Poll: Is Yahtzee a Communist?

[The Rogue Wolf]

Hmm. Now, I've seen pretty much evey episode of Zero Punctuation, and at no point do I recall Yahtzee ever advocating for the state takeover of private business and property. In fact, he runs a business and has published a book for profit. So no, I don't believe Benjamin Croshaw is a communist.

Also, tell your brother to pick up a book and learn what the term "communist" actually means.

 

[Spongebobdickpants]

As an actual communist I feel offended by the implications of the OP.

I am not completely informed on all of the requirements ect to call yourself communist but i am far left leaning, i mean i've read the communist manifesto and seen (not read) a few of chomsky's lectures about what it means but i doubt it covers everything or even alot just the basic principles. So for now I'll just call myself a leftist.

But based on these principles i find this thread hilarious due to all the inaccurate portrayals of what communism actually is.

Why wouldnt video games exist in a communist society, people need entertainment so surely it would need to be a role that needs filling.

Communist does not mean state controls everything, it means the workers own the means to production

Also dont call Russia or China communist if you do then you are grossly misinformed. They are state capitalist, stop calling them communist. Its as laughable as calling the west a free market capitalist economy or saying that the nazi's were communist cause they had socialist in their party name. They hated communists.

Hmm. Now, I've seen pretty much evey episode of Zero Punctuation, and at no point do I recall Yahtzee ever advocating for the state takeover of private business and property. In fact, he runs a business and has published a book for profit. So no, I don't believe Benjamin Croshaw is a communist.

Also, tell your brother to pick up a book and learn what the term "communist" actually means.

Ironic as you assume communist = state controlled.

True communism is stateless.

 

[minimacker]

What's so bad about Communism, anyway? It's Stalinism and Nazism we should be worrying about.

Edit: Back when Lenin was the leader, he was actually quite a boss. He introduced electric lightings for farmers and basically helped, if not caused the Russian boom in the pre-1920s. The man survived two assassination attempts and was slowly dying from strokes caused by lead poisoning.

But even then, knowing he would eventually pass away, he continued working on ways of producing Dynamo generators. He drew hundreds of documents, working from ten to fourteen hours per day.

Then Stalin took over. Hitler came, Stalin ceased the development of infrastructure and began working on a great military. Which eventually caused the economic collapse and end of the Soviet Union.

Some say Stalin ruined the nation to get more power, others say that he had no choice and that it was a risk he had to take to get ready for the German invasion.

Me? I don't think he did the right decision. Stalin spread propaganda upon his own people and was extending towards Finland, even though Finland was neutral and wasn't in immediate danger of a Nazi invasion. (Coastal batteries off the Baltic coast. And it was also freezing cold.)

 

[Product Placement]

communists tend to be optimistic about human nature and all that jazz

I believe you're thinking about socialists. A socialistic utopia is all about abandoning the whole concept of ownership and wealth and such and instead create a shared pool of resources that everyone has an equal access to. The fundamental thinking behind that is that humanity can be taught to think responsibly and leave behind feelings of greed and prejudice and such. The Federation from Star Trek is an example of such vision.

Communism is the attempt to create a socialist world by leaving all resource management to the government; everything becomes government owned. Here the belief is that people can't be trusted with the responsibilities that true socialism demands of them and that it must be placed in the hands of a trusted authority. The fundamental flaw behind that concept is that you risk giving the government so much power that it gains totalitarian control over everyone. The rulers live in luxury while the people suffer. That is what happened to the Soviet Union.

In short. Socialism isn't Communism. Communism is an attempt to create Socialism.

 

[FEichinger]

As an actual communist I feel offended by the implications of the OP.

I am not completely informed on all of the requirements ect to call yourself communist but i am far left leaning, i mean i've read the communist manifesto and seen (not read) a few of chomsky's lectures about what it means but i doubt it covers everything or even alot just the basic principles. So for now I'll just call myself a leftist.

But based on these principles i find this thread hilarious due to all the inaccurate portrayals of what communism actually is.

Why wouldnt video games exist in a communist society, people need entertainment so surely it would need to be a role that needs filling.

Communist does not mean state controls everything, it means the workers own the means to production

Also dont call Russia or China communist if you do then you are grossly misinformed. They are state capitalist, stop calling them communist. Its as laughable as calling the west a free market capitalist economy or saying that the nazi's were communist cause they had socialist in their party name. They hated communists.

Hmm. Now, I've seen pretty much evey episode of Zero Punctuation, and at no point do I recall Yahtzee ever advocating for the state takeover of private business and property. In fact, he runs a business and has published a book for profit. So no, I don't believe Benjamin Croshaw is a communist.

Also, tell your brother to pick up a book and learn what the term "communist" actually means.

Ironic as you assume communist = state controlled.

True communism is stateless.

This, really. We mustn't mix socialism and communism. Myself, I don't follow any ideology. I established my own model of an anti-hierarchic communism - basically a stateless collection of small groups of people supplying each other within the group, and trading outside the group. Lack of a currency. No superior type of government, just a "Aid the group or get evicted." collective. Legion, if you will.
Requires a change of the basic human mindset away from the thrive-for-power bullshittery, though.


"picture perfect" captcha. ... No, I'm not gonna call my model perfect on that basis, but god, that's hilarious.

 

[ElPatron]

snip

/facepalm.

I said

No, it is seen (from the American standpoint) as the government asking for more taxes to keep an ineffective healthcare system that will be abused and create even more debt.

Also, my country ranks 12th but we have a shit healthcare.

It's abused by thousands everyday, it's ineffective, hospitals are in massive debt and have problems with suppliers and people die waiting for medical service.

I was talking about what Americans think. Just because I think the same it doesn't mean you need to lecture me on how perfect my universal healthcare is.

 

[Nikolaz72]

communists tend to be optimistic about human nature and all that jazz

I believe you're thinking about socialists. A socialistic utopia is all about abandoning the whole concept of ownership and wealth and such and instead create a shared pool of resources that everyone has an equal access to. The fundamental thinking behind that is that humanity can be taught to think responsibly and leave behind feelings of greed and prejudice and such. The Federation from Star Trek is an example of such vision.

Communism is the attempt to create a socialist world by leaving all resource management to the government; everything becomes government owned. Here the belief is that people can't be trusted with the responsibilities that true socialism demands of them and that it must be placed in the hands of a trusted authority. The fundamental flaw behind that concept is that you risk giving the government so much power that it gains totalitarian control over everyone. The rulers live in luxury while the people suffer. That is what happened to the Soviet Union.

In short. Socialism isn't Communism. Communism is an attempt to create Socialism.

Actually. Socialism is an attempt to create a larger goverment by slowly nationalizing the industry. And then removing currency to make way for communism. Hence why the moderate socialists are social-democrats. And not commu-democrats. Socialism is a stepping stone to Communism, not the reverse.

Then again, I bet you dont live in a country with a surplus of socialist parties . So you're forgiven.

What Russia had was failed socialism that was attempted to be made into rapid communism because of hatred against the rich and the powerful ending in an oppressive dictatorship.

I have the theory that a system grounded in hatred would never really be too successfull. Hence the failure of theocracies in todays world.

 

[Treblaine]

Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw is not a communist. He may be an Australian citizen, an Englishman, a homosexual, a communist, but he is not a porn star.

Brilliant.

Please print off your prize and redeem at your local ISP:

I don't think your brother has any idea what communism is. Maybe if you look up what makes person communist and what the political idiology of communism is all about you will learn a lot and then you can happily tell your brother that he has no idea how wrong he is.

Most probably the case. America was in such a prolonged cold War with the Communists USSR and its communist allies that it ended up in a similar position as England where "french" practially became a by-word for "the enemy". I heard a story from the Crimean war of a British officer who insisted on referring their their Russian enemies as "The French" even though France was Britain's ally at the time (for the first time in a VERY long time, arguably EVER).

And communism is so hard to define after successive communist regimes that have deviated so much from Karl Marx's ideology and even from each other.

 

[Treblaine]

Ironic as you assume communist = state controlled.

True communism is stateless.

Isn't that either quibbling over semantics of what a state is or a "no true scotsman" fallacy?

What is a state? A geographic area with definite borders may be rules by a central and highest (actual) authority... may CLAIM not to be a state but still is. And as to the no-true-scotsman fallacy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman], it's the arbitrary exclusion of inconvenient examples when otherwise it would be relevant.

Stalin's USSR deviated hugely from communism but Lenin and Khrushchev-onward it certainly was following the communist ideals.

As to the state semantics, even under an ideal circumstance where the entire planet was under the same authority would that not be a single global super-state. The reason we have the terms state is to distinguish different geographical areas that have different and distinct authorities.

If you are saying communism is having no authority then that's not communism, that's anarchism. I highly idealistic view of anarchism where everyone has access to every other resource and service with no limitation yet no one abuses it.

 

[Soviet Steve]

I think he's largely indifferent to politics as long as they don't obstruct his life.

 

[hashtag]

Yahtzee once said Conservative policies were "too harsh".
He's obviously going to overthrow the Australian government and crown himself leader.

 

[Svenparty]

I think the real question here is: who cares?

This guy wins, Starting the think this website is for 13 year olds. Puts me off gaming.

 

[Ithera]

So what if he is? A little late for a communist witch-hunt?

Though the late Joseph McCarthy may have disagreed.

 

[Spongebobdickpants]

Ironic as you assume communist = state controlled.

True communism is stateless.

Isn't that either quibbling over semantics of what a state is or a "no true scotsman" fallacy?

What is a state? A geographic area with definite borders may be rules by a central and highest (actual) authority... may CLAIM not to be a state but still is. And as to the no-true-scotsman fallacy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman], it's the arbitrary exclusion of inconvenient examples when otherwise it would be relevant.

Stalin's USSR deviated hugely from communism but Lenin and Khrushchev-onward it certainly was following the communist ideals.

As to the state semantics, even under an ideal circumstance where the entire planet was under the same authority would that not be a single global super-state. The reason we have the terms state is to distinguish different geographical areas that have different and distinct authorities.

If you are saying communism is having no authority then that's not communism, that's anarchism. I highly idealistic view of anarchism where everyone has access to every other resource and service with no limitation yet no one abuses it.

To say something equates to something else because it is inspired/manipulated/originates/whatever from an idea doesn't mean it is that idea.

Again its like i said, just like our system resembles free market capitalism does not make it a capitalist system. In the same way russia has similarities to communism but it isn't communist. The simple existance of private property in china and russia is testament to this.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

My little brother thinks Yahtzee is a communist. He base's his idea on a Zero-Punctuation video he saw me watch. I don't think the same, thou he is the smart one. What are you guys thoughts?

No, he isn't a communist. However, from what I've seen in his various videos and such, he most assuredly is a liberal. Not liberal in the American sense, but in the generally more acceptable European sense, meaning pro-universal healthcare, gun control and the like. Which, frankly, most of Europe is.

Your definition of the average European liberal is exactly the same as the average American liberal. If he was one of those, he would also be the other one.

There are four reasons that being a liberal is considered a bad thing in America:
1. What's considered to be the "center" has been pulled over to the right. Most of our Democratic presidents have been technically centrists, but for some reason they're considered "far left extremists."
2. I've heard it said that the right fears their base and the left hates their base. This seems pretty true (and is also due to the same reasons as the above). While you have the right bending over backwards to please the extreme side of their base, the left does their best to distance themselves from the actual extreme leftists, making sure everyone knows that they may be liberals, but they're not crazy far-left hippies like that guy over there!
3. Hipsters thinking that if you stray away from the exact center point on the Political Compass graph [http://www.politicalcompass.org/], you're a blind, unreasonable fanatic who can't think for yourself.
4. Plain old exaggeration. If you're a liberal, obviously you think all of our income should be going to the government, and the rich should be forced to pay even more than what they make, while the poor are given free cars and abortions and the government spends all your money on expensive gluten-free doughnuts for the parties they throw for terrorist leaders. (No, nobody likes "wasteful" spending. Liberals just have a broader definition of what constitutes reasonable government spending than conservatives do.)

...Not because American liberals are any different than your definition of a European liberal.

 

[DRTJR]

I think the OP's brother is confusing Columnist with Communist. Because his job wouldn't exist in a "worker's Paradise"

 

[Benny Blanco]

No, he's not.
He owns a business (The Mana Bar) which isn't really communist material, is it?

 

[loc978]

Please let your brother know that there is a very concrete, long-established definition for the word "communist", and that he insults people in every corner of the political arena by his blatant misinterpretation of it.

 

[SidheKnight]

Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw is not a communist. He may be an Australian citizen, an Englishman, a homosexual, a communist, but he is not a porn star.

Yahtzee is gay?!

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I could never have guessed..

 

[Doitpow]

What is this thread I don't even...

Your brother saw a picture of a black guy and a white guy in a ZP video. he therefore thinks yahtzee is racist...therefore a nazi(right wing)...therefore "a bit left wing"...therefore a communist.

you...I don't...what...


Fuck you