Is communism as bad as people say

Again, one must look at who is using Communism.

If we take Stalinist Russia and the U.S.S.R of the 20th Century, you can see that it easily fails the test of what Communism is supposed to be. It's a dictatorship for a start, and has no power derived from the people, which is one of the central points to its theoretical origins. The so called "Communism" of Russia under Stalin looks nothing like what Communism, or Communists, espouse. At nearly every turn, Stalinism rejects Communism as it's primary goal was to keep Stalin in a position of power and to subject nations outside of Russia to rule.

Absolutely none of that is Communism and both Marx and Lenin would have balked at what Russia would become after 1924, as it resembled nothing remotely coincident to their beliefs.

Stalin merely used the idea of Communism to hold onto power and constantly trumpeted its verbal touchstones while practising something else entirely. His rule bared little resemblance to Communism and probably mirrored that of Tsarist Russia more closely. But, as understand it, Lenin's idea for the future of Russia was for control "by the people", with the party members voted for to implement that control, which is nowhere to be seen under Stalin who appointed his own yes men to positions favourable to his ultimate goals, which entirely centred around his lust for power.

In the end, though, Stalinism was the power of one individual through fear, not power by the people. Few folk, if any, who would consider themselves well disposed to the ideas of Communism would ever consider Stalinist Russia to be any kind of example of those ideas.

All of that can be directed back to communism always falling foul of human nature.

It's a nice idea, but it has to be implemented by humans, and humans are b*stards so it's doomed to failure by definition.

Well, maybe you're selfish and the people you know are selfish. But that doesn't mean that "people" are selfish.

If we were just purely selfish beings we wouldn't have made it out of our caves.

Well, there's an argument to be made that Capitalism has never truly existed, just like the argument that's made for Communism.

Like Communism, the basic tenets of Capitalism sound fine, too, when they are uncorrupted by individuals. A system where successful entities do well and the poorer entities have to leave the marketplace is ok...in theory. The problem with it though is that, in practice, it is destroyed by the likes of the biggest fish in the pond devouring all the competition to become monopolies and some entities being deemed "to big to fail" and being kept artificially afloat. Cronyism is absolutely rife in such a system, even when the checks and balances are put in place to try and combat it.

One could say that we are where we are with Capitalism because, like Communism, it has been regularly been warped by people to suit their own end games. So much so, that were are now in the realm of Boom and Bust Capitalism that only benefits the very few in society. That's not what Capitalist theory was supposed to be about. The "Capitalism" of today is largely about getting as much in as possible by rampant inflation, before the whole deck of cards comes crashing down.

Was the juice worth the squeeze in your opinion ?

It falls back to the individuals who choose to use a political theory that appeals to a broad array of people for their own ends. That's not necessarily "human nature". That's the nature of that particular individual.

One could hardly call the likes of Joseph Stalin a general example of "human nature", and I would be genuinely worried about anyone who would consider him as such.

However, it's not just Communism that can be subject to the corruption of the individual. Political theories of all shades can be warped into the personal ideologies of those who find themselves at the top of the tree.

This is why all power must be reckoned with, no matter where that power comes from, which I believe was one of Marx's foundations for his belief in the first place. Unfettered power, whether in the form of Communism or Capitalism (and everything in-between), will always be a bad thing.

an alien reading about Democracy ,might suspect its operating system would be closer to Communism than Capitalism.Same goes for Christianity even more so.

Look at the socialist positives in country.

Free Healthcare...

about one third of people living here are medical card holders I think about 32% of the population last I read.

Free Travel...

over 25% of the population have a travel pass to enable them travel free on public transport.

Free Education...

Primary, secondary and most third level... FREE... or close.

in terms of pensions Ireland is rated I think 14th or 16th in the world for most generous old age pensions.

the only danger to the above is our population increasing...

All documented my friend... all true...you can research too.

Thats not evidence that people are innately selfish 😅

Whatever you say. No point arguing with someone who's got their head in the sand.

Communism is good for some and bad for others.

Many people in the ex Soviet Union countries admit life was a lot better under Communism then how they have it today living in complete poverty and living in run down flats.

communism always leads to greed

east germany was a perfect example the people in control had everything and the working people had an idea of a socialist model that didn't work that's why they needed the wall

a pampered elite is communism gone wrong,its capitalism working perfectly,