A comical and absurd aspect of Marxism is that the state will supposedly ‘wither away’ in transitioning from big-state socialism to communism.
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It’s an example of how leftists are experts at word warfare and lying with language, choosing terms that sound positive among those things that essentially mean the same thing.
And now that they’ve finally come out of the collectivist closet, they prefer the positive-sounding word “socialist,” which fits right in with society, socializing, being social, socialization, and, of course, social media, just as the U.S.S.R. did — the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Contrasted this with the coarser-sounding communist.
This choice also avoids the sensitive subject of the idea that was once a part of their sales pitch for socialistic slavery — that the state would eventually ‘wither away’ into a perfect communistic ‘utopia’— making the ideal case for calling them commies and communists for these linguistic and historic reasons.
Because when lefties start screaming that we’re not supposed to correctly call them commies, it’s the perfect time to use the term. And it’s just icing on the collectivist cake to constantly remind them of some of the more ridiculous schemes they’ve used to sell their socialistic slavery.
How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
–President Ronald Reagan
The labels ‘communism’ and ‘socialism’ arose in the early 1800s, spawned from older collectivist expressions during the days in which these concepts were tried around the globe, even in the United States, which at the time was a young and emerging superpower.
These new words entered the lexicon years before that infamous screed from Engels and Marx in 1848 and were defined very similarly, for example, in the 1842, 1845, and 1850 editions of An American Dictionary of the English Language. Defined those words as follows:
COM’MU-NISM, n. [Fr. commune, common.] Community of property among all the citizens of a state; a new French word nearly synonymous with agrarianism, socialism, and [radicalism.
That is from: Webster, N. (1842) An American Dictionary of the English Language Page: 952.
There also was:
SOCIAL-ISM, (so’shal-ism,) n. A social state in which there is a community of property among all the citizens-a new term for agrarianism. See COMMUNISM.
That is from: Webster, N. (1842) An American Dictionary of the English Language Page: 994.
Decades later, the dictionary definitions changed over time (The old school-style stealth edit) to reflect ‘newspeak’ versions of reality, with the modern-day Merriam-Webster dictionary referencing a transition in the definition of Socialism:
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.
Lefties always referenced this ‘transition’ from socialism to communism, such as a recent example of a top leader of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) admitting in a video, “Our goal is communism.”
Just what are they transitioning?
Communism and socialism grew out of the same ancient concepts, with essentially the same meaning, so how could their ‘transition’ from one to the other? Lefties will often try and fail to fill in the blanks of this awkward question with Bolshevik B.S., so what is the change that is taking place?
Well, that’s where the “magic” of Marxism comes into play, because the lefties of old decided that there were to be two phases of communist society. With the lower phase, known as socialism, and the higher phase known as communism.
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But wait, there’s more.
With the higher phase, the state is supposed to mythically and magically ‘wither away.’
Marxism-Leninism teaches that with the abolition of classes and class distinctions, in the higher phase of communism, the State will become unnecessary and will gradually wither away.
Yes, you read that correctly. The people were scammed with a colossal bait and switch that at some mythical, magical point in the future (what the folks over on the People’s Cube call the ‘Glorious world of Next Tuesday’). The overarching oligarchical leftie command and control structure would just disappear all by its lonesome, or ‘wither away’ in their words. And if you think that happened, we’d like to sell you a bridge over Brooklyn.
While they walked back many of these assurances as soon as they attained power, the Lefties still lied to the people with grandiose promises, just off in the near future, such as this forecast by the Soviet Union from 1951 of the attainment of communist utopia by 1960:
COMMUNIST UTOPIA IS FORECAST BY 1960; ‘Socialist’ Soviet Is Seen Nearing Goal of ‘Distribution’ According to Need’ In Transition Period Targets Specified.
Color yourself surprised to learn that the Lefties lied and that this never happened, and the commies of today tend to avoid talking about this colossal scam.
Sounding social, the other reason lefties are trying to avoid the commie label like the plague.
The line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet: ‘The Lady Doth Protest Too Much’ comes to mind when you witness their little temper tantrums over the proper use of the term, with some getting in touch with their inner 5-year-old with headlines like this: The GOP’s Big Red Scare Is Really Stupid, Ocasio-Cortez: GOP’s communist warnings ‘very silly.’
And it wouldn’t be the left without some good old-fashioned projection: Do Republicans Know What Communism Is? Some Republicans have taken to calling Democrats “communists.” It betrays a willful historical ignorance.
So why do the little darlings get so upset over commies and communists and prefer the more genteel term, socialist?
Well, the answer is right in front of you in the words: social, social media, socializing, sociable, socialization, sociably, sociableness, sociability, and finally, socialism. As in all those similar-sounding words surrounding the same concept, exemplified by this definition of sociable that incorporates socialist and social-ism in all the social terms:
SOCIABLE, companionable. (F .- L.) In Shak. K. John, i. 188.-F. sociable, ‘sociable;’ Cot .- L. sociabilis, sociable; formed with suffix -bilis from socia-re, to accompany. -L. socius, a companion, lit. ‘ a follower.’-L. base soc-, second grade of seq-, appearing in sequi, to follow; all from SEQ, to follow; see Sequence. Der. sociabl-y, sociable-ness, sociabili-ty. From L. socius is also formed the adj. socialis, whence E. social, with the adv. social-ly, also social-i-ty, social-ise, social-ist, social-ism. Also socie-ty, L.L.L., iv. 2. 166, from MF. societé,’ society,’ Cot., which from L. acc. societatem. Also dis-sociate, as-sociate.
That is from: Skeat, W. (1924) An etymological dictionary of the English language Page 578
Being social, sociable, etc. is all a ‘positive’ attribute of society, with many of those terms tied directly back to – you guessed it – socialism. It just sounds so nice and friendly. A recent video from Nate Friedman had a DSA communist touting the ‘community’ of socialism.
All the more reason to properly call them commies and communists and see if they know and can explain that whole ‘wither away’ BS from Engels and Marx. Lefties have no problem engaging in word warfare, hurling the racist and Hitler slurs at the drop of a Democrat KKK hood, so it’s time to return the favor. Maybe they’ll finally learn something about their loser collectivist ideologies.
D. Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, former director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a long-time contributor to conservative websites. Find him on Substack.
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