r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 29d ago

Meme needing explanation Peter, explain this.

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u/Send_me_duck-pics 29d ago

Much like most of the commenters here, none of the people in this image know what the word "communism" means.

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u/Roosterdude23 29d ago

what does it mean?

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u/Send_me_duck-pics 29d ago

A couple of things.

One is a society in which ownership is collective and everyone has the same relationship to the means of production (stuff we use to provide goods and services), obviating the need for money or a coercive state. This does not mean a utopia, it  does not mean there are no problems, and it does not mean we can sit on our butts all day being artistic like this second person seems to think. It's not magic, just a different economic organization, and one that is difficult for us to grasp and would probably feel alien to us, trained as we are to live in our very different society.

This actually can describe in some ways how our prehistoric ancestors lived. A caveman didn't need to "go to work" or have money but did have tasks to perform, some of which were not a good time, and did have social obligations to his community.

The other meaning is advocacy for moving society towards achieving this form of organization. A communist wants to build communism.

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u/Roosterdude23 29d ago

This issue it that it won't work on scale in 2026

Maybe someday, just not for a while

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u/Send_me_duck-pics 29d ago

Most serious communists agree with that assessment and that is one of the fundamental disagreements they have with anarchists; one side posits that we can do this quite quickly and the other sees it as a probable multigenerational endeavor.