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Fix typos of the form “text(more text”
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crash_course_socialism.md
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@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ A 1983 report by England national income and expenditures found that on average,
Capitalists use the surplus to [push out competitors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices) and gain market share, leading to the destruction of most small businesses, with [just a few companies](http://imgur.com/a/xgnEp) controlling our food, media, energy, transportation, and finances.
In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's owners, who usually appoint a board of directors. This owning class(called Capitalists, or the [Bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) make up a **tiny minority** of the population.
In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's owners, who usually appoint a board of directors. This owning class (called Capitalists, or the [Bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) make up a **tiny minority** of the population.
<table>
<tr>
@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's
<td rowspan="9">Worker value added</td>
<td rowspan="8">Surplus Value<br></td>
<td rowspan="4">Other wages</td>
<td>Owners(includes shareholders)</td>
<td>Owners (includes shareholders)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Board of Directors</td>
@ -119,13 +119,13 @@ Technological advancements, instead of benefiting workers, result in decreased o
## History, and Human Nature
Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food **as a community**, in a mode of life termed [primitive communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism). Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property(and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication(A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendents(which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification), aggregating into fewer and fewer land-owners, and creating class antagonisms between an owning, and a working class.
Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food **as a community**, in a mode of life termed [primitive communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism). Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property (and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication (A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendents (which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification), aggregating into fewer and fewer land-owners, and creating class antagonisms between an owning, and a working class.
In the modern day, there is the communism of the family, in which family members share freely with one another. There are community welfare organizations, food banks, as well as thousands of undocumented and unpublicized acts of kindness which show that cooperation endures even in spite of the individualism of the current dominant economic system.
Capitalism evolved historically out of [feudalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) and [slave societies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery), all three being dependent on a dominant [ruling class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruling_class) receiving the surplus of a subordinate class.
Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the french revolution, in which a capitalist class(the [bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) seemed to merely replace [feudal lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) to become the new ruling class. Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between those who control the productive forces and those who don't, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the french revolution, in which a capitalist class (the [bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) seemed to merely replace [feudal lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) to become the new ruling class. Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between those who control the productive forces and those who don't, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
## Value and Conformity
@ -137,11 +137,11 @@ Economic systems, such as Capitalism, don't invent, *create* or *build* anything
## Democracy
Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include 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, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, and inconvienient voting locations and times. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include 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, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, and inconvienient voting locations and times. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
## Unsustainable Growth
During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high(and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high(since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and **polluting the environment**.
During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high (and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high (since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and **polluting the environment**.
In actuality, Capitalism is highly unstable, made up of a series of crises, economic bubbles, booms, and eventual busts, termed [business cycles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle), that occur every few years, with varying intensity, but with most of the resulting burden shifted to the working class. The capitalist state often intervenes to prop up failing businesses, and bail out members of its own class.
@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ In actuality, Capitalism is highly unstable, made up of a series of crises, econ
The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to **capitalist indoctrination** and ideology. In Marxist philosophy, [cultural hegemony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony) is the domination of a culturally diverse society, by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society... the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores, so that their imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
Since the 1960s, there has been a [labor surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_in_the_United_States.png), due to an decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers(women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a [reserve army of labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour), keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity(due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus(the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
Since the 1960s, there has been a [labor surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_in_the_United_States.png), due to an decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers (women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a [reserve army of labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour), keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity (due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus (the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
Both feudalism and slavery were thought to be highly stable systems, and even they lasted hundreds of years until their eventual overthrow.
@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ Marxists aim to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, with a transitional
Socialism as an economic system is distinct from [neoliberalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism), as well as [social democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy)/Welfare [state capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), which aims to band-aid the ills of capitalism while leaving the exploitation inherent in [wage slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery) intact. Social services provided by the capitalist-controlled state have nothing to do with socialism.
Many Marxists call the totalitarian regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalism](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. However, the early stages of the [1917 russian revolution](https://en.m.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. Western nations(including the US) [sent troops to russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution. Most of these revolutionary gains were lost due to a multitude of factors(civil war, a drastic decrease of the numbers of working class (50% decrease in the industrial centers), decimation of russian industry) that merit deeper study.
Many Marxists call the totalitarian regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalism](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. However, the early stages of the [1917 russian revolution](https://en.m.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. Western nations (including the US) [sent troops to russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution. Most of these revolutionary gains were lost due to a multitude of factors (civil war, a drastic decrease of the numbers of working class (50% decrease in the industrial centers), decimation of russian industry) that merit deeper study.
Many burgeoning socialist attempts seized state power, in order to defend themselves against inevitable [capitalist military intervention](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md), of which very few have survived US interventionism. [This talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVes44hcJg&feature=youtu.be) by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
@ -195,11 +195,11 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
[Why do Marxists oppose individual terrorism? (Trotsky)](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1911/11/tia09.htm)
[What are Mao's contributions to Marxism?(MLM)](https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/what-maoism-has-to-offer-the-world-and-why-so-many-former-non-communists-think-its-dope/)
[What are Mao's contributions to Marxism? (MLM)](https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/what-maoism-has-to-offer-the-world-and-why-so-many-former-non-communists-think-its-dope/)
[Is it true that Socialism has killed X million people, and how many has capitalism killed?](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/5q2oak/someone_dies_under_socialism_no_matter_how_its/dcvu8lg/)
[Do communists defend the DPRK(Democratic People's Republic of North Korea)? short answer: no.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLDISCOURSE/comments/60voir/lets_talk_about_the_dprk/)
[Do communists defend the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of North Korea)? short answer: no.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLDISCOURSE/comments/60voir/lets_talk_about_the_dprk/)
[Why do many socialist attempts end up in an authoritarian state? Watch this brilliant talk by Micheal Parenti.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVes44hcJg&feature=youtu.be)
@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ Danny Katch - Socialism…. Seriously
## Films
[Pride(2014)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/?ref_=nv_sr_4), [Reds(1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Salt of the Earth(1954)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Snowpiercer(2013)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/?ref_=nv_sr_1), [Libertarias(1996)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113649/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Trotsky(2009)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Battleship Potemkin(1925)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battleship_Potemkin), [Land and Freedom(1995)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114671/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Spook who sat by the door(1973)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070726/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [I, Daniel Blake (2016)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Tsar to Lenin (1937)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-bPPOY1KA)
[Pride (2014)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/?ref_=nv_sr_4), [Reds (1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Salt of the Earth (1954)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Snowpiercer (2013)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/?ref_=nv_sr_1), [Libertarias (1996)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113649/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Trotsky (2009)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Battleship Potemkin (1925)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battleship_Potemkin), [Land and Freedom (1995)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114671/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Spook who sat by the door (1973)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070726/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [I, Daniel Blake (2016)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Tsar to Lenin (1937)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-bPPOY1KA)
# Organizations