Red Squirrel wrote: This is a stupid question, but what exactly is communism? I always thought it was just a way that a country is run like autocratic, democratic etc but from the sound of it it seems more like a personal thing. The only thing I know about it is that it's bad.
*sigh*
This probably isn't the best explanation you're gonna get, but it'll have to do: communism isn't really ANY of the things you mentioned. It's neither a system of government, nor a personal thing, nor is it necessarily bad. Communism is really more of a theory of economics. Communism isn't the opposite of democracy, as many people mistakenly think; it's the opposite of capitalism, which is the economic system we practice here in the United States, and, indeed, in most of the democratic states of the world. Capitalism revolves around the the theory that money and goods are individualistic, and thrives on things like corporations, stock markets, and supply and demand. Communism is based on the idea that an economy can exist where money and goods are equally shared and produced by all citizens of a state. Sort of a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kinda thing, instead of a capitalist-based competitive market. Which, in theory, is not a bad idea, but the problem is that humans are naturally competitive, so to enforce a communist society you often need to control it with a facist-type government, and that's why most people think that communism is evil. That, and the whole Cold War issue with the Soviet Union, and Joe McCarthy's communist witch hunts in the 1950's.
That was long-winded, and probably mildly confusing, but I did my best. If I were you, though, I'd consult someone who knows what they're talking about better than I do.
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