I find myself to be a stereotypical Lemmy user. I’m trans, (anarcho-) communist, a programmer and Linux engineer.
I’m older, I transitioned (ugh I hate that word) about 2 decades ago. I got into computers consciously and very intentionally. I knew I’d need to support myself soon and spent a good amount of time thinking what industries or companies might be willing to hire someone like me (this was even before trans people had employment rights in California!). I chose computers because I felt like it was an industry where someone might hire me, I could make enough to survive and pay for surgery, and because it seemed one where my co-workers would be less likely to beat me up or kill me.
When it comes to communism, I have a hunch that being trans forces you to think about society and why you are not accepted, who is causing your troubles and why. It seems apparent why someone so low on the social acceptance ladder as a trans person would be repelled by exploitation based zero-sum systems and attracted to systems that would allow them to survive and thrive.
Linux seemed just fundamentally awesome to me. You mean people could just choose to get together, coordinate, and build one of the most complex things to exist on the planet and give it away for free? Sign me up! I think Lemmy and the Fediverse are attractive for similar reasons.
Not the person you’re replying to, but my guess is that “transition” implies some sort of inner journey, but transitioning is often really about changing how the world views you. You’re still the woman, man, or non-binary entity you always were, you’re just making changes to encourage/force everyone else to see you the same way.
This makes sense, transition also implies I changed from one thing to another, which is how it appears externally I suppose but for me it was more like being let out of a prison where personal expression suddenly became possible. I didn’t change so much as people just started being able to seeing the whole me for the first time.
I’m not sure, I just cringe every time I have to say it. I guess it’s just kinda like referring to one’s puberty as “blossoming” and feeling cringe when talking to friends and you’re like, “…before I blossomed …”. In that case you’d more likely say “when I was a kid”, but I don’t want to say “when I was a dude” lol.
It’s just a personal thing, no issues with the word or those who use it/like it. I don’t have a word I prefer.
Unregulated capitalism causes more harm than any other form of government not appropriately regulated. It’s worth more thought if you find yourself actively against it. We’ve been indoctrinated hard.
So far communism had only been tried in small groups (where tribal dynamics make it work) and in Soviet and Chinese authoritarian regimes
Communism ≠ command economy
Communism ≠ authoritarianism
Communism = a broad selection of idiologies more or less agreeing with the idea “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need”
Several countries have such strong socialist policies in place that they could reasonably be called communist if we didn’t pretend that capitalism was opposite to and incompatible with communism. Capitalism is an excellent technology for extracting from each according to their ability.
“Full communism” where you strive for perfect equality is probably less bad than “full capitalism” where you strive for full freedom of capital. Enough capitalism that you have the incentives it supplies and enough communism that those who won’t or can’t work are paid enough to live healthily and be in a position to seek work if they wish to, seems to be a good and reasonable position.
I’ll answer the other part for the parent comment too
If they fail to fit in to normal culture at work and are so unsuccessful at working, communism gives them a safety net.
They could have taken a risk and selected a job they expect to enjoy rather than one that will accept them if there’s a safety net
they could have selected a job they might enjoy rather than one calculated to pay enough to save for gender reassignment surgery if the state would pay for the surgery
they could have had the surgery earlier (which makes it better) if the state paid for it
It’d be fantastic evidence if we could actually look at documentation of how these small group trials have worked out. Honestly, it’s the first I’m hearing of them.
I don’t understand the word “paid” appearing in your third bullet point. Wouldn’t a communistic society operate without money? Generally speaking, what would a doctor’s motivation be to get 11+ years of medical school + residencies, then perform a difficult operation on a patient that has potential for complications and blame? (In a capitalist society, the motivation would be “Helping people” plus “Money”, tied with hospital-level protections against malpractice suits, but I’m curious about your answer)
Wouldn’t a communistic society operate without money?
You could have communism with money. People still need a way to allocate resources and barter. I’m out of my depth here, as I’m a socialist but not a communist. However, I recognize that communism isn’t the bogeyman US propaganda (in schools, media, culture) taught me to think of it.
To give you the less complicated answer, communism is an economic system, not a form of government. Communism can and has been authoritarian, but it can also be libertarian or anarchistic. There’s nothing inherently authoritarian about an economy without money and without classes, based on need. It’s just the ideologies that want to (or say they want to) implement it in authoritarian ways that got to run the more famous socialist experiments. If you want to see how non-authoritarian communism worked, there are also historical examples of it, they’re just smaller and lasted less.
Answering your question - in the period where most countries that called themselves communist existed, no capitalist countries accepted trans people either. But you are a capitalist nonetheless no? Huh, I wonder why.
I find myself to be a stereotypical Lemmy user. I’m trans, (anarcho-) communist, a programmer and Linux engineer.
I’m older, I transitioned (ugh I hate that word) about 2 decades ago. I got into computers consciously and very intentionally. I knew I’d need to support myself soon and spent a good amount of time thinking what industries or companies might be willing to hire someone like me (this was even before trans people had employment rights in California!). I chose computers because I felt like it was an industry where someone might hire me, I could make enough to survive and pay for surgery, and because it seemed one where my co-workers would be less likely to beat me up or kill me.
When it comes to communism, I have a hunch that being trans forces you to think about society and why you are not accepted, who is causing your troubles and why. It seems apparent why someone so low on the social acceptance ladder as a trans person would be repelled by exploitation based zero-sum systems and attracted to systems that would allow them to survive and thrive.
Linux seemed just fundamentally awesome to me. You mean people could just choose to get together, coordinate, and build one of the most complex things to exist on the planet and give it away for free? Sign me up! I think Lemmy and the Fediverse are attractive for similar reasons.
Thanks for this. It was very well-reasoned, and gave me a perspective I hadn’t thought of before.
Yeah, that’s the reason. Trans girls just often happen to be good at IT and leftist.
I was going to say because Linux is a big community on lemmy. And as we all know, Linux users are all either trans or femboys. /s
Slightly off topic but I’m curious, why do you hate that word and is there different wording that you’d prefer?
Not the person you’re replying to, but my guess is that “transition” implies some sort of inner journey, but transitioning is often really about changing how the world views you. You’re still the woman, man, or non-binary entity you always were, you’re just making changes to encourage/force everyone else to see you the same way.
This makes sense, transition also implies I changed from one thing to another, which is how it appears externally I suppose but for me it was more like being let out of a prison where personal expression suddenly became possible. I didn’t change so much as people just started being able to seeing the whole me for the first time.
I’m not sure, I just cringe every time I have to say it. I guess it’s just kinda like referring to one’s puberty as “blossoming” and feeling cringe when talking to friends and you’re like, “…before I blossomed …”. In that case you’d more likely say “when I was a kid”, but I don’t want to say “when I was a dude” lol.
It’s just a personal thing, no issues with the word or those who use it/like it. I don’t have a word I prefer.
Makes sense, thanks for elaborating :)
Why do you think communism would allow you to thrive?
Seriously, take a look at the history of communist countries and tell me which one you think you would have looked to exist in as a trans person 🤣
You’re conflating communism with authoritarianism.
Unregulated capitalism causes more harm than any other form of government not appropriately regulated. It’s worth more thought if you find yourself actively against it. We’ve been indoctrinated hard.
Communism = authoritarianism.
I notice you didn’t answer my question either.
So far communism had only been tried in small groups (where tribal dynamics make it work) and in Soviet and Chinese authoritarian regimes
Communism ≠ command economy
Communism ≠ authoritarianism
Communism = a broad selection of idiologies more or less agreeing with the idea “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need”
Several countries have such strong socialist policies in place that they could reasonably be called communist if we didn’t pretend that capitalism was opposite to and incompatible with communism. Capitalism is an excellent technology for extracting from each according to their ability.
“Full communism” where you strive for perfect equality is probably less bad than “full capitalism” where you strive for full freedom of capital. Enough capitalism that you have the incentives it supplies and enough communism that those who won’t or can’t work are paid enough to live healthily and be in a position to seek work if they wish to, seems to be a good and reasonable position.
I’ll answer the other part for the parent comment too
If they fail to fit in to normal culture at work and are so unsuccessful at working, communism gives them a safety net.
It’d be fantastic evidence if we could actually look at documentation of how these small group trials have worked out. Honestly, it’s the first I’m hearing of them.
I don’t understand the word “paid” appearing in your third bullet point. Wouldn’t a communistic society operate without money? Generally speaking, what would a doctor’s motivation be to get 11+ years of medical school + residencies, then perform a difficult operation on a patient that has potential for complications and blame? (In a capitalist society, the motivation would be “Helping people” plus “Money”, tied with hospital-level protections against malpractice suits, but I’m curious about your answer)
You could have communism with money. People still need a way to allocate resources and barter. I’m out of my depth here, as I’m a socialist but not a communist. However, I recognize that communism isn’t the bogeyman US propaganda (in schools, media, culture) taught me to think of it.
To give you the less complicated answer, communism is an economic system, not a form of government. Communism can and has been authoritarian, but it can also be libertarian or anarchistic. There’s nothing inherently authoritarian about an economy without money and without classes, based on need. It’s just the ideologies that want to (or say they want to) implement it in authoritarian ways that got to run the more famous socialist experiments. If you want to see how non-authoritarian communism worked, there are also historical examples of it, they’re just smaller and lasted less.
Answering your question - in the period where most countries that called themselves communist existed, no capitalist countries accepted trans people either. But you are a capitalist nonetheless no? Huh, I wonder why.
Ahhh, yes, the good old anarchocommunism, also known as bigotry 😆
Care to explain buddy?
Kinda sounds like you dont know what your talking about.
Did you confuse it with “anarcho-capitalism”?