I don't see anyone simping for Stalin in this thread and rarely do tbh.

Not only is simping for sociopaths with charisma completely possible under capitalism, it's pretty much required lol. All the better if you can be sociopath yourself; as long as you get money you'll have won by every metric that matters in the U.S.A., that's the sad part.

I agree. My only point was that there are other types of communism than the ones we are propagandized and indoctrinated with. And that not all of them are flawed. Like Lenin's monstrosity.

Maybe if Trotsky took over like Lenin intended instead of letting Stalin run things into the ground.

Which is diametrically opposed to what communism is supposed to be. They just stole the name.

It's like a shitty cake recipe that looks good on TikTok, you can tell me how great the cake looks all day, but I saw you add a cup of salt to the batter

Here I go fixing communism again...

First up, just because it hasn't worked, there's no reason it can't work - or is there? I'm all ears. You missed that bit.

Beyond that, the most common issue is the fact that communism is typically achieved abruptly, with little to no pre-work. If you don't address the centralisation of wealth (and by extension, political influence), of course power is going to collapse back into authoritarian hellishness.

Transition via social democracy, taxing away the inequality, getting the populace on board with world-class social services, providing more services over time, as you transition from worker representation on boards and equity stakes to full worker ownership and workplace democracy over time.

Taking the benefits of the people fuelling the economy - workers, and handing it to wealthy shareholders that contribute nothing as they consolidate into monopolies, creating market failure in an economy fundamentally built on markets makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There's a better way - it just takes a bit of work.

Barter is the model we are given for a non-currency centric society... It is also not how money less societies work. In a general sense the most common purely non-market socialist societies of the past and present (Communism alocates resources and property on a more rigid basis of "need" as artificially determined by an authority ideally (ideal being the operative word) democratic in nature, socialism just holds specific properties or services as common trust and can be split into multiple ideologies based on what should be considered public trust) had more like a running tab where people aren't really keeping track of how much they are benefiting.

Like if I come over and ask you for some of the wheat you're growing you'll probably say yes because we're neighbours and I helped you build your house and will give you a share of my apple harvests later on. If all of our group keep supporting each other this way and helping each other out we can get everything we need. People do still notice and socially reject shirkers in these systems but it is more like you recognize their stingy behaviour over a longer period. There are still theives who take things they are not welcome to and there does exist a sense of personal property. Trade straight across for roughly equivalent goods still has a place in these societies but in a limited way for people they don't see very often or people they have cause not to trust to hold up their end.

Barter still frames things in money centric (though technically not capitalist) veiw of labour. That it sounds inconvenient is largely the point. It's vaguely propagandist to give you nothing to imagine but a society obsessed with personal ownership of all property that is individualistic in nature.

Not to say that the end goal gor socialists is to revert to these systems. Market socialism basically combines capitalist systems into a blended system as most socialists agree that there are advantages to capitalism worth keeping around, just that unchecked it's a monster that partitions off what should be held in public trust to parties who erode the public good for personal gain that never fully returns to the system.

No. In the example, an electrician is skilled and can provide their skills and experience to your project - but they have a project of their own that they need help with. Unfortunately he wants help converting an old car into an EV, which you don't have experience in so you become unskilled labor for his task. An hour of skilled labor would be worth several unskilled labor hours, in this example, but that value conversion wouldnbe determined by the local community.

No money, just being helpful until the project is done.

The same way capitalism does: not participating in the system would cause the loss of home and no prospect of food, water, electricity, or any other service that would require payment as prescribed by the system. No overt force needed - the realization that the rest of their life would be a struggle of their own making will be enough, just like it is today.

You're determined for forceto be used when there is just no need for it. If people and services use alternative currency then that's fine, it will be just like Bitcoin and crypto today where a handful of people put their money into it but ultimate adoption will be few and far between. Right now is like a golden age for crypto and where can you spend it? Very specific places - none of which don't provide shelter or power for living.

Try using only crypto to live and see how that goes for you. Again, no force is needed. Social pressure will solve the outliers when they see how much extra work their own lifestyle is compared to everyone else. If those outliers wish to struggle, go for it. They will be rewarded with the same lifestyle as everyone else, just work way harder for it.

Who is he buying wood from? How did they come to own that wood? What is he using to pay for that wood? That "just things to buy/sell and stuff to do" is hand-waving a lot that goes into running the systems that we have in place. It's a common fallacy to assume capitalist functions are a feature of nature that have and will always exist just because it's the system you're living under.

The left in America does organize.

Only every discussion and attempt at effective mobilization.

Couldn't the workers decide who manages the restaurant? And get rid of them if they don't like them? I don't get what you mean by "the state decides who the managers are".

Do you think countries that currently run services like trains or healthcare or utilities in the ownership of collective trend towards totalitarianism?

Because while I don't have any imperial data, it seems to me that corruption and totalitarianism is much more common in capitalist ventures where a small group of people with questionable ethics ha e full control over it and almost always abuse the position for their own benefit.