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crash_course_socialism.md
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@ -183,7 +183,7 @@ Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better l
[Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) are in reality [Capitalist Dictatorships](https://i.imgur.com/8vDYw17.jpg), resulting in legislation favorable to the wealthy, regardless of the population's actual preferences. [The Princeton Study, conducted in the US in 2014](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), found that the preferences of the average citizen exert a near-zero influence on legislation, making the US system of elections and campaigning little more than political theater.
Examples of restrictions include stacking the candidates before an election, a [media and news monopoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership), the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, *candidate stacking*. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
Examples of restrictions include a [media and news monopoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership), the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, bills directly crafted by lobbyists and bourgeois lawmakers, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, inconvenient voting locations and times, and most pervasive, *candidate stacking*. **Most elections are performed before we ever get to the polling booth**. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
The impossibility of Capitalist democracy to make a transition to working-class democracy is best shown by the phrase: Capitalists **will not allow** you to vote away their wealth. Pacifism, and elections have [never been an effective means of disenfranchising the ruling class.](https://theredphoenixapl.org/2011/08/11/pacifism-how-to-do-the-enemys-job-for-them/) Multi-party, representative parliamentary democracies, such as exist in Australia, the UK, South Korea, and
the United States, have proved to be the safest shell for Capitalist rule.
@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ Socialism as an economic system is distinct from [neoliberalism](https://en.wiki
## The Communist Legacy
Some Marxists call the regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. Other Marxists call them *siege socialist*, contrasting it with *pure socialism*, stating that siege socialism is a natural reaction to the external pressures of capitalist encirclement, and that *pure socialism* is an ideal which is [ahistorical and nonfalsifiable.](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/) The US for example, has been involved in [militarily crushing nearly every socialist attempt](us_atrocities.md) for the last 80 years, and installing right-wing fascist dictatorships (friendly to US interests) in their place. Needless to say, **capitalist encirclement has a profoundly distorting affect** on the building of socialism; very few attempts have survived US interventionism. [This talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY&feature=youtu.be) by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
Some Marxists say the regimes typically called socialist are more correctly defined as [State Capitalist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. Other Marxists call them *siege socialist*, contrasting it with *pure socialism*, stating that siege socialism is a natural reaction to the external pressures of capitalist encirclement, and that *pure socialism* is an ideal which is [ahistorical and nonfalsifiable.](http://www.greanvillepost.com/2015/05/23/left-anticommunism-the-unkindest-cut/) The US for example, has been involved in [militarily crushing nearly every socialist attempt](us_atrocities.md) for the last 80 years, and installing right-wing fascist dictatorships (friendly to US interests) in their place. Needless to say, **capitalist encirclement has a profoundly distorting affect** on the building of socialism; very few attempts have survived US interventionism. [This talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7WmYEoNtPY&feature=youtu.be) by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
The early stages of the [1917 Russian Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) were far more progressive than is typically portrayed; Divorce was legalized, **Homosexuality was decriminalized**, land was distributed to the peasantry, banks were nationalized, control of factories was given to worker's councils, **the workday was shortened**, wages were fixed at a higher rate, all elected officials could now be immediately recalled; it created mass literacy drives, free nurseries, communal kitchens, and laundries. 14 Western nations (including the US) [sent troops to Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution.
@ -392,7 +392,7 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
## Documentaries
- [Seeing Red](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhmGVnHxtf0)
- [Tsar to Lenin](magnet:?xt=urn:btih:02a5f8e618049ddcc8885360abeffd1db562d6d8&dn=Tsar.To.Lenin.720p.x264.MP3.MVGroup.Forum.org.avi)
- [Tsar to Lenin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3hWg3_CLGc)
- [Fidel - The untold story (Cuban Revolution)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Obp6YS4SY)
- [How Yukong moved the mountains (Chinese Revolution)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLN-jRZRPrc&list=PLMt0ncvnKoz3ar_f78qBeA29-0kwrsXvT)
- [Malcolm X - Make it Plain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zIGNkR62Mo)