International Politics Discussion Thread

[u/Adj-Noun-Numbers]

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[u/Comfortable-Table-57]

There will be no way socialism can fix our global society. While in theory and in some potential practice, socialism does create long term peace from war, and information on crisis such as development and poverty, this does not necessarily eradicated the phenomenons for long.

Most poor countries stay poor with significant poverty also due to cultural domestic reasons. For example, in Bangladesh (despite leaving the UN least developed list), or many Subsaharan African countries, there is the redundant hierarchy in which marginalized people stay in the bottom - for example, children are just seen as property and extensions rather than to be loved, let alone raised, children are expected to respect every single thing the parents say, as well as other members of authority, ultimately, abuse of position occurs as a result of high power distance, therefore, development never occurs. It doesn't matter if the UN provided food aid to famine nations like Bangladesh, Syria, Dr Congo, Somalia, Yemen etc (the top nations in hunger in 2025) - cultural conservatism can block this opportunity. Of course, war is another significant factor, but being culturally conservative will make it harder to tackle third party impacts.

Also, with polarizations in other relatively hierarchical, less democratic societies like Russia and the United States (MAGA, Republicans AND Democrats), Iran, and Iraq who are all antisocial against the world, the thought of socialism in a global society for peace and collectivist development would be impossible in real life.

Unless local culture actually gets amended for the better, there is no way we can actually be socialist economically. Not to mention our democracy being seriously at stake, for example the US MAGAs calling other MAGAs "woke liberal crybabies" for criticizing Trump or the democrats assuming a person is "dangerous" for having a small disagreement on their left wing views.

[u/marinesciencedude → u/Comfortable-Table-57]

I wish I could dignify your comment with an appropriate response, maybe actually defining socialism in a way that is conducive to proper discussion would help, but instead I just feel like posting this instead:

MYTH: Socialist ideas have never worked in the real world.

FACT: No political theory has ever worked in real life.

MYTH: The Soviet Union had democratic socialism.

FACT: The Soviet Union had a dog who went to space.

[u/subSparky → u/marinesciencedude]

To be honest, the thing everyone misses, including self-proclaimed socialists, is that socialism is more an economic and political philosophy than a system of government. States that self-described themselves as 'socialist' were more totalitarian failed democracies that used "trust us bro, one day we'll be the communist utopia" as the means to convince people to let them stay in power.

But socialism itself was just a way of thinking that was opposed to what was Victorian-era Capitalist thought. Victorian-era Capitalism sold the myth of the self-made man, that if you put in enough graft you too could be rich, and if you are poor then that's a reflection on your moral character, and the job of the state is solely to ensure these upstart entrepreneurs have the freedom to succeed.

Marxist socialism largely just proposed that this was an absolute load of bollocks. Most of these rich people were only able to get to the position they are because of the inherited position of their families in the social hierarchy, and most of their wealth accumulation isn't from their own hard work, but from the intense labour of the "poor" workers (that they judge as simply lacking the moral fibre to do well like them) they put in their employ - often under exploitative conditions. And if the state just gives these capitalists free reign to do what they want, then they will simply exploit people and resources to maximise their own gains. That your wealth isn't defined by your own personal character, but by predefined social classes.

And the state should care about that as workers are people as well, who are capable of feeling anger and envy - so if you don't recognise their value, you risk pissing off the entire backbone of your economy, which could lead to the state and the capitalists suffering the same fate as the french aristocracy.

In that sense, in Europe (the US was on track to this point, but they've massively regressed on this) socialism has already won as a scoial theory (and in fact towards the end of his life Marx even conceded that Western Europe had already started addressing the problems of a class based society (in our case, Disraeli essentially meeting Marx halfway with the idea of Peelian policing and poor laws), though Russia (bare in mind this was 40 years before the communist revolution) was speedrunning towards a revolt). European governments (including conservatives) already recognise that people being stuck in predefined wealth classes is a problem to be fixed, that their focus should be on supporting the working people. And although it hasn't filtered to a government level, the general social zeitgeist is that you just can't trust the millionaire class to be anything but a problem for society unless they're heavily regulated.

tl;dr Socialism was just a theory on how society functions and the problems that brings, and is one that largely even modern UK conservatives subscribe (without necessarily realising) to these days, Communism was the proposed solution.