Thread by @K_Niemietz

Ha ha haaaaa hahahaha!
Look what I got there.

My cat's already shredded a page. I normally stop him when he does something like that, but couldn't bring myself to do that, in this case.

"While it is true that a number of political projects have labelled themselves communist [...] the aspiration was neither accurate nor [...] technologically possible. [...] Communism is luxurious - or it isn't communism."
-I'm only on p. 56. And I've already lost the will to live

"The claim that capitalism will end, is, for capitalist realism, like saying [...] that the law of gravity no longer applies [...]
And yet [...] capitalist realism is already coming apart. The fact you are reading these words at all is proof."
-OK, where's the nearest bridge?

"...the contours of something new, a society as distant from our own as that of the twentieth century to feudalism, or urban civilisation from the life of hunter-gatherers. [...] Its name? Fully automated luxury communism."
-I know I can be a bit pretentious, but THIS is... wow.

"[A]ny rupture must be understandable to most people in an idiom that they readily understand."

"[A] populist politics is necessary. One that blends culture and government with ideas of personal and social renewal. […] Anything less will fall short."

"Under FALC we will […] lead lives equivalent […] to those of today's billionaires. Luxury will pervade everything […]
[T]he process of building FALC will not only bequeath us the resources needed to make us happy, but also a sense of common purpose."

"When we have scaled that summit [...], even the least compassionate will reflect on today's world with regret and pity."
-I know I'm not exactly in a position to call other people smug and self-congratulatory, but... come on!

Wonder whether there's an equivalent of this going on on the other side, i.e. someone on Commie Twitter live-tweeting passages from my book, like "OMG, I can't believe Niemietz really said this! SO BAD!!! SO CRINGEWORTHY!!"

"FALC is not the communism of the early twentieth century [...] The technologies needed [...] -renewable energy, automation, and information- were absent in the Russian Empire"
-It will be different this time, because wind turbines, Alexa and Google. Right.

"FALC is different. […] [I]t recognizes the centrality of human rights, most importantly the right of personal happiness, and seeks to build a society where everyone can access the necessary resources to further that end."
-Yeah, that has NEVER occurred to anyone.

Some more waffle about how "FALC" is supposedly different from the Soviet version. Doesn't realise that this is all stuff that everyone involved with the Soviet project would also have said...

Exhibit A:
"[N]essitous people are not free people. In the absence of access to such resources - housing, education, transport [...] - freedom […] cannot be said to meaningfully exist. […] Liberal ends […] are impossible without communist means."
Cf.: