why do people hate communism so much?

Question

It wants the best for the poor. (cuba,china,soviet union did not do true communism)

I know people are greedy

American Pride and seem to be the only ones who understand communism from a communist view piont russkimuzhik

Answer 1

in a word: America.

there used to be a Communist Party in America, just like there was a Socialist Party, and many famous people were communists and socialists; Thoreau, Einstein, and a host of others believed in the way of communal living.

they fought for (and won) women's rights, a 40-hour work week, fair child labor laws, and many other rights and freedoms that some people seem to think that corporate America decided to give us out of the goodness of its heart.

but the super-rich, who have always controlled government, be it left or right, decided that communism and socialism were too much of a threat to their bottom line, and they launched a propaganda campaign unmatched to this day. you think it's weird how saying "end the war" gets you called a traitor THESE days -- saying that you were in a union in the 50's got you compared to Stalin.

the people who rant against communism and socialism know nothing of them other than the bastardized versions used by dictators in various countries to control their populations. i wish more folks would study them and be informed.

Answer 2

It's true, there has never been a truly 'communist' country on earth.

Greed is the reason 'communism' fails when people attempt to institute a communist society. The idea of 'everyone having the same' doesn't appeal to people who want more than others.

In the Soviet Union you had a few people with most of the wealth, and the rest of the people were poor. That's not communism. Unfortunately communism looks good on paper, but has very little chance of ever working in real life.

Now, the main reason people hate communism is that they were taught from a young age that communists were 'evil'. The McCarthy era resulted in a massive wave of propaganda - where paranoid sheep would convince themselves that their neighbors might be 'commies'. If you go back and look at the anti-communist literature of the time, you can see where the current batch of neo-conservatives got their anti-muslim talking points from.

They are what has replaced communism as this administrations boogey man.

Answer 3

"association of socialism with the Soviet Union and its clients serves as a powerful ideological weapon to enforce conformity and obedience to the State capitalist institutions, to ensure that the necessity to rent oneself to the owners and managers of these institutions will be regarded as virtually a natural law, the only alternative to the 'socialist' dungeon."
Noam Chomsky http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1986----.htm

"This American aggression abroad will be associated with an increasing trend toward anti-Communist authoritarianism within the United States, which its victims will call fascism and which may eventually make it impossible to have discussions like this one today. This American fascism will come, if it comes, because American liberals have joined the American public in a fear of Communism from abroad rather than fascism at home as the chief totalitarian menace."
John K. Fairbanks as quoted by Noam Chomsky in "At War with Asia"

Anyhow, don't hate anything you don't know. I suggest to the critics of socialism that they read the work of Marxist writers. Perhaps they will see that they have more in common with your own founding fathers than the government would like you to know. (By founding fathers I mean Payne and Jefferson rather than Hamilton and Madison).
The distinction between socialism and capitalism is not altogether true as some measure of market freedom is possible while the workers own the means of production. Also, the idea that the government controls everything under communism is to mistakenly associate it with totalitarianism. Communism is possible under a democracy.
And for the critics of Cuba: Was Cuba rich when it was capitalist? All Cubans are fed and educated and recently the island reformed its energy system and it is officially green. Talk about progress.
Cuba has many problems. The lack of democracy is one. The lack of food is another. Given the terrorism campaigns inflicted on the island by the US, one must understand that a different future was possible.... if only the Cuban Revolution had not happened 90 miles away from the empire.

One last thing. If communism is in fact a foredoomed political system: Why did the US go to such lengths to not allow any country to try it without waging a savage war upon them? Is it possible that the totalitarianism and militarism of communist countries is a direct consequence to the instability brought upon by US terrorism, threats and spying?

Answer 4

Although I don't believe communism will actually work, I agree with you that Cuba, China and the Soviet Union were not true communism. They are more of one party dictatorships. But the reason people in America are so irrational about it in their hatred toward communism comes from a century long campaign of anti-communist propaganda. They've trained the people to fear it and to hate it in such an irrational and emotional way that even mentioning the word brings about an emotional response rather than a desire for discussion of it's true social and economic philosophies and it's critique of capitalism. Many Americans who are so ademently against communism are usually the corporate capitalists, their avid indoctrined followers and those who are uneducated and brainwashed. These people either help perpetuate a either/or, black or white binary way of thinking instead of looking at the writings and the intellectual thought behind the philosophy. They can't seem to get beyond black and white thinking and have a critical mind. It's all emotional for them. Many of these uneducated types confuse communism with socialism as well. The only place you get a true in depth critique of it's social and economic philosophies is in an upper level Political Science or Philosophy class.

Answer 5

Personally, I don't want to have to bear the burden of feeding the poor. I was poor but managed to dig my way out so can they. I want to keep what I earn is there something fundamentally wrong with that? Why should anyone have the right to tell me how much money I can make? As for your examples, yeah the poor are doing so well in those countries. Go to Cuba or China you'll see what poor really is. We are talking no electricity, no running water and sometimes not even a floor, just 4 walls and hopefully a good roof. The "poor" in the US live better than the majority of people around the world, most have at least one vehicle, a place to sleep that has electricity, running water and usually at least one tv with cable or satellite. Go ask the poor in Cuba or China where they would rather live. Ask them how much communism has done for them?

Answer 6

Because true communism will never completely exist as long as human will and the desire for more is also alive and well. The telling truth about all of the countries that have tried communism is that there always evolves a n exclusionary ruling class that takes from the workers to feed themselves only and just like in Animal Farm by George Orwell, "All men are created equal. Yet some are more equal than others"

Answer 7

They use it as a rallying point to control and unite the masses. The Media uses it to sell papers and get advertisers.

Sun Tzu--Moral law of the people must be in fully accord with the ruler , when the Way is in accord the people will be willing to die and live with the ruler and not fear danger.

It all started with McCarthyism, this was the snowballed the anti-communism sentiment. The ball turned into a boulder and ruined the lives of many law biding citizens, they turned them into Anti-US-Democracy-Free Enterprise American haters ideology. The Avalanche finally reached it's peak during Regan's presidency with the fall of the Berlin wall and the break up of the USSR. Even if communism isn't a real threat... generations of brain washing through the media still makes it a threat.--We have much in common with the muslim youth being taught that America is bad! as we are taught Communism is bad! Prejudice is a condition that is learned, not one that is genetically ingrained.

The ideology of brotherly love--John Lennon's song "Imagine" is the essence of what communism represents. (good, bad, or indiffernce.) We need to respect the sovereign rights of other nations... just as we need them to respect ours!

Answer 8

The word communism has been grimy via chairman mao who murdered 70 million human beings and Josef Stalin who's suggested to have killed 40 to 50 million. Communism is seen as totalitarian, merciless and heartless as a results of dictators who used the word to describe their tyrannical governments . the reality is that communism as a theory is very attractive, collectivism could be particularly enthralling yet is in all probability impossible to ever see in prepare for long.

Answer 9

The idea behind it is like "star trek" we work & become self improved for the community good, wouldn't it be great if we were all that selfless. But we are not. Communism has & will be abused by those few at the top, while the poor stay poor & do all the work.
For now competition is what compels us to do better, to advance, if there was no hope of a better life why bother.

Answer 10

Communism has failed, even those few regimes currently lurching along while clinging to it - like North Korea and Cuba - /prove/ that. The only 'communist' nations that are genuinely doing well are the ones that have adopted market reforms.

Communism isn't hated so much as it's being relegated to the trash heap of history.

The true supporters of communism today aren't the few folks stuck practicing some twisted totalitarian version of it, but the few idealists who are enchanted with it, mainly because they've never had to live with it.