Which ideology is worse?

[Benjamin Frank]

I can't stand extremism, but I'm genuinely torn which I dislike more. While libertarianism has been more prevalent recently, the stupidity of communism is always lurking.

My premise for those who would argue libertarianism and communism are fundamentally different is that communism is so all encompassing that it's more than just an economic system, while libertarian ideology is mostly embraced with 'Austrian economics.'

[dead0man]

even the absolute worst form of libertarianism wouldn't build walls to keep people in

it's not fundamental to communism, but it is a very common side effect (to go along with the myriad other very common authoritarian side effects of communism)

[BigZuck08]

Def communism.

[Ferguson97]

In practice, libertarianism results in either corporations controlling everything, or warlords/gangs/PMCs controlling everything.

[ingemann]

Communism because Libertarians are too useless to be ever able to take power.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Communism. Libertarianism promotes exploitation but at least you can have control over your life and the freedom to do anything that doesn't harm anyone. Bonus points if it's North Korea.

[Vosem]

The one that doesn't let you leave. People come to libertarianism of their own free will, at least until such a time when the entire earth may be covered in libertarian governments.

[Dr. MB]

the original definition of libertarianism was socialist in nature

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Communism is easily worse for someone who belongs to neither camp. Even the most extreme libertarians allow for voluntarist communities to form with mutually agreed upon rules, whereas communists gulag you for not agreeing with them. The good outcome may not be likely in the libertarian vision, but it doesn't really even exist in the communist one.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Communism has actually produced valuable economic, sociological, cultural and historical analysis whose influence plenty of mainstream scholars acknowledge and respect. Libertarianism (at least in the American / Randian sense that I assume this poll is going by) has produced nothing but sophomoric drivel.

[ingemann]

the original definition of libertarianism was socialist in nature

… and the only thing they shares with modern right wing Libertarians were a similar degree of uselessness.

[John Dule]

Only on Atlas do you see people actually having a hard time choosing between freedom and slavery.

[Pericles]

Under communism, the government often actively harms its citizens-such as by deliberately starving them or by sending them to die in agony in a gulag. I would rather be completely neglected by my government.

[dead0man]

Under communism, the government often actively harms its citizens-such as by deliberately starving them or by sending them to die in agony in a gulag. I would rather be completely neglected by my government.

but you're going to miss all that valuable economic, sociological, cultural and historical analysis.  Sure, it's probably hard to appreciate in a gulag or dead, but hey, that's not a modern progressive's problem.

[John Dule]

Under communism, the government often actively harms its citizens-such as by deliberately starving them or by sending them to die in agony in a gulag. I would rather be completely neglected by my government.

but you're going to miss all that valuable economic, sociological, cultural and historical analysis.  Sure, it's probably hard to appreciate in a gulag or dead, but hey, that's not a modern progressive's problem.

Libertarianism may work in practice, but does it work in theory??

[Goldwater]

Under communism, the government often actively harms its citizens-such as by deliberately starving them or by sending them to die in agony in a gulag. I would rather be completely neglected by my government.

So you see this poll as being similar to abusive parents vs. neglectful parents?

[MarkD]

Communism es mucho peor.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Communism has actually produced valuable economic, sociological, cultural and historical analysis whose influence plenty of mainstream scholars acknowledge and respect. Libertarianism (at least in the American / Randian sense that I assume this poll is going by) has produced nothing but sophomoric drivel.

Are we going to judge ideologies affecting the lives of--at least in one case--millions (if not billions) based on their analysis!?

[John Dule]

Communism has actually produced valuable economic, sociological, cultural and historical analysis whose influence plenty of mainstream scholars acknowledge and respect. Libertarianism (at least in the American / Randian sense that I assume this poll is going by) has produced nothing but sophomoric drivel.

Are we going to judge ideologies affecting the lives of--at least in one case--millions (if not billions) based on their analysis!?

If only the masses could eat dialectics.

[Beet]

As far as ideologies go, communism may be the single greatest tragedy in human history- even greater than fascism. All the worse because it comes in the guise of equality and so on.

One underappreciated cost of communism is that many smart, energetic young people who had righteous passion for helping the poor, downtrodden, and oppressed got tricked into following the pied piper communism, as opposed to say, liberation theology.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Communism has actually produced valuable economic, sociological, cultural and historical analysis whose influence plenty of mainstream scholars acknowledge and respect. Libertarianism (at least in the American / Randian sense that I assume this poll is going by) has produced nothing but sophomoric drivel.

Are we going to judge ideologies affecting the lives of--at least in one case--millions (if not billions) based on their analysis!?

I'm not going to rehash the discussion about whether a totalitarian regime calling itself communist actually makes it so in any meaningful sense (it might be interesting to have it with you actually but I just know it would lead to a bunch of half-wits swarming this thread with the usual thought-terminating clichés). I guess you could still say communism had a negative impact on the world in the sense that it became a convenient propaganda tool for mass-murdering autocrats to legitimize their rule, and that's a fair point, but I'm not sure if I want to blame communism for it. It seems like any sufficiently populist or geopolitically subversive ideology could have played that role (as indeed political Islam or Putin's weird "eurasianist" drivel does these days) and communism just was the one with the widest spread during a specific historical phase. I'd be willing to be moved on this point though.

Either way, the line of causation is a lot more straightforward when it comes to the history of ideas and academic work, so that's the area where I thought I could say something definitive.

[NYSforKennedy2024]

Communism, but I'd say solely because Libertarianism doesn't have much of a historical legacy of causing mass death, war, and chaos. I'm sure that if it was implemented on a larger scale through history, though, it'd be neck-and-neck though.

[Santander]

If you follow leftist logic that "true communism" has never been tried, diet libertarianism is obviously better than whatever diet communism has actually been tried.

[Isaak]

Communism is one of the most evil and deranged ideological systems ever devised by mankind. No contest.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Communism.