Poll: Is Yahtzee a Communist?

[F'Angus]

Hahaha, We should ask him.

 

[verdant monkai]

Unless he publicly announces he is a communist no one will ever know.
But if Yhatzee is............ 0__0 he.. must... die
Only joking who cares what his political alignment is as long as he is funny.

 

[JoJo]

I doubt it, communists tend to be optimistic about human nature and all that jazz and Yahtzee strikes me a pretty cynical dude (at-least, his ZP persona which we're talking about). He did once mention Conversative polices as being "harsh" I think so I'd guess he's likely center or center-left.

So optimistic that they've committed the worst atrocities in human history. Really good bunch that lot.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a communist by a long stretch, but generally their ideology is that all the workers will work together in some harmonious paradise for the benefit for society rather than themselves. Obviously this pretty clearly wouldn't function in real life, 20th century communist countries were at the best very inefficient and as you mentioned, at their worst often associated with terrible atrocities, hence why I describe communists as "optimistic" that their ideas would work.

 

[Tom Artingstall]

His constant verbal assaults on major AAA games (and their publishers) could be construed as an attack on Capitalism itself.

Then again, pointing out when someone's being a **** doesn't make you a Communist just because they have gold-plated nipple clamps in their sex dungeon.

 

[FluffyWelshCake]

I don't think he's a communist, but I do believe that he's left wing. I sincerely doubt that somebody of his apparent ideals would support the right wing. So, a socialist, basically.

 

[Russirishican]

I love how serious people are taking this, doesn't anyone have a sense of humor?

 

[FEichinger]

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

 

[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.