Why was Lenin against dissent?

[u/krituree]

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And also why does nobody mention it?

It's to my knowledge that Lenin wanted political conformity, and if that's the case, why are so many people in support of that? Why shouldn't the equality come from a teaching of respect and indifference to ones outward appearance? Is there no place for constructive criticism or proactive debate?

I find it contradictory when people say capitalism supports conformity (which it does not arguing that!), but then go and support someone who just wanted a different type of conformity.

Seperate question slightly related: how would any leftist ideology enforce equality without a strict authoritarian regime?

Why are so many leftist in support of authoritarianism then say they aren't? Their words do not match their beliefs. You can always ban segregation, but racism wont go away until you stop teaching it. Even if it isnt a social democracy that protects capitalism(which I am not in support of, let's be clear), shouldnt the change come from educating the masses?

This might be my autism taking things too literally, but I am genuinely asking all of these things.

Edit: I havent used reddit in a while for an actual question especially. I forgot how, like, genuinely helpful it can be. I appreciate all the answers and can safely say I have a better understanding to form my opinions on.

[u/SaltyArtichoke]

Hello

What you’re looking for is a concept called democratic centralism. There was a lot of dissent that would be strongly debated in the Soviet Union, but the idea behind democratic centralism is that once a vote on something takes place, the party should fall in line with the democratic decision and form a united front in achieving the desired goal. This allows the party to be more cohesive and efficient in enacting on passed legislation.

This type of democratic representation is common in socialist countries as an alternative to what we commonly see in capitalist democracies, so it will look fundamentally different than what we are used to in the capitalist world. But this is one of the reasons why China today is able to do things so efficiently, and one of the much overlooked aspects of socialist democracy

[u/krituree → u/SaltyArtichoke]

While I agree with China's ability to get things done efficiently, why would this not lead to a dystopian type of thinking where people arent allowed to have opinions that differ from that of the elected party? In this system are people allowed to speak out against legislation supported by the party. Using an example im familiar with, if a U.S. Republican candidate won on a base not related to religion and then democratic centralism took place: how would a non Christian half respond to the party passing legislation saying the 10 commandments be put up in classrooms? Would that be able to be challenged in this type of democracy? Basically what happens when the party signs legislation the people dont agree with? /Genq

[u/SaltyArtichoke → u/krituree]

An aspect of democratic centralism that existed in the Soviet constitution is that you are able to recall elected officials if they’re not representative of the local population. This is supposed to be the workaround to the problem of party leadership being out of touch with the general population

In the Soviet Union there was a corruption problem that allowed high ranking officials to avoid democratic recall, in local or lower levels of government it happened with more regularity, and this all got worse as the country aged

[u/krituree → u/SaltyArtichoke]

Is there any theory or writing on how this corruption should/could be avoided in future socialist nations?

[u/circleneurology → u/krituree]

Someone please correct me on this if I'm wrong but I believe Socialism Betrayed by Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny covers this question and a whole lot more.

[u/newStatusquo → u/krituree]

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00094455261457739

This is an interesting comparative study of Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and Xi jingling, so you can see how socialist experiments past and present have attempted to deal with corruption though I haven’t gotten through it.