this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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Here's a link to another post where I expressed my thoughts if you're interested -- https://lemmy.world/post/36592343

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[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well said. The key point is that our goal must be to deliver tangible improvements to people's everyday material conditions. Chasing some abstract, Platonic ideal of a perfect society is a pointless exercise. It's also unrealistic to expect any human society to become a Utopia.

Instead, we should focus on maximizing personal agency. That means accomplishing concrete things like reducing work hours, guaranteeing access to basic necessities, and providing public spaces like parks, libraries, and sports centers.

The goal isn't to have some nebulous "freedoms" promoted in the West. It's about ensuring that our collective labour and resources are directed toward raising the standard of living for everyone. And that process can only begin with the collective ownership of the means of production.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Absolutely. It's also important to recognize the objective laws governing how capitalism works, where it's headed, and why. If we just stumble blindly in the dark, hoping to chance at building something better, then we can't get anywhere. Doomerism is often very counter-productive, and removes our agency.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Exactly, human societies are dynamic systems and we have to analyze them as such. We have to look at the selection pressures the rules of the system create, and interpret human behavior within the context of these rules. When we see that the rules create perverse incentives, we have the power to change the social contract.

Understanding how and why the system works is one of the best antidotes to doomerism, hence why we incessantly tell people to read theory. Once you understand why things work a certain way, and the mechanics that drive the evolution of the system then it no longer feels like a force of nature. It's a machine that we've constructed, and it operates because we collectively allow it to.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Correct, which is why Marxism-Leninism is such a useful tool for not only understanding the world, but changing it, and is why socialist countries like China are doing so well right now despite outside hostility.