Before You Call Someone A Communist... Watch This.

[SamuelAdams]

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Before You Call Someone a Communist… Watch This.

Momocracy

It’s one of the most powerful political words in America.

President Trump uses it frequently. Comment sections are full of it. Politicians throw it around. People accuse each other of it every single day.

But here’s the real question:

Can most people actually define communism?

In this video, I break down the difference between communism, socialism, democratic socialism, social democracy, capitalism, and authoritarianism—using history, political psychology, and my own perspective as someone who grew up in Ukraine, a country still shaped by the legacy of the Soviet Union.

We’ll discuss:

What Karl Marx actually argued
Why communist governments became authoritarian
The Soviet Union, the Holodomor, Mao’s China, Cuba, North Korea, and Cambodia
Why Americans have such a strong emotional reaction to the word “communism”
Why politicians use emotionally charged labels
Why democratic socialism is not the same as communism
Whether America is anywhere close to being communist
And how political psychology helps explain why slogans are often more persuasive than facts.

Whether you agree with me or disagree with me, my goal isn’t to tell you what to think.

It’s to help you think more critically.

If you enjoy long-form political psychology, history, and thoughtful analysis, subscribe and join the conversation.

Question for you:
Without Googling it, how would YOU define communism?

Let’s discuss it respectfully in the comments.

[Walleye]

1. Trump is in love with the biggest authoritarian communist that ever hated America, Vladimir Putin

[mtairyguy]

2. Yes, define it please!

Have the one using the term point out who is in line with that definition.

[OldBaldy1701E]

3. Of course not.

As usual when anything is used for American propaganda, it gets corrupted and used to apply to anything, a'la 'The Boogy Man!"

Thanks to the time following WWII, the real definition of the political philosophy is muddled with whatever the powers that be need it to be.

"OOOooo...communism scary!" That is all most know about it.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. i was called that in my rop class by my rop instructor whilst in hi school. i wear it as a badge of honor .

[Hope22]

7. Yes, standing in a peace line during the Iraq war I was videotaped by an imbecile

Who labeled me as a communist in the title of the video that he had taken of me and then posted on YouTube! I was devastated. Four days later back on the line I told my friend how mortified I was about the video and she simply replied that there were so many worse things to be called than that! She was a professor and chuckled at my concerns.

[AllaN01Bear]

8. i feel many wouldnt know a communist if one stood in front of them.

yet another term for someone they dont like .!

[rampartd]

5. when the proud boys reach your door

they will not be arguing 6th grade civics.

[Martin Eden]

6. To answer your question, without googling or watching your video first...

Last edited Tue Jul 7, 2026, 09:56 AM - Edit history (1)

My understanding is that communism in practice did not (and probably could not) achieve what Marx put forward in theory -- from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.

Communism involves state ownership of the means of production, meaning no private ownership of business. I'm not 100% sure about property, to what degree. Decisions are made by committee, but every organization that goes from small community to town to region to a nation as large as the Soviet Union becomes heirarchical, as does the decision making structure.

The communist revolution was a civil war. The Bolsheviks were better organized and came out on top. The masses repressed by the monarchical aristocracy were determined to overthrow the Czar, but they didn't know that living under Lenin then Stalin would become an authoritarian nightmare with severe punishment for anyone suspected of being disloyal or a threat to the regime. Ukraine suffered terribly.

In my view, communism fails to account for human nature. Why work your ass off pouring your heart and soul into building a better mousetrap when the state essentially confiscates and redistributes the proceeds? Human beings have an independent streak, and like to make decisions for themselves. Those at the top of the heirarchy had to be ruthless to make it there, and they built a huge authoritarian apparatus to maintain control.

There was an American Communist Party in the first half of the 21st century, especially during the Great Depression. My elderly aunt (born 1907) who helped raise me wanted an education, but her family was poor and she had to go to work in Chicago factories before finishing high school. Seeing how workers were treated, especially women, she became heavily involved in the labor movement. She joined the Communist party, and rose to become a district organizer. My mother (12 years younger) was the only one of 6 siblings sympathetic the cause. My father had similar political leanings. They were all patriotic Americans during WW2. Aunt Kate helped raise funds, mom worked in a factory, and dad served in the Pacific.

All my grandparents emigrated before WW1 from what later became Yugoslavia. Mom was born in the US, Kate in Croatia. Because of her political activities, Kate spent 10 months in jail during the McCarthy era as they tried to deport her, but there was no record of her birth in the tiny village and the Tito regime wouldn't take her. She was never allowed to become a citizen.

None of my family wanted anything to do with communism after 1956, when Kruschev revealed the horrors under Stalin. Shortly before her death, Kate's devotion to the labor movement was recognized in the 1976 documentary film Union Maids, which was nominated for an academy award. Kate was one of three elderly women interviewed during the film.

There are still some American communists, but they have no power or influence. I encountered a group of them during the last No Kings march in downtown Chicago. They were young, spirited, idealists. I wonder where their life's journey will take them, but it won't be to the corridors of US power if they don't change.

Accusing Democrats and Social Democrats of being Communists is ludicrous in the extreme. Nobody in the Democratic caucus advocates government taking ownership of private enterprise. Taxation and regulation is not tyranny. Hell, Trump is more of a threat as he tries to bend entities like corporations, law firms, and universities to his will using the power of the state through prosecutions, law suits, and licensing.

Every accusation from Trump is a projection of what he is doing. Authoritarianism is a genuine growing threat in the United States -- but it is coming from the right, not the left.

[AllaN01Bear]

9. ding, THIS. IS A DISTRRACTION from the epstien files and the ms . king case

[Martin Eden]

11. It's also from an old playbook when distraction was not a primary objective

Political strategy has long included scare tactics, and Trump has taken that to a new level of mendacity.

BTW, I'm not sure what the "ms . king case" refers to.

[AllaN01Bear]

13. oppsies i ment the carroll inscident .

[kwolf68]

10. So...

When we call them fascists and authoritarians the Republicans and the media ask, "should the Dems tap down their rhetoric".

A couple officials even referenced being called fascist and that was creating tension.

BUT BUT it's OK to call Democrats communists?

[Martin Eden]

12. And...

Fascism is a fairly accurate term for the Trump regime.