Leftist Lasagna

"I hate communism [state capitalism] because it is the negation of liberty and because for me humanity is unthinkable without liberty.

I am not a communist [state capitalist], because communism [state capitalism] concentrates and swallows up in itself for the benefit of the state all the forces of society, because it inevitably leads to the concentration of property in the hands of the state."

— Mikhail Bakunin

note: by "communism" here mike means state capitalism or statist socialism or authoritarian leftism. max stirner also refers to it as communism as does ambedkar, but they did not actually oppose communism, instead they were against communists who weren't necessarily clear nor correct about what needs to be done, and who had authoritarian ideas about bringing about social change.

many well-meaning critics of "communism" actually mean to criticize statist forms of socialism with their point of reference often being the USSR or Maoist China. many foresaw the bankruptcy of statist socialism before the USSR even happened. they use the word "communism" because it has long been associated with such statist projects.

remember that communism has nothing to do with any kind of hierarchical organizing, nothing to do with states, and nothing to do with marxism or leninism or maoism or stalinism etc. you don't have to be a marxist or to have even read marx to know that capitalism is terrible and why. you don't have to have heard of marx to be a communist. there isn't one particular way to dismantle capitalism and that communism is inevitable is just a superstition. anyone telling you any of this has no clue about what communism is.

communism is something we do, have done in the past, continue to unknowingly do in many spaces where we are free with each other. it is something you can do if you simply decide to–of course only to a certain extent at the moment, until we are able to fully abolish private control over the commons. it is not a system that can be imposed by a government or an enlightened political party. there is no revolution coming after which we will all be "under" communism.