• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    22 hours ago

    First off, it’s great that you’re thinking about things seriously, I don’t want to discredit that effort. However, there are several issues with this.

    1. Revolution

    Historically, revolution has happened in the Global South, and not merely by convincing the working class, but through organization. Look to how Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam, etc all had revolutions, and you’ll see it was driven by sharpening contradictions in class antagonisms.

    1. “Utopia”

    Marxism rejects Utopianism, ie thinking of a model and trying to build it outright. Marxism requires revolution, yes, but takes a gradualist approach to collectivization once the revolution has happened. This is Scientific Socialism, which analyzes trajectories in Capitalism to predict what a Socialist society would look like.

    1. FOSS

    FOSS isn’t “Market Socialism.” It’s its own category of software that doesn’t rely on profit or competition.

    1. Connecting all of the Credit Unions

    How do you plan to go about such a monumental task? Most Credit Unions are local organizations, for local users. There isn’t a historical example of this happening.

    1. Going from a unified Credit Union to charity

    Under Capitalism, even with a unified Credit Union, people still suffer from being at the whims of wealthy Capitalists, and likely wouldn’t be willing to or able to donate en mass.

    For all of these reasons, this isn’t really a practical plan, which is why studying history and theory is important.

    • fakir@lemm.ee
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      22 hours ago

      Under Capitalism, even with a unified Credit Union, people still suffer from being at the whims of wealthy Capitalists, and likely wouldn’t be willing to or able to donate en mass.

      If you can imagine a global unified credit union, where everyone is equal, with better benefits than traditional banks, you’ve essentially removed capitalists from banking - think about that. You could do the same with other essential industries like education, healthcare, food etc.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        21 hours ago

        I understand the concept, the problem is with implementing it from where we are now, and proving that energy would not be better applied via revolution and implementing Socalism. Your thought process is along the same lines as the Utopian Socialists like Owen, who tried to convince people but ultimatley failed. The reason Marxism has a much better track record is because of Scientific Socialism, which is based on analyzing how to get from here to there. I recommend reading Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.

        • fakir@lemm.ee
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          17 hours ago

          As I understand, scientific socialism acknowledges class struggle and current material conditions, but still requires overthrow of capitalist systems. You’re suggesting it’s easier to convince people to overthrow their banks (and have no personal banking?) rather than switch to a global credit union.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            17 hours ago

            I’m suggesting that the idea of creating a global credit union within the boundaries set by Capitalism, and carrying it to fruition, is far more difficult than revolution. You’re asking the absolute most wealthy individuals to sit by and watch their wealth dry up and to do nothing about it.

            I think you should read the essay I linked.

            • fakir@lemm.ee
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              17 hours ago

              Okay, at least we’re talking about execution now. I’ll read the essay, but like unix and fediverse and credit unions exist right now and capitalists can’t stop them. They can only compete with them in the free market. They certainly won’t be able to stop them once they get even bigger and more mainstream.

              • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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                17 hours ago

                We were always talking about execution. FOSS is regularly undermined and Credit Unions are almost always more local than otherwise.

                • fakir@lemm.ee
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                  13 hours ago

                  So you’re saying the fediverse can’t outgrow Reddit because it’s FOSS and not corporate controlled? I’m saying it will and there’s nothing Reddit can do about it.