this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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Invoking Vaclav Havel, he said it was time to stop pretending that what the western powers called a rules-based order was not a self-serving sham.

“Great powers can afford, for now, to go it alone. They have the market size, the military capacity and the leverage to dictate terms. Middle powers do not. But when we only negotiate bilaterally with a hegemon, we negotiate from weakness. We accept what’s offered. We compete with each other to be the most accommodating,” he said

“Being a happy vassal is one thing, being a miserable slave is something else,” he said.

“If you back down now, you’re going to lose your dignity, and that’s probably the most precious thing you can have in a democracy, it’s your dignity.”

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[–] DigitalAudio@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (15 children)

Not trying to contradict anything you said, I am interested in socialism as a model, generally speaking, but I don't know much about its economic or social model.

As someone very close to socialist countries that have done rather poorly, I have a few questions about it.

What exactly is pushing people and producers from tending towards mediocrity in socialism? I hate capitalism and how it affects us culturally, but the one thing I think it can succeed at (when monopolies are properly combatted), is using competition to push for excellence. Of course, I know nowadays it's not the case because anti-trusts have been gutted so we're full of monopolies and duopolies everywhere. But generally speaking, why would anyone make any effort for excellence under systems that don't reward it or punish mediocrity?

I'm not saying we should trend towards capitalism where mediocrity is punished by starvation or death by exposure to the elements, but isn't mediocrity, lack of consistent maintenance of common goods, etc kind of a huge problem of public and social governments etc?

They seem to be very good at equalising the playing field and providing for the needy, but it seems like persistent deterioration of common goods, infrastructure, etc is a pervasive issue in most communist governments that have been tried. Which leads to a lot of losses, inefficiencies and oversight. How would a new socialist model address these common issues? They're not minor things that should just be hand-waved away either.

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (14 children)

People want good things - people like it more when things are better. Put people who live and work in a community in charge of that community and the incentive to make that community better is self-evident, no? Capitalism has so many disincentives for quality, it absolutely beggars belief in me that people think it encourages innovation, especially when it's so obvious that most innovation happens from people who never see any profits from it. Look at tech, all the innovation and advancement happens in academia where people are underpaid and overworked, then industry comes in and milks the shit out of it.

Socialist countries are constantly undermined by capitalist nations, like the US and Europe. I think that is one of the main pain points in the past for socialist countries, so really the key is building a global movement, and ensuring that capitalist counter-revolutionaries are consistently crushed

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago (6 children)

I think you've got your adjectives pretty crazily backward about academia.

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's probably a matter of ignorance on your part. LLMs for example were innovated in academia, the world wide web was invented at CERN, I could literally go on for paragraphs

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I ran a research lab in a university for 15+ years. I guarantee there's no money in it.

Companies pay pennies on the dollar to research groups to solve problems with undergrads, grad students, and a bit of project manager time and to stay afloat, you have to over-buy projects as favors and to get publications. It is not unusual to run 7 or 8 projects at a time all on shoestring budgets in the lab. With a PhD I never broke 100k.

Maybe there's some money in the business school, but nobody is getting rich quick for no work in academia.

Edit: reducing the wall of text

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Uhh... I think some wires got crossed here, because my point was that academics do the innovative work without financial incentive to do so, and that the industry profits off of that work.

edit: I am stupid, you're right, my adjectives were backwards... sorry about that 🤦

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Aha I will modify my last in that case. No harm no foul, but it's got a little more background in it than necessary if you weren't doubling down lol.

[–] bearboiblake@pawb.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ahh sorry, my bad, my inattentive commenting was so bad it got you to dox yourself

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Eh it's not that bad but I'm not ready to start a new user yet.

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