Op-ed on Communism and Starlight Glimmer: Why You're Wrong on Every Level

With the new season of MLP:FiM out, we of the Socialist Republic of Horse News express great dismay at the pro-capitalist message expressed within the season opening.

Op-ed by unaffiliated HN associate.

(sorry if this is a bit too serious, but I had to get this off my chest)
The new episodes of MLP:FiM are not about communism, but rather about cults.

You see, communism is a theory of political economics based around the elimination of Capitalism and the State, drawing its conclusions from a combination of an examination of the dehumanizing and alienating effects of the Capitalist wage-labour system, combined with a Hegelian theory of the history of economics.

Communism does not say that everyone should be exactly the same. It says that everyone should be free and equal, all working together to make sure that the community as a whole has its needs met. (From each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her needs).  Marxists strive to provide a level economic and social playing field by giving control of industry to the workers, and providing for the needs of all by equally distributing any surplus that may be manufactured. No private ownership of business; no private accumulation of wealth. You keep as much of what you make as is necessary for you and yours to live on, and extra is shared with the rest of society.

In the episode though, Starlight Glimmer created a society based on an egalitarian social system and a unified class. Glimmer did not change the economic principles, nor did she change the function of the state in her town. In fact, the ruling class of her town is still very much present. She did, however, strip her followers of their fundamental cultural identity (their cutie marks), thus lowering the status of ponies within the privileged tiers of society to that of the more disadvantageous. Essentially, everyone became a blank flank, except they suck at everything apparently.

Rather than elevating the lower classes of society by providing social welfare, Glimmer handicapped the upper classes, punishing them for their status. At that point, the system devised by Glimmer did not strive for the success of the community, but instead held its citizens for ransom by the very roots of their identity. Deceived by Glimmer's cult of personality, the citizens followed blindly hoping that one day their town would better. The less capable classes believed they were somehow more capable, and the more capable classes now believed that by hiding their abilities they were helping the community. 

Marx made no illusions about the fact that some of us are not born as advantaged as others. We are not all equal in strength, intelligence, or technical skill. What he set out to do was provide the idea for a system where those people would not needlessly suffer for their disadvantages, and where society as a whole would work together to make sure they were on the same playing field as everyone else.

Now, if you want to argue how that practice has not gone the way theory predicted, I’m not going to argue with that. You’re right. “Communism” as such has not done what it set out to do. And I can give a lot of different theories as to why that is, but that doesn’t change the actual situation of a piss poor understanding of a piss poor stereotype about Marxist thought that simply doesn’t exist. It’s me giving the equivalent of a headcanon to explain away a bad episode.

TL;DR episode is not actually communism

Edit: changed some of the terms for ease of understanding, apparently some of you horsefuckers aren't educated  in socialist and Marxist theory

Comments (60)

  1. >Getting this much butthurt over a misused term
    You faggots never fail to deliver your own amount of autism

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    1. hey guys how about we have a Pretty cure threat next time? it will be hilarious!

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    2. Anonymous calls people faggots. People don't care.

      If not for the last few lines, which kinda ruined it, this would have been a wonderful piece for the understanding of human behavior. Work on your endings my friend.

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    3. Anonymous insulters are fags.

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  2. bravo.
    Not to mention, even the eastern bloc countries supported and advanced talents (long as they kept in line)

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  3. Communism is a cult.

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    1. Because playing the lottery totally isn't.

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    2. I won a penny just a week ago. Glory to the lottery gods!

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  4. Try telling that to EQD

    Of course, as always they won't listen though and blindly eat up anything Seth writes.

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  5. Communism is still fucking trash from the very base of it, and nothing will change that.
    All of them, from Marx, through Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and all the ones after were scum that the Earth would've been better off without. And I honestly can't take seriously an opinion of some silly Murican who most likely hasn't even witnessed what Communists had done, who's most likely unaware of how they'd completely ruined the whole of Eastern Europe and half of Asia.

    That aside, I came here to laugh at drama and satire, not for shit articles like this one.

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    1. And before you try to defend the theory, going all "But Marx didn't...", I think Communism used in practice showed all too well how much of a piece of shit theory Marxism really was.

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    2. "silly murican"

      Actually the author lives in china #burned

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    3. Well... that explains it. Eastern cultures are much less centered around individuality. And suppressing individuality is exactly what the episode was about, more than the way or reason for enforcing conformity. Which is why this episode probably comes out so differently to people from western and eastern culture.

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    4. That's it. Keep acting this way. Disagree with everyone else based on political and national ideologies. THAT is why NONE of the systems work. Because you can't get along. It's in your very nature to hate each other. Bravo.

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    5. "Well... that explains it" wait so now that hes not american hes correct? thats some fukt logic there boy

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    6. >so now he's correct?
      Nope, he's still wrong. It's just more understandable why he missed the point of the episode.

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  6. See, there's a problem when people take the word "equality", abstract what it actually means and get the equation Equality + Totalitarianism = Communism. Starlight's equality is different from communist equality.

    I think they definetely drew inspiration from totalitarian regimes for the second episode in particular, and there are infamous communist regimes, but that doesn't mean communism is being portrayed in the series. It's a bunch of things packaged into its own story about an equality cult.

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  7. All I gained from this was something something communism is bad episode, etc.

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  8. You are still a faggot and butthurt.

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    1. like all the fandoms in sankaku/gelbooru/youtube

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  9. Fine... so it's not Communism.

    It's Marxism. Close enough

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    1. No read it again anon

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    2. I would say its Stalinism

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. While the episode had nothing to do with the THEORY of communism, it was satire of several things, including the type of propaganda common to historical communist regimes like those of Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. That's why people are making the communism comparisons.

    As a side note, no one gives a shit about Marx and his theories, because it's never worked. In reality, when a country tries to become a communist state, power always ends up going to a single person or small group of people who use the spurious excuse that they act by the will and for the good of the people to justify impoverishing everyone for their own personal wealth and power. Much like Starlight Glimmer impoverished her community to expand her own power.

    So I'd like all the Karl Marx fan boys to stop sperging over people's comparison with the recent episode to themes of communism. We're not comparing Starlight to Marx. We're comparing her to historical communist dictators and her town to historical communist dictatorships. And even then, it's more a comparison of tactics than of aims.

    I just realized, the conflict here revolves around the ambiguity of the word communism. To most, the word is associated with Stalin, Lenin, Castro, the USSR, the cold war, etc., while the underlying philosophy is secondary. To the Marx crowd, the word refers to the socio-political theories, while the dictators and regimes are secondary, if not wholly irrelevant. So no Blarfnugle, we're not wrong on every level. Just the levels that you see (which are the levels we don't care about anyways).

    tl;dr Marxists bitching about the word communism being used to refer to past communist tyrants and regimes, and not their glorious prophet Karl whose ideas have been tried and have always led to mass starvation and executions.

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    1. Communism always fails...and yet, people like you still get so furiously butthurt over it. Reminds me an awful lot of when Starlight got all butthurt that ponies didn't blindly accept her way of thinking and obediently acknowledge how infallibly correct she was.

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    2. I love that the fandom now uses "Starlight Glimmer" as a standard insult for people whose ideology they don't like. It's like it's 2011 again, and we're all bronies on EqD, still calling people "parasprites" instead of trolls. Except that calling someone a Starlight Glimmer also adds this element of Godwin's Law to an argument, and all without actually mentioning Hitler. It's quite impressive what a storm of autism this is.

      Not calling out you in particular, anon 2. Just commenting on an observed trend.

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  11. I do agree that the portrayal of the town really wasn't communist, since it is after all an economics system. Economics really didn't factor into the episode all that much.

    That being said, Communism is still a horrible economic system and actually creates far more problems than capitalism does. After all, if everybody is going to remain equal no matter what, what motivation do I have to try and excel at something? Won't I just get the same result as someone who does something just 'okay'? That's the problem with communism: It strives to remove selfish ambition, but in turn destroys any reason for a person to try and be excellent at a certain task.

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  12. Trotsky, Stallionin, Lineighn, and Cutie Marx

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  13. It was clearly based on Soviet Russia. To say it's not about communism is somewhat accurate but it's kind of splitting hairs when it comes to informal discussion on an anime imageboard.

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  14. I take one walk and Hop on horse-news and everyone's getting mad about communism, Marxism semantics.
    This premure had a lot of far reaching implications on cults and any shady organization that trys to forcefully make you agree to their mentality. But I think there is one thing we could all agree at the end of the episode.
    We'd all go gay for Double Diamond.

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    1. Oh DD, I'll squeal like a pig for you anytime.

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  15. Holy shit, the Communist thing was a joke and you dumbasses wasted no time taking it dead goddamn seriously. Good job Tumblring everything up.

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    1. >Tumblring
      There'll throw that in the dictionary some day

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  16. I wrote a big, long, elegant post in response to this article with a shit ton of evidence and fancy lingo, but when I hit publish it just fucking vanished, so I'm just gonna say that the economic results of Starlight's system were similar to the economic results of communism, which are shit( i.e. the muffins, clocks, architecture, house dressing). Based off that and Starlight's strong emphasis on equality, you can call it Marxism, or Glimmerism, or whatever the fuck you want, but in the end it is still looks a whole lot like communism.

    Also, Starlight's rationalization for her keeping her cutiemark to achieve equality is similar to the Bolsheviks justification for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat to achieve similar results.


    tl;dr: semantics, if you get all sensitive about people calling it communism, fine, but Starlight's system is most certainly an allusion to communism

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    1. couldve gotten lost in the spam filter lemme check

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    2. Sorry man, I know that feel, and it sucks. Download the Lazarus form recovery extension for Chrome or Firefox; though it won't get back what you've lost, it should prevent stuff like this from happening to you in the future.

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    3. Thanks for the advise, will do.

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  17. Every ideology is wrong and nothing ever works the way we think it will. Humans suck, news at 11.

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  18. we're going to need to take more redpills

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    1. Don't mention "red". You are triggering me!

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    2. Of course you'd be triggered by red, you sexist, misogynistic shitlord. Your internalised self-hatred installed by the patriarchy has caused you to become ashamed of your own menstrual blood. But a womyn's menstrual cycle is a beautiful and natural thing, and to be afraid of it is a MALE construct.

      I have to go. You being triggered is triggering me so much right now.

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    3. At first I laughed at how accurate and funny this exchange is...and then I promptly got very sad at how accurate this exchange is.

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    4. This whole thread is triggering, you cis scum

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    5. Shut up, you commie sympathizer! Communism was created by men. And all men should die!

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  19. >unleash your autism every time someone uses the word communism
    >baiters and shitposters continue to say communism because it causes asspain
    >the circle of shitposting keeps spinning

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  20. >muh not real cuminumsms
    No faggot, the comparison was made because the tactics and ideologies Starlight used to create her village mirrored those of the actual real world communists. No one tackles the theories behind "true" marxism because they don't fucking matter thanks to the fact that they are nearly humanly impossible to put into action. People draw this analogy because her tactics resemble the propaganda seen in the cold war era communists like pol pot, Stalin, and Mao. I am really fucking tired of these marxiboos crying bitch tears because someone compares something to real life communism without "reading and understanding the true socialist marxist theory" that doesn't matter because it has little to no real world application. This "those are not real communists" thing is getting as bad as fucking feminism where every cunt as their own special snowflake definition of what feminism is and how that evil woman over there isn't a true feminist but she is.

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    1. The problem is that while Starlight's utopia definitely has similarities to those regimes, that stems from the fact that those similarities are just characteristics of totalitarian regimes. In the same way, you can compare the town to Hitler's regime or pretty much any other totalitarian state. It doesn't matter which political system the ruler chooses, those characteristics will be there.

      However, the parts of Starlight's philosophy that have nothing to do with totalitarianism – i.e. the equality stuff – doesn't really compare to communism of those kinds since it doesn't concern economic aspects all that much. Communists want to redistribute wealth, but they don't care about people's individualities. They just want everyone to work as well as he can, which is the point where people are different with different talents and abilities, and thus not equal in ability and talent. But Starlight wanted everypony to be entirely equal – especially concerning their (special) talents and abilities. Thus, she stripped ponies of their individuality, reducing them to a very low common denominator. That's where the comparison fails.

      I'm not even a Marxist, by the way. I don't want to glorify communism. I think communism/Marxism is impractical in today's societies and will probably never be practical. But I don't want people to misunderstand the episodes. Starlight's town is much more similar to cults and simply has a lot of totalitarian elements. It is very similar to the society described in Harrison Bergeron (go read it, only 2183 words), which Larson may very well have read.

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  21. Starlight's philosophy is intrinsically linked to the real world practice of communism via her practice of coerced collectivism. I would encourage you to read up on the actions that took place during Mao's great leap forward and the early Leninist parts of the soviet union. Forced social collectivism is intrinsically linked to the real world execution of communism as it is the only way to practice a semi viable communist nation due to human individuality and individualist biological survival mechanisms. So you have a totalitarian leader practicing something that has been forever linked to communism due to its real world execution, hell even today you can see such forced social collectivism in "communist" countries like the Peoples Republic of Korea.

    Due to this, communism, and the action of forced social collectivism is as I have said, intrinsically linked due to the real world execution of that economic system. The comparison holds true when you compare it to the actual communist governments that we have seen in the real world once you move outside what the OP is talking about, the theoretical college classroom communism, ie the communism that cannot and will not ever be practiced in reality. If you really think that communism is a simple economic system I would implore you to read up on the accounts posted by those who lived within the USSR during its height.

    And in your comparison to other regimes such as Hitlers, you again falter. Hitler did not force a social LCD with his practices, but rather simply removed outright the degenerates. He encouraged his favored peoples, the german peoples, to practice individuality. The society may have been based on the novella Harrison Bergeron, but that novella was based on social collectivism, a practice that is now linked to communism forever.

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  22. If you have no ambition in life be a good communist.
    Why work hard as a doctor, when you can get paid the same?
    Why live in a small apartment, everyone should?
    Why strive to become the best you can when their is no benefit to?

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  23. A better comparison would be that those horses were like characters in a multiplayer video game. and Starlight Glimmer is an idiot developer who thinks that nerfing every single one of them will make the game more fun but really all shes doing is makeing the game into a bunch of boring mush like Leage of Ledgends

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  24. The episodes are a reference to this you fucking autists http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

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  25. ...away (I hit the Publish button too soon by mistake)

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  26. The entire point is when communism is applied and becomes more then theory it has always become a horrically corrupt dictatorship as the show indeed critiques

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  27. You fucking morons. This was already discussed in length when the episode aired and it was already long clarified that Harrison Bergeron was a large inspiration.

    Also the concept of "Social Marxism" is well known and is what people were referring to, not the economic aspect. Also also, if you think at all that Communism does not go beyond economic ideals and does not enforce similar concepts of forced social equality then you fundamentally do not understand the philosophy.

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  28. lmao retards still defending communism in 2017

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