KOD is officially a scam.

You sure about that ? :)...

And the reverse is true too..............

But at least you admit they are more violent.

Just as violent. Reminds me of the violent clashes between the communists and the fascists in the Weimar Republic. Maybe we're returning to that era?

Something like it... we're at the big stage of a very big political shift (like the one that began in 1979 (Margaret Thatcher becoming prime minister) and became complete in 1989 (collapse of communism).

If we assume the current shift began in 2016 (Brexit) we're more or less in 1981 with a popular movement against an unresponsive government (Solidarity.... Gilets Jaunes).

Still too soon to tell how it will all shake out...

In the late 80s academics (specifically political scientists) were predicting that if Communism fell, as it was falling then, capitalism would equally fall.

technically the eastern bloc never got close to 'real' communism and was kind of halfway between socialism and fascism but yeah, nothing lasts forever.
part of the changes going on are that countries that swung right in the last change (UK USA) will swing left now (with politicans like Corbyn and Sanders) and countries that swung more to the left (Italy Spain France) will swing more right (Salvini, Vox, Le Pen) not necessarily those particular politicians but ones are more like them than those currently in office.

In this model Trump is a lot like Jimmy Carter, trying to turn his party around and failing (what people forget that a lot of Carter's agenda was made up of things like privatization and deregulation).

Yes. They got a kind of eastern Leninism. 'Real' Communism, as Marx described it "abolition of private property" won't happen anywhere for the forseeable. Possibly at least an evolutionary leap and/or a devastating natural disaster away. Russia was never the best example of anything, let alone politics. If Communism had happened first in Japan, I suspect people would be intrigued by it. Even in Britain, someone (I genuinely forget who) said that in Communism had become the UK's system of government in the 1950s, most ordinary people wouldn't have noticed much difference.


As another famous person said (or sung) "I'm holdin' out for a hero". None yet, not in that list or anywhere else in world affairs.

totalitarian dysfunction!

technically Russia was about the last place that could evolve toward a benevolent welfare state (roughly what Marx described if you strip away the 'no private property' nonsense)


Well you undergo broad social transformations with the poltical actors that you have... (and there are certainly no heros among those being displaced either)

And they were wrong.
Communism fell and Capitalism survived.
If it doesn't work it always fails.
But if it even partially works,it has a chance to survive.

We still don't know how long that system will survive. It's visibly failing now.

what's failing now is neoliberalism (the dominant socio-economic form in the west since around 1980) it's not yet clear what's going to replace it but it will probably be a bit more populist and nationalist in nature...

Exactly!

@jon357

What do you think could replace Capitalism?

Even economists can't predict that!

@jon357

May I suggest that is because there is no viable alternative to Capitalism.

Time will tell about the future of capitalism, a failed and so far relatively short-lived system.

So far not. I agree a little with Phillip Bobbit that the 20th century (1914-89) was one long war that broke out in different places and times between fascism, socialism and capitalism and capitalism won decisively...


how do you define capitalism so that you can say it has 'failed'?

@jon357

I don't see how you can call Capitalism a failed system when it has obviously been the only one that sort of works,all the alternatives have failed miserably and neither you,nor anyone else can offer us a Plan B?

You sound like a spoilt child saying "Don't like Capitalism,don't want!".

...because liberals are children who stopped growing and still believe that all problems can be solved by writing a check.

Bolek,

I have it reversed; the Senate is Democratic, but the House is still Republican.

The BNP got around 550,000 votes in 2010, only slightly less than UKIP and twice as many as the Greens.

In 2009 they had two Euro MPs.

Averaging at 1,663 per constituency. The average constituency size is 68,184 voters. In the next election, in 2015, they got 1,667 votes in total, an average of 203 voters per constituency.


And in 2014 they lost them both.

:)

Are you sure you don't want to re-check (again) ?

I believe I had it reversed, as I think of it!

Yes, that's right.