What I am interested in learning is how society would operate and function under socialism / communism. More about the differences. Preferably from less dry sources than The Capital from Marx

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/11/prin-com.htm

My personal suggestions would be.

• What is to be done by Lenin
• The Transitional Program for Socialist Revolution by Trotsky.
• The Permanent Revolution & Results and Prospects by Trotsky.
• Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Engels.

All of these and many more can be found for free at https://www.marxists.org/

Communism is the dream of a classless society where everyone is equal and receives an equal share of their fruits of their labor. Socialism is the process of moving towards Communism.

Real wages when compared to rising costs of living in norway have been stagnant for over a decade. Home ownership rates are still rather high but they have been decreasing steadily since their peak in 2007. How is that the state keeping capitalism in check? Sounds like it is just losing ground slower than other countries.

How have things been going for the Sami in norway? Are the high-ish living standards in Norway being maintained in part by continue exploitation of the indigenous peoples? How is that keeping capitalism in check?

Social democracy is capitalism with a facelift. Stalin once said. “social democracy is the moderate wing of fascism.”

The fact is that under social democrats or liberal democrats the rights of the rich to maintain and expand their wealth are always prioritised over the rights of workers to get a fair share of the wealth they produce. This is because the rich are able to pay to have their voices heard while the workers have little to no excess wealth.

As for "how society would operate and function under socialism " It would be much the same as it is now only the government would work for the betterment of the masses instead of the betterment of the few. Look at how things are in China and that is how society is under socialism. The government has raised living standards and life expectancy at an insane rate, businesses are taxed significantly and the government has a say on their operations. Most importantly when a rich person or company breaks the law they are held to account, they don’t get a slap on the wrist or a “cost of doing business” fine.

Socialism is a process and each situation requires different steps at different times and a different system to get it there but the idea of democratic centralism is really important as it cuts down on the capitalists playing 2 sides off each other.

If you’re not opposed to reading (no judgment, a lot of people are these days) I would recommend Blackshirts and The Reds by Micheal Parenti. It is a great anti-propoganda tool and also addresses some problems with past socialist societies.

Free PDF: https://welshundergroundnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/blackshirts-and-reds-by-michael-parenti.pdf

First off, it’s fantastic to see that you’re willing to learn! That’s great, it’s really commendable. Consider making an account on Lemmy.ml, Hexbear.net, Lemmygrad.ml, or even Lemm.ee, so you can see more of what the so-called “tankies” are actually saying, rather than having them blocked from view on Lemmy.world.

As for answering your questions, I want to speak on Norway first. Norway, and the western countries in general, are “Imperialist” by Marxist standards. Norway essentially bribes its proletariat with a portion of the spoils it reaps from hyper-exploiting the Global South, through methods such as IMF loans and outsourcing production. Norway keeps Capitalism temporarily in check simply for its own workers, but acts parasitically towards the Global South.

Of course, the United States, despite being worse for its workers, is by far the largest and worst Empire, it’s just that the spoils of Imperialism are divied up even more lopsided, where the 1% earn unfathomable sums off of it.

When looking at Socialism and how it functions, look to “AES” countries, or “Actually Existing Socialism.” These include Cuba, Vietnam, the PRC, Laos, DPRK, the former USSR, etc. Right off the bat, alarm bells are probably ringing for you, but keep 2 things in mind:

1. You are not immune to propaganda. The Red Scare and Anticommunism in the West is deeply penatrating, and likely clouds much of how you see these countries.

2. A system being Socialist does not make it a wonderland Utopia, they still exist in the real world and face real problems, both internal and external.

In Marxist terms, Socialism is where Public Ownership is the Principle aspect of the economy. Large firms and key industries being publicly owned means that the Public Sector is the one with power over the economy. The PRC, for example, has its large firms and key industries overwhelmingly publicly owned, while the private sector is dominated by cooperatives, sole proprietorships, and small firms. This is because Marx believed you had to develop out of small ownership, not simply make it illegal, hence why you’ll see Socialists talk about the Productive Forces all the time. Norway, as an example, has the large firms in the Private Sector, and the Public Sector is in service of the Private.

That’s a quick overview! I skipped over so much because it’s really a vast topic that unfortunately does require reading. I keep an introductory Marxist-Leninist Reading List I designed to be easy to get into and not be quite so dry. This is the best path to get a firm understanding of theory, and is what @[email protected] tagged me here for (thanks, comrade!).

Alternatively, I will recommend reading just the first section for now, made up of Principles of Communism, followed by Blackshirts and Reds, and Dr. Michael Parenti’s 1986 Lecture. Afterwards, Blowback is an excellent podcast talking about US Imperialism, and frequently touches on sympathetic portrayals of Socialist movements. You won’t be a theory expert, but those will help drive interest in theory in general. I’d also read Dessalines’ Crash Course Socialism if you go this route!

Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any about Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, etc, and I’ll do my best! 🫡

Sorry for copying and pasting this response to your other 2 threads, but I figured it would be beneficial for you to see the various responses to my comment on the different communities, in how they differ.

Also, side-note! I don’t think asking this question will be complete without asking on a Lemm.ee account or other more broadly federated account will get you the full picture, most Communists on Lemmy are on Lemmygrad.ml and Hexbear.net, and you can’t see any of their responses.

Hello. First of all, I want to congratulate you for putting in the effort of actually coming here to see for yourself instead of taking what you heard at face value, it may not sound like much but it is rare enough to be noteworthy. To be actively challenging your current worldview by looking for alternative ones, especially on political and economical matters, isn’t something a lot of peoples ever do, and it is a great sign of open mindedness and intelligence in my opinion.

I will now respond to your questions and affirmation point by point.

I understand how capitalism works, and I have doubts that it is a sustainable system for society long term, but social democracy has been a good way of keeping capitalism in-check in Norway. So even if capitalism is not ideal, it is in theory possible to tax the rich more and keep the whole thing going in the future. I also understand the exploitation and the extraction of surplus value, rent seeking etc.

There are a few things you need to know about social democracy that it’s proponents never talk about, more often because they don’t know either than to intentionally hide information.

Social democracy in Europe really got going after ww2 as a concession to the working class. The reason the European capitalists allowed this concession is because, on one hand, after ww2 communism was wildly popular in Europe, the French communist party for example was the most popular political party at the time, which meant that there was a great risk of revolutions happening all across the continent, but on the other hand, the fascists had just been beaten to the curb, they were grazing walls and not ready to come out in public again anytime soon, so the capitalists couldn’t use the fascists to crush the communists the way they had between the 2 world wars (the Nazis and Italian fascists both took power after successfully crushing ongoing communist revolutions in their respective countries).

Since the capitalists couldn’t crush the growing worker movements, yet didn’t want to lose everything in a revolution, they decided on a temporary compromise. They would give the working class some social benefits (paid for mainly by neo-colonial exploitation of “former” colonies via import taxes and various means of resources theft) in order to calm the growing revolutionary sentiment.

This is a first thing that is very important to understand because the implied narrative of social democrats is that Europe got all these nice social benefits simply by voting for the right peoples. This is false. The capitalists allowed us social democracy because they were scared shitless that if they didn’t, one day we would break down their doors armed with torches and pitchforks and drag them all to the guillotines. In other words, the idea that you can get social democracy by voting for Bernie Sanders (or whoever represent the social democrat faction in your country) is false, just straight up completely false, the capitalists only let social democracy happen when there is a real threat of revolution but the capitalists have been too weakened by whatever factors to fight against one.

The second thing you need to understand about social democracy is that social democracy is, and I cannot stress this enough, always a temporary concession. It never ever stays long term. They let us have it when they are scared and defenseless, but as soon as the threat of revolution is passed, they start slowly but surely taking it all away. You know how there are always massive protests going on in Europe to the point you hear about it all the way in the US? That’s why! All over Europe, the capitalists are slowly taking social benefits away, privatizing public enterprises, de-funding schools, hospitals, etc… That’s what we have been constantly protesting against for decades.

So no, social democracy isn’t keeping capitalism in check, and was never meant to. Social democracy is to keep us in check.

As for taxing the rich and all that. Just the fact the under capitalism, governments are made of billionaires and peoples bribed by billionaires should be enough to dispel any notion that they would ever let such a thing get passed unless under pressure of a potential revolution.

What I am interested in learning is how society would operate and function under socialism / communism. More about the differences. Preferably from less dry sources than The Capital from Marx. Where can I learn more? Preferably a bit entertaining.

I can recommend a few videos:

The Future of Socialism

How Democracy Works in Cuba

Why We Need Socialism

Socialism is just better, scientifically

“Socialism always fails” is a stupid argument

Why Do Poor Countries Stay Poor? (Unequal Exchange and Imperialism)

Is Vietnam socialist?

DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM - how Socialists make decisions!

LAND REFORM in Vietnam

How can China be socialist if it has a stock market? Understanding the Chinese economy

People Really Liked Socialism, Actually

Here is a playlist about the history of modes of productions and class struggle based on a textbook:

Guide to Marxist Economics

A series of 3 videos about how capitalists used the Nazis to crush the german revolution:

The Betrayal Of The German Revolution | Part I

The Betrayal Of The German Revolution | Part II

The Betrayal Of The German Revolution | Part III

If you prefer books, you can check out the Library on prolewiki

There are plenty more things you can check out. If you go on Hexbear or Lemmygrad and search for things on there or post to ask for things to read or watch, you’ll find plenty. Btw, your account seems to be on the .world instance, this instance defederated both Hexbear and Lemmygrad so you won’t be able to use your current account to interact with them, I suggest you make an account on lemmy.ml so that you can.