this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
398 points (94.2% liked)
Explain Like I'm Five
19383 readers
2 users here now
Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
Rules
- Be respectful and inclusive.
- No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
- Engage in constructive discussions.
- Share relevant content.
- Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
- Use appropriate language and tone.
- Report violations.
- Foster a continuous learning environment.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
One reason I can think is we haven't yet seen a working socialist society, which often fail for external reasons.
For example, the socialist government in Cuba was severely undermined by the USA imposed blockade.
A more recent example is Venezuela, while you can think what you want about its current government, I don't think USA should interfere with any sovereign nation.
There's almost like a pattern, like someone, somewhere doesn't like the idea of socialism to succeed.
There are plenty of surviving socialist states, and Cuba and Venezuela and Vietnam for that matter still exist despite extensive US meddling so it's weird to call them non-surviving.
Whether you want to call China socialist is a whole different kettle of worms, but I think it demonstrates rather handily that socialism's second greatest burden beyond the necessity of fighting off capitalists is the authoritarianism of Marxists.
I'm a total lamen but what makes Marxism authoritarian?
Marxism posits that socialism is best achieved through a command/centralized economy. There's plenty of room for interpretation and of course being a Marxist doesn't mean you have to agree with 150 year old socioeconomic theories on every point but generally that's the form Marxist governments have assumed, probably because it is in the interest of the people running a government to take all the power they can.
If the government controls production from the ground up there's just no other model to call it but authoritarian, everything within that society can only happen by their consent or by breaking the law.