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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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Socialism
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I just threw it into chatgpt, I think I understand now. It's basically saying that some level of authority is necessary for society to function (which I wouldn't have argued against otherwise).
Regardless, I admit my original comment was pretty ignorant as I assumed a majority of them were from Stalinist Russia and the dates are clearly after that. I can take my original comment down or just leave it up for posterity sake.
I think people jump to "Read On Authority" to quickly, a behavior that amounts to scripture-quoting, but
chatgpt sucks and has demonstrated that again here. On Authority essentially argues that a socialist revolution 1: is itself a monumental exercise of authority and 2: requires authority to be protected when it exists in a world fundamentally hostile to it. There are some ancillary arguments about command structures, but overall it is written in opposition to anarchist dogmatism about "Authority" being an evil thing that must be discarded.
I'll let someone else unpack the "Stalinist Russia" part
Did you know that Stalin tried to resign on multiple occasions but was pressured to continue serving his office?
I have plenty of critiques of the USSR but people that assume it was some sort of dictatorship of Stalin and not a dictatorship of the proletariat are gravely miseducated.
It's not your fault though we in the west are born into an ocean of anticommunist propaganda.