Not a lotta competition there.

@Crystal Neighybánya  
“@Background Pony #1BA6  
Debs (rightly) categorically supported the russian revolution and Lenin  
Socialism is if you knew any theory a stepping stone to communism Lenin himself has said this and debs new it as well. the difference was only in tactics not in ideas fundamentally. Also Marxist Leninism is NOT the only theory for achieving communism.

@TexasUberAlles
 
I totally agree. My answer was more in terms of the implicit declaration of the image: Starlight Glimmer is an excellent communist.
 
I could go into a huge diatribe about how most critics of communism either A) don’t get the fundamental principles, B) confuse it for something else (like critical theory) and strawman it into being that, or C) use the most egregious examples to discredit the entire philosophy a la “Look at how awful radical islamists are, therefor all muslims are bad”…but it’s three in the morning here, and I’ve got appointments to attend when I get up.

@TexasUberAlles  
Yeah, she sounds more like an Orwellian tyrant with her propaganda, brainwashing and total control.

@Ebalosus  
She wasn’t even following the letter; the only connection to communism that the nameless village ever had was to the wildly incorrect standard pop culture misunderstanding of what communism represents.

Not really, since she seemed to be following the letter, rather than the spirit of communism.

@Background Pony #CFF4  
It was basically a personality cult similar to Jonestown.

Well, she wasn’t really a communist, even if there were a few vague ideological similarities.
 
Which doesn’t mean the image is wrong…

Well, from all communists I know i’d choose her to rule my country.

@Crystal Neighybánya  
Actually, it was from Trotsky where Stalin got the idea of forcefully spreading communism around the world. Stalin himself originally suggested Communism in One Country over Trotsky’s more ambitious plans. Only to adopt it later in his own more brutal form.

@Background Pony #5017  
Of course he was - his name was already a horse pun.
 
But seriously, Trotsky was best Marxist-Leninist.

@Evowizard25  
Of course… But at least all of them didn’t end up dead!
 
@Crystal Neighybánya  
Wrong! Trotsky was best communist.

Everywhere I look…
 
It’s a joke, people. Stop turning these threads into mass debating chambers for pointless drama.

@Background Pony #79AF  
@Crystal Neighybánya  
Guys come on, I know this conversation is none of my business, but seriously she’s just a fictional cartoon character. I think this whole glimmer drama is just ridiculous, no need to start arguments over communism over a single villain in a cartoon.

@Background Pony #79AF  
She’s supposed to be a (wannabe) dictator obsessed with enforcing her idea of Equality onto others. Does that not sound a teensy bit like Stalin, Mao, Kim, Hoxha or Ceausescu’s regimes, which sought to create classless, egalitarian societies within a totalitarian framework.
 
Look, do you want me to go and ask M.A. Larson whether or not she was supposed to be a Communist analogue? I think that’s the only way we’re going to settle it at this point.

@Crystal Neighybánya  
And, as has been pointed out, to plenty other systems (in the broader sense of the term). you seem very committed to making the communism point where none is.

@Background Pony #85BA  
Also, one could argue that Glimmer’s idea of Equality was sameness.

@Background Pony #85BA  
From that perspective, Glimmer would be more of a generic totalitarian - albeit one with some parallels to Bolshevism and Maoism.

@Crystal Neighybánya  
And that’s where the writers goofed BIG time.  
Starlight and Our Town were not about equality at all, it was about sameness. Those are totally different concepts. Equality is that everyone has the same value, despite differences, such as equality between men and women. Sameness is just everyone being the same, which is exactly what Starlight was trying to achieve.  
If they had used the correct terminology the whole time, not so many people would get confused. (Nor give certain people an excuse to piss on the concept of equality).  
And yes, Our Town does use techniques that reminds one of communism, such as social pressure and propaganda, but that alone doesn’t make it communism. Especially because ALL ideologies do that, even democracy. Democratic parties are always going on about how democracy is the best system ever, and the only one that can work, ridiculizing anyone with different ideas. That’s propaganda too.

@Tszeb  
Why can’t someone be both? Look at Jim Jones or Kim Il-Sung.

Why does everyone say communist? She is a cult leader!

@TexasUberAlles  
Communism has never been a viable force in American politics. Socialism has (see Eugene Debs), but never Marxism-Leninism.

@Background Pony #1BA6  
 

@TexasUberAlles  
I meant current, American politics.

@Background Pony #1BA6  
Did you, uh… not actually look at the image you’re commenting under? It’s even properly tagged.