Old communist advising new communists

Hello communists...<br>I am an old leftie from the 1960's - one of the ones who's never thrown out the Che Guevera t shirt. <br> I've been involved in some kind of activism my whole life. <br>I was a feminist, anti-racist, anti imperialist, lived for a year in an anarcho commune in the countryside. <br>I was a huge supporter of the unions, and at one point went on strike at the biggest company in the country I was in, along with about 10% of the workforce. We were all forty thousand fired at once, but with the strength of the unions, we got our jobs back, and the company ended up being nationalized. <br><br>So I think I know enough about the Soviet Union to call you out on your historic revisionism. <br>You have literally **no idea how it was to live in a communist country.** <br>The Soviet Union was a vicious, authoritarian, sociopathic regime that sadistically killed millions and imprisoned millions more - people just like you. <br>It was sadistic and genocidal in its cruelty, and the communists who ran it were utterly sadistic.<br><br>When I was in college, I read Marx. <br>I was so disappointed. <br>The guy was a complete jerk. <br>He was a petty, racist, argumentative, alcoholic, who didn't believe in individual freedom. <br>I am a Marxist, I've read Capital, but I can only read it as a critique of capitalism. <br>In no way can I support marxism. <br><br>When I joined the feminist movement in the early 1960's, women had almost no rights. <br>It was a fight to get birth control, it was a fight for abortions, it was a fight to get women in management jobs, it was a fight to have more women in colleges, and so on. <br><br>We were very successful. And we fought for the LGBTQ community. <br>We fought for gay rights, trans rights, and we fought to allow gay marriage. <br><br>I was a bit anti-gay, but the feminist movement put me right, and I realized actually gay people were just like anyone else.<br><br>It's also totally wrong to say there is no individual freedom in the capitalist societies. <br><br>You're not happy about something? Protest! Join a union, join a movement! <br>I protested against the Vietnam War, and the government didn't arrest me. <br>I protested against the Iraq War, and the government didn't arrest me. <br>That's the beauty of the capitalist societies, we allow individual freedom, which is the basis of a society being truly free. <br><br>Finally, I have no idea what kind of epistemological void you live in that you think "the mainstream media is controlled by the government". <br>I think you watch too much YouTube, and are too obsessed with American politics. <br>I have only been arrested in protests once, and that was in a communist country. <br>I have lived outside of America for many years, and I can tell you that the mainstream media is not controlled by the government. <br>In fact, most media is privately owned. <br>Yes, some media is owned by right wing people, but that's not the same as being "controlled by the government." <br>And right-wing media and left-wing media has different perspectives. <br>But I don't really care about either. <br>I read official documents, I read academic papers, I read reports from the UN. <br>I read a lot of books. <br><br>Communists like you have become isolated inside your own filter bubble, and you can't distinguish between left and right wing. <br>You think everything that is anti-capitalist is left-wing. <br>But this is not true. <br>The right-wing has been anti-capitalist since the 19th century. <br>They call themselves "reactionaries." <br>And they want to go back to a pre-volte, pre-capitalist society, under a monarch and an aristocracy. <br><br>I also think that you may not understand that a functioning democracy requires religious freedom. <br>In a democracy, anyone is allowed to have any religion they like. <br>Even conservative religions like catholicism or fundamentalist Christianity. <br><br>You're the ones calling for a genocide of Christians, trans people and capitalists. <br>That is not the left! <br>In fact, you are the exact same authoritarian, sociopathic sadists as the communists who ran the Soviet Union. <br>I think you people are a lost cause, but maybe by posting this here, I can help one or two people to see that you are not. <br>I don't want to end on a bad note at all. <br>I want to end with hope, and the welcome outstretched hand of friendship. <br><br>There's so much to do in this world, and we can fight the evil that is capitalism, and we can fight the sociopaths who make this world, while also striving to be better. <br><br>I hope you can maybe one day see it this way. <br>Because I understand nothing about the kind of authoritarianism and sadism that you espouse.