When the chair of the world economic forum is a communist, it puts the current state of affairs in perspective?

@LeopoldBloom 🤥
"China is governed by the absolute rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which does not allow people to practice the religion or belief of their choice, and has no tolerance for dissent or criticism."

@LeopoldBloom Just Wrong!

@LeopoldBloom I find it funny that with both liberals and conservatives whether China is communist changes with every argument.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow they proclaim to be communist, and prove it in their actions.

@checkoutanytime Again, bullshit you made up. And again you have no idea what a communist is. You prove that every single time you use the word.

@LeopoldBloom CCP! Really?

@checkoutanytime @Oster1 Under communism, the government owns the means of production. Over the last few decades, state-owned industries have gradually been privatized, with a corresponding increase in production and the standard of living for the average Chinese citizen. However, China remains a one-party state under strict government control. Hence, authoritarian capitalism.

You can't confuse the government with the economic system. Capitalism is economic, authoritarianism is government.

@LeopoldBloom That is certainly one take but based on some of the same flaws as the right makes by defining communist as "government does stuff."

Right on👍@LeopoldBloom

@Wiseacre Wrong!

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow By that standard, the US is communist because we have government-funded military and law enforcement. In a true capitalist society, both of those would be privatized and supported by user fees.

@Oster1 How is China "communist" but also 70% privatized? Do you even know what "communism" is? Hint - it's not "stuff Oster doesn't like."

@LeopoldBloom 70% privatized? Where are you pulling those numbers? Not even the WSJ or The Economist is willing to make claims that extreme.

@LeopoldBloom I am not the one defining communism by some arbitrary amount of government involvement in the economy. That would be you. I am not the one with the same broken metric as the MAGA crowd.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Communism refers to government ownership of industry. It's the MAGAGA crowd that incorrectly defines it as totalitarian. But totalitarianism can also be capitalist.

The percentage of government involvement is arbitrary. Would you say the US is communist because 38.4% of GDP is government spending?

@LeopoldBloom water it down all you wish with Authoritarian, when the "state" has absolute control and they call themselves a communist its best to believe them.

@checkoutanytime Private industry there is far more regulated than it is here, but it's not any kind of "communist" that Karl Marx would recognize.

@LeopoldBloom is that why they are revolting in the streets the past couple of days, private industries? I find that hard to believe as being the reason.

@checkoutanytime Because people only revolt to protest communism?