (and is), while brutality is inevitable and we won't take over the world by the power of word alone, we should keep it to revolutionary means, and not to building an oppressive totalitarian state that completely warps the actual meaning of "worker's dictatorship".
Exterminating political enemies is necessary to lead a revolution, but it is unsustainable in the long run. Many prominent people pointed out that we should develop class consciousness and understanding of exactly why socialist/communist state is superior and vital for everyone. Just oppressing dissident thoughts will make them burst elsewhere, and at some point cracks will begin to show.
With class consciousness and actual people's understanding of the matter we can talk about worker's democracy and worker's councils (aka Soviets, ironically ruined by the Soviet state itself), and a positive development of the situation without endless struggle and fight.
Again: yes, revolutionary process will require of us that we kill and oppress Nazis, bourgeoisie, and other elements hostile to the means of revolution - that's necessary and we should do it. But it should be kept to the revolution and actual threats to the state, not any instance of dissident thought. You can't continuously rule a people-first state with an iron fist, or you'll turn in into an oppressive bloody dictatorship that benefits no one.
As for China...the story's a little different. It actively plays with fire on a level at which the true socialist state would already consider it a danger. If anything, I believe China makes the leash on business too loose, but it's a tradeoff they make to be globally competitive with a big capitalist world. Should we talk about an actual socialism, what happens in China is well beyond a point at which a state should react by cracking down. In a true socialist state, no private business should be able to grow to the level that requires big intervention in the first place (and some would argue it shouldn't exist at all).