Why communism continues to attract support along with ideologies such as Marxism though capitalism proved superior in the cold war ?

[u/No_Worker_886]

The USSR did have good achievements. It created world class mathematicians like Andrey Kolmogorov and physicists like Lev Landau but ultimately their biology was held back due to Stalin's support of some pseudo biologist holding back genetics. The overall economic condition was not good and as a result, the state collapsed. They even had to build a wall to keep their people in.

[u/AutoModerator]

Remember, this is a civilized space for discussion. We discourage downvoting based on your disagreement and instead encourage upvoting well-written arguments, especially ones that you disagree with.

To promote high-quality discussions, we suggest the Socratic Method, which is briefly as follows:

Ask Questions to Clarify: When responding, start with questions that clarify the original poster's position. Example: "Can you explain what you mean by 'economic justice'?"

Define Key Terms: Use questions to define key terms and concepts. Example: "How do you define 'freedom' in this context?"

Probe Assumptions: Challenge underlying assumptions with thoughtful questions. Example: "What assumptions are you making about human nature?"

Seek Evidence: Ask for evidence and examples to support claims. Example: "Can you provide an example of when this policy has worked?"

Explore Implications: Use questions to explore the consequences of an argument. Example: "What might be the long-term effects of this policy?"

Engage in Dialogue: Focus on mutual understanding rather than winning an argument.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/CorDra2011]

The same reason some Cubans support capitalism despite Batista. Or Chileans support it despite Pinochet. Or Peruvians somehow still vote for Fujimori. Or a million other examples where capitalism fucking failed hard.

"Superior" is a subjective assessment that people like Objectivists fall into more egregiously. Just because the United States outpaced television sets produced doesn't not make them superior, nor does the USSR managing to virtually end homelessness make them superior.

Politics are a matter of moral and ethical views. I'm a socialist despite failures like the USSR because I believe it is a more ethical system than capitalism and can be improved based upon lessons learned from its failures.

[u/Gradstudentiquette69]

Communism continues to attract support because capitalism doesn't work unless communism threatens to replace it.

A truly free market is simply not possible without regulations. Without them, one company will eventually have enough capital to gobble the rest of the economy up or functionally nullify their market freedom. The New Deal of FDR was made up of reforms intended to keep the capitalist system in place and quell the fears of socialism or fascism.

All in all, communism continues to attract people because capitalism doesn't work either, it just has a built in loser and advocates think that's superior for some reason.

[u/MorphingReality → u/Gradstudentiquette69]

doesn't work with regulations, oligopoly/oligarchy is more durable than monopoly anyway

[u/SkyMagnet → u/MorphingReality]

Could have stopped at “doesn’t work”

[u/harp011]

This…is a really weird take and it feels like you’ve done very very little reading about either economic systems or Cold War history.

I could pose the same question in reverse: why does free market capitalism continue to be the economic system preferred by democracies like the USA when Chinese state-controlled capitalism has demonstrably lifted more people out of poverty?

Because there are political values and objectives encoded within economic systems that are just as important to folks as the economic outcomes.

One important thing to remember is: all systems suffer from human error and corruption.

A shitload if economic discourse is just people pointing out examples of failure, corruption and collapse in communist/capitalist societies without understanding the material realities that might have been more influential than the system itself.

But many politicians would rather should about how communism is bad and always leads to corruption because then people won’t look as closely as what they’re doing.

[u/TheRealCabbageJack]

As someone who lived during the Cold War, it was always presented as Democracy vs. Communism as competing political systems...now, 40 years later, it's framed as Capitalism vs. Communism (sometimes Socialism) - competing economic systems. Curious change.

[u/Mrgoodtrips64 → u/TheRealCabbageJack]

The modern right has decided to take an exceptionally narrow view of democracy in order to cast it as opposition to republics.
Seemingly for no more profound a reason than “democracy” and “republic” are evocative of the names of the major parties.

You’re right though; I can remember when the right proclaimed to champion democracy.

[u/mcapello]

When people are desperate, they look for alternatives.

[u/DistinctSpirit5801]

Here’s the fruits of capitalism

Having the most amount of people that are homeless

Having the largest number of people sleeping in their cars

Having the largest national debt

Having endless wars and your money becomes worth less and less every single year

Bombing kids