Programming Lions

Ep.105 Red Rising II: The Aussie Teen Communist w/ Alexei

• Matt Morstad • Episode 105

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In this episode of the Programming Lions podcast, our hosts are joined by Alexei, a 16-year-old from Victoria, Australia, who shares his unique perspective on communism, influenced by his family's history in Soviet Russia. Alexei discusses his interests in natural science, politics, engineering, and computer software, as well as his love for volleyball and the gym. He provides a nuanced view of historical events, critiques of Soviet policies, and shares his thoughts on modern political ideologies, highlighting the growing interest in communism among Gen Z. The conversation delves into various topics such as American politics, the representation of the Soviet Union in Western societies, and the challenges and potential solutions for implementing communist ideals today. Join us for an enlightening discussion with Alexei, a well-read and knowledgeable young historian. #Communism #YouthPolitics #ProgrammingLionsPodcast


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00:00 Intro

01:34 Life in Australia and Family Heritage

03:59 Politics and Ideology

05:58 American Global Influence

07:23 Communist Historical Perspectives

21:16 Critiques and Challenges

29:49 Post-War Germany and Soviet Relations

30:43 Modern Struggles of Poor Countries

33:08 Communism in Today's World

34:45 Human Nature

42:21 Implementing Communism

54:48 Final Thoughts

Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. Today we have a very special guest all the way from down under. Alexei joins us and he's an Aussie teen embracing unique outlooks on communism, having family going all the way back to Soviet Russia. He's very knowledgeable of history and why he believes the world needs to shift. Let's get into it.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Alexei, welcome to the podcast. We're excited to have you on. You come all the way from Australia. So maybe to get things started, could you tell us a little bit more about yourself, where you live, what you're into?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, sure thing. Well, I'm 16. 10 16, a few months ago. I live in Victoria, which is a state in Australia. We have states like YouTube, but we have six of them. Uh, it's in the very south, so it gets recently cold in here. Uh, not like what you expect Australia to be. With. My interests quite varied, but I like natural science as well as politics. Uh, I like particularly electrical engineering and computer software. I've done like a few coding projects in my life. For sport, I play volleyball and I also go to the gym. I know you guys, uh, do CrossFit, isn't it? Uh, quite regularly. So you might have common ground there. And I guess for a while I've been very interested in history, uh, sort of as a bonus to my political stuff. So I'll say those are my interests.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Alright. Very cool. Nice. Yeah. What's it like living in Australia? Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Pretty similar to the USA actually. I mean, although I've never been there, but I can imagine, uh, except, well, right now it's spring for us, so like Christmas for us is in the middle of summer. It's very hot during it, it,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

alexei is kind of a Russian name. So what, what's your background?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, both my parents were born in Latvia, which I'm not sure if you know the country or not, but it's very small. Around 2 million people border as Russia. Uh, but both of them, so I have Latian heritage, but my grandparents out of the four, which I have, three of them were born in Russia. The other one was born in Poland. So it's sort of all spread out and because it was the same country for a while, there's lots of movement within the country, but now some sort of from everywhere around there. But Latvia is where my parents were born. Uh, but I can speak Russian, but I can't speak Latvian. They taught me Russian, not Latian, because it's far more useful to know Russian. so

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

See, this is great. Wow. Well, so you? probably saw we, we visited Russia recently.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I did. Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. We were there for a couple of weeks. And have you visited,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I actually haven't, I visited Lathia many times, but Russia, no, not yet. I plan

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

I've heard Latvia's a beautiful country.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, it's nice.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

I imagine if you had grandparents that were born in Russia and Poland, they must have told you some stories or they must have told your parents some

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, if you wanna get into that, we can,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

another kind of curiosity question is how did you find us?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Pretty sure on Instagram reels. There's actually a few people in my school that have seen you guys, like, I tell them that I'm gonna do a podcast interview, and they're like, yeah, we've heard of them. I've heard of, I've seen them like on Instagram reels. So you've

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

wow.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

like, whether it's your account directly or like other accounts, you know, stitching or whatever, but they've, they've heard of you guys, so yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. All right. Yeah, well, we've had, we've had a few things go viral and, uh, interesting. So we're, we're, that's pretty cool. We're getting seen in Australia, boys. That's good. Yeah. I think, yeah. Uh, it depends on what their opinion of us is. Nonetheless. Nonetheless, we were always interested to talk to, uh, you know, interesting people with different perspectives, and I think, we'll, we'll, we'll kind of get into that today. So without further ado, why don't we get into some of the questions we had queued up and go from there. All right. So how did you first get into the realm of politics and how do you lean.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, so with politics, again, this is sort of segueing into family history. I was interested in history as a young age, not sure why. I just was thought it was cool tanks and guns and all that. And I, uh, my grandparents, you know, when the US aside during World War ii, the biggest roar on the planet in the history of the world. So I looked very heavily, heavily into that. And from there I sort of skewed on looking at the Soviet Union in general and how it's viewed in our society and how it actually was, you know, asking my parents and just looking on the internet. And from that sort of spread out, you know, just into general politics. Uh, so it sort of began with an interest in history. Which turns into like World War II and Cold War history sort of thing. Uh, how E Lean, I think the Soviet Union is pretty badly represented in Western society. I think it was a lot more nuanced and there's a lot of, you know, admirable aspects, whether it work, some parts work, some parts didn't. But people are very quick to just disregard all of it. Especially due to the Red Scare McCarthyism in the USAA while ago. But it's very misrepresented. I believe I have the, that's the flag of the Latin Soviet Socialist Republic. So each republic had a flag,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Oh,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

that's the flag and black one, which is where my parents are born. And it serves as a bit of a patriotic symbol, but also of my ideology. So how I lean is, is it that way? And I'm also quite negative to US foreign policy over that time. Uh, I've. Like had a look at what they did and there's been lots of wars and regime change, which people often overlook and don't talk about again, due to American propaganda during that time. So that's, that's the way Eileen,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Huh. And are you very interested in American politics because just of our presence in the world or what? What's the reason?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

It's, it's very important like American politics and a lot of Australian people understand that. Like, we follow the American elections just as heavily as we follow our own. So like, yeah, it's very important. And not, not even just from an interest, but even economically, like the tariffs and all that, they've been like key talking points. Like I do economics at school and we've talked about them extensively even though we're men's just talk about Australia because they affect us a lot. So it's yeah, America is important to us.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Right, right. And so if I was to sum up your kind of political ideology, maybe it's still forming a bit, you're young, but it leans towards

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

the

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

a, let's say, a, a sympathetic view of historical USSR and some of the things that happened. More of a communist type of governance structure. Is that fair to say. Now the, I find, we've talked to some other communist. Uh, ideology people on our channel, and yeah, it's definitely interesting. But what we found is that there's vast differences between some communist ideology. So can you maybe tell us a little bit more about like where, where you are in that kind of spectrum?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

It's very true to say there's vast differences. I'd say we, we argue with ourselves much more than with anyone else.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. I hear this a lot, but I'm not, I'm not into any of these forums, but, uh

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Well, a few of the differences are some people support a violent revolution, other people support, uh, gradual reformist sort of way to power the people which support the reformers might be called Democratic socialists. Uh, I'm for, it's sort of a bit of a mix and it was a bit more pragmatic, but I like to view history not as what we should do, but what happens and why it happens. And so when I view revolutions in history, I don't see them as, like someone came up with the idea and said, yes, let's start a revolution, and then everyone died and they had a big war. No, I view it as there was deep contradictions in that society which caused misery. And those people were so downtrodden that they had to fight and start the revolution. And it's violent, but it's violent because of the. Uh, contradictions in their society. So when there are revolutions it's a matter of whether the goal is admirable or not. If there's a fascist revolution, I would not support it because the goal is not admirable. So I wouldn't support violence to achieve a non-ad admirable goal. But if there is a, a socialist communist revolution, which can produce real change, and that's the most pragmatic way to change, I believe that it may be warranting of support.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. So it's justified if the outcome is like kind of matches up with your worldview.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I suppose is,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

so that's, that's the solution aspect. Uh, the other stuff I'll say is pretty in line with like standard Marxism, Leninism of the states. I do have a few like critiques of the Soviet Union. One is collectivization, which is a policy I'm sort of. I'm not, I'm 50 50 on it. Uh, and I'm trying to look into it more. On one hand, I've read a book recently, which said that collectivization essentially just caused excess deaths because Ku Larks who were being collectivized, who were taking their, getting their farms taken off them would directly sabotage their farms, like as a means of revolt. And in return the Soviet government has to imprison or kill them, and then it just gets worse and worse. And they caused a fair few deaths. But, uh, I read another study about a year ago, and it was comparing Poland Communist Poland, which didn't have collectivization and Communist Bulgaria, which did, and the communist Bulgaria had much better farming productivity. So it's a bit of a topic I'm trying to look into. And then the other critique I probably have is their democracy. I've recently read very interesting stuff, advocating for some levels of sortation, you know, like how juries are picked. Just by random selection for some government positions, I believe that some require some level of skill. So you can't just pick it randomly. But we should have randomly selected committees because that represents the actual population more. What they found is that when you have elections, uh, the best people in society are chosen, which generally ends up being the upper class, which is why we have, uh, lots of rich politicians, but not many actual working class common people in power. So the Soviet Union also suffered from that. They had like this fringe minority of, of politicians who had not extreme inequality with the rest of society. They had, like, they earned about five times more, which is still very, very equal compared to capitalist society standards. But there was still inequality and there was a divide over that. So that's the critique.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I think that's a fair critique of almost all political positions even around the world. I've often, like, we've talked about this at home, where wouldn't it be great if we hired our politicians, kinda like American Idol, like they had to go and, you know, sort of like you could apply and then the people actually chose them based on their talent, their, uh, moral hygiene and all, all of that, versus like, who gets the most funding.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, because funding determines a lot of elections in it.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, yeah. And of course, and of course something that I, I think like we, we agree with a lot of leftists and and even, you know, anti-capitalist on to some extent is the two party system. There's really no other options and. And an independent can't win in America, for

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Even in Australia, we, we have a, I'll say objectively better system than you do. What we have is preferential voting. So say you really like an independent. But you prefer, say Republicans or Democrats. So there's three parties, independent, republican, democrat, you can vote number one independent, but then when they lose, say they get the least votes, then all their votes get discarded. And they look at the number two on your list, and that vote goes to number two. So you put number two Republican and your vote goes to the Republican then, and then you put number three Democrats so that it's just,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. And that, that system's been talked about and proposed here, but of course, the parties in charge of actually voting for that voting regulations don't want, it's not,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

not advantageous for them.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

but even with that, we still have yet two very dominant parties, labor and liberal, which is, I'll say, pretty similar with your parties. I think labor is a bit more left than your, uh, Democrats. But yeah, it's very similar.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Okay. Well maybe we'll come back to,'cause I think the, the, how communism might take hold when America, or, or globally is a, is a deeper question. So maybe we'll, we'll circle back to that, but we had a few other, like topics we wanted to get through with you too. Yeah. So first of all, you've probably, you probably have to get your sources from somewhere, right? So I'm wondering which, like, news, news channels or news sources, do you prefer more and trust more for well news.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah. Well, with, with like direct news, like immediately after an event happens, I really just look at anything just look it up and go on whichever, you know, publisher makes it first. But with my more like deep political thoughts, I usually, uh, look to YouTube. There's this one channel, which I've watched extensively over the last few years. His name is William Paul Haw. I think his, his YouTube channel is just Paul Cock shot. He's a Scottish professor. Uh, his. Very deep communist. And he is post a lot of videos on many, many topics such as like physics, but a lot of economics, politics. And it's commented on like modern events as well, like the Russian Ukranian war. Apart from that, so there's him and there's like a lot of other academic sort of people that I look to which are more restrained from like the popular news sources, which I think, uh, you know, they're more generated just to get clicks and views rather than actually give you information. So I have like a few like that. But generally it's just academic sources and whichever, you know, popular media outlet makes it first.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. And we, we didn't act, I don't think we asked you this earlier, but your family, like, what? Do they lean similar to you or do you have differing opinions?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I, we have differing opinions. I'll say they're mostly apolitical, but you know, they have, you know, obviously a few views in the Soviet Union. They live there and I've asked them on it, and again, they gimme a sort of a, a nuanced view of what it really was, which I think is very important. But they're mostly apolitical. Again, have a few views, maybe slightly left-leaning, especially compared to America. I'll say in Australia, people are more left-leaning compared to America on average. But not, not like me, but my grandparents on the other hand. Two of them worked as teachers and in the Soviet Union to work as a teacher, you had to be a member of the Communist Party as a part of the, so they were, they were trained as, you know, communists. So, two of them were one of them, my Polish grandparent, she's a Polish Catholic and very, very anti-communist. Absolutely hated the whole system. She was very anticommunist, very religious, and again, in the Soviet religion, it wasn't banned, but it was frowned upon. That's sort of my family story.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Very interesting. So do you like, or what are your thoughts about like kids talking about politics like us?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Well, look, it's important, especially at a certain point once the kid's mature enough, which I think is for, it doesn't happen a certain age, you know, it's different for everyone when someone gets, you know, mature enough to be able to speak on issues properly. But I think politics is important and talking to children about politics is important. As long as they understand why things happen. It's not just a matter of this is good, that's bad there. It's, you know, actually understanding why that works, why that doesn't work, why this might work, might not work. We don't know. It's a very nuanced subject and it requires a lot of nuance when teaching, especially to children.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Now you got interested in, let's say, politics, economics, pretty young, maybe because of your background, but are like, what are your friends like?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, well I'm definitely the furthest into politics out of anyone. When I got in, I was definitely alone. There was no one else who was 12 years old. There was also like, looking at the stuff I was looking. But as I've gone through my schooling years, uh, you know, other people have also sort of gone into it. And they usually come to me sort of asking me stuff and I tell them my views and we sort of have a little,'cause they usually develop their own views from the internet when we have little talks. So there are now at school, there's probably. Four or five others who or a few of them are my friends, who of them are just random people who were, I would say, interested in politics not necessarily communists or socialists by any means. Most of them are sort of, don't have any coherent political views, I would say. But they do, they are clearly interested and they, like, each time something happens, they, you know, talk about it or they talk to me about it. So now there are people like that, but when I first started there, there wasn't,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Okay. Yeah. I imagine at 12, like, it's very young. Yeah. That's pretty young to, especially to be getting into,'cause you had, you had sent us like a, a, a bit about some of your reading material and it's pretty dense, like it's pretty advanced and dense.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

shelf here, back there. It's, it's quite dense.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

I mean, it was like Marx, Lenin yeah. John Locke. I think so. So like, you've, you've read some pretty deep,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, the, the marks and Len is definitely the hardest to read just'cause it was so long ago. Like, the writing's clearly outdated. But I've read yeah, lots of other stuff, which is also like academic. But yeah, so I've, I've gone into a fair bit of that over the years.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Well, good, good. Uh, good, good for you. But I, yes, it's dense at that age for sure. So, what are some key points in either your current politics in Australia or politics here possibly that you were very passionate about?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Uh, well look, I'll say naturally as a socialist, communist type private property it's like a key part of society, which people, you know, they're born with. They have that idea that people can just buy whatever they want and they just grow up and they, they live with that idea, not realizing that. Over our thousands of years as a society, it's changed a lot. Our laws around who can own what have been vastly different, you know, from slavery where you can own people, which is like very extreme to, egalitarian societies where owning anything was, was banned. Like by egalitarian, I mean the primitive ones, you know, the tribes thousands of years ago where owning anything was banned. And everything was the same, but there's been a vast difference over society and it's, I think it's time to revise what we think you should be able to do again.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

So private property. So the, so ability to own private property is, is a, is a topic. Okay. That's a big and a, that's a deep one. Okay.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

topic. Yeah. Like apart from that, I'll say. Again, democracy sort of one, which I was talking to you about. But you know, I think it's important for people to hold power. The key communist idea. Uh, what else? Like, I have general, like most leftists, you know, they talk about, you know, poverty and, dignified right to live and free water and free housing. I have those ideas. But I think that it's like a, a more service level resting upon the whole idea of private property and how we manage things as a society. And

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Okay.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

so those, that's probably the big one, which is like uniquely sort of socialist and communist and those

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Right, right. So, okay. That's actually a good way to put it is. So the, the deeper issues are the ones that you're interested in while surface level, however, they're massive issues, which

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Even though they're massive.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

healthcare, universal income yeah. Foreign conflicts, wars, I imagine, you know, Gaza and Ukraine, all like, these types of things are, are, uh, what you would consider sort of, maybe not the, the core.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah, because again, they're very big issues and that's what we're trying to solve. But the communist outlook is that that rested upon the bedrock of capitalism. Capitalism creates these issues through its contradictions, through the way it operates. And to solve those issues, you have to solve the core problem. And the reason why we can't solve those issues is because we haven't solved the core problem yet. So that's, that's my view on it.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Hmm. Okay. Well, do you mind if we unpack communism a little bit this wasn't set up as a debate. However, like we, we want to ask what I'd say are common critiques of communism that I'm sure you're familiar with. So, if you look at history and you do some queries, let's say through Google or a, a lot of means, you'll find that communism has, let's say, the highest death toll. It's had very difficult times implementing itself in the eutopic format that Marx talked about, et cetera. So, in terms of actual implementation, it's had a lot of historical challenges. So how do you, like, how do you think about that?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, firstly, a key thing which I want people to realize with when they talk about death toll.'cause everyone always, they spurred out numbers on the internet or wherever they say 20 million here, 60 million there, a hundred million, whatever you want. Uh, the general numbers come. There's 20, there's a 20 million number which comes for the Soviet Union. It comes from the Black Book of Communism, which is, has been sort of rejected by academics because it it goes for like the higher estimates and also it counts a lot of things which you originally wouldn't really call deaths. Uh, it counts Nazi soldier fatalities from the war, which again, they were being invaded. I don't see, I don't find a Nazi to be a victim of communism.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

You're talking about like World War ii?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

World War ii.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. The Russians lost a lot. A lot. of soldiers. A lot of soldiers in World War ii. More than any other

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, exactly. I think some sources, they count like the Soviet can re legalize abortion, uh, and they count deaths from aborted babies as deaths of communism. Which again, like whether you're for or against abortion, I'm not sure whether you would call a fetus Same

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

those numbers aren't typically included in any stats,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there's a few sketchy numbers

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

What about things like the Bolshevik revolution and the famines?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. So, well, with the famines, you thinking of the halor happen in Ukraine in the twenties, thirties, under Stalin, which is with a collectivization, which I was talking about before. But the death ranges, they go from 3 million to 7 million starved. Again, like it was mostly due due to, uh, the collectivization, which happened, which in one of the books I was reading Farm to Factory, it's called, they heavily critique the collectivization. They, the guy actually says that Stalin did a very good job with industrializing the country, which he objectively did. The Soviet Union had the fastest growth rate out of any country ever in the world except Japan. Japan beat it. But considering that the Soviet was a much bigger country, like it was like a growth rate per, like, per the starting how much the industry was starting with. It's

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

country to mobilize. Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah, exactly. Anyway, but he does critique collectivization which again, I've said I'm not fully decided on, but it's important to know that the famine was from there. And it's also important to remember that the Russian Empire before being the USSR had regular famines that had a famine, I think at the end of the 18 hundreds, which killed a few million a few 30 years before that. It was just a symptom of pre-industrial society that whenever there's a bad harvest, there's a famine, a few thousand, few million maybe people die and you go on with your life. Only in the last a hundred years or so, we've had the privilege of having foods all throughout our lives. And the Soviet Union gave its people that privilege by industrializing the nation that quickly. So that's what the Soviet Union, but the biggest death numbers come from, uh, China,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Mao.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

uh, under Mao and the, the sparrows and all that. Uh, the, the first number to come out was from den Oping, who was the later the leader of China, but he was a critique of, of Mao, and he went to the countryside and he said that like by using his own estimations and calculations, he said 14 million people have died due to the policies. So it was 14 million. Which again, I'm not sure if it's true or not. But there was something around that. But then later in this black book of communism, which again, it sort of uses these very do dodgy estimates, they inflated that number to around 40 million. They just inflated it a fair amount and that's the number we they rolled with.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

So, so the nu, so E yeah, so e, even if the numbers are inflated, like what about the fact that, these societies haven't had longevity, like they, they tend to crumble and, and, and fake.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, they have crumbled. They the Soviet Union and China in the nineties was all one big event because these communist societies, because they're sanctioned and embargoed by the, by the capitalist block, they rely on each other for trade. So when the Soviet Union collapsed, all these small countries, which are being, which would rely on it for trade, they also collapsed. They had the big choice. Basically all these countries had the choice either go capitalist and accept IMF, you know, demands and capitalist trade, or they can go in this really, really seclusive society where they just live by themselves. And one country did that and that's North Korea. So before the Soviet collapse, North Korea was a very different country because it had ability to trade and it was much, much, much more developed. Now it's like the way it is because it just was the most stubborn one, which chose to not go capitalist other than serving collapsed. Anyway, so yeah, there was a big collapse. The reasons for that I can go into, but they're quite lengthy. What's important to remember is that when capitalist society was founded, because, you know, before the enlightenment and capitalist ideals, we had feudalism and absolutism and all these different, more authoritarian regimes, uh. The first sort of instance of capitalism in Europe, in America, you could say the USA sort of founded it first and they had a very good run. But in Europe, the French, in the 1788, they killed the king, established a republic based on what we call capitalist ideas, right? The legal code, which Napoleon established in France is still used there. They, you know, said, every person is sort of equal, but private property should exist. We are a capitalist society and that's why Marxists call the French Revolution, AB Bourgeois Revolution, you know, it was a revolution of the capitalists. They created that and 30 years later they were destroyed at loo. And France was given back to a monarchy. They were given back a monarchy last as a monarchy for a while, and then they've again had. Tumbles trying to become republic. There's been the big struggle in Europe. In 1848 there was many revolutions all across Europe. You can look it up. Revolutions of 1848 in Italy, Germany, even the uk I think. Anyway, all for the republic, they're all crushed, destroyed. So with changing political systems in across the world, it's a lengthy process. It doesn't happen overnight. And when it does happen, it's not immune to failure. It often takes a few tries to get the right one. So I would say that the collapse of communism isn't some, you know, divine truth. Saying that communism is doomed for failure is just a process of history. Something which, which can happen. And it did happen.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

You mentioned that the onset of capitalism is one of the factors that may have disabled or handicap communist countries. So does that suggest that we have to have a world communist like society

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

that's well of communist support is like, you know, global

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

it seems like a convenient factor though, don't you think? Like, like why can't, like, why can't communist, why can't a communist, for example, trade with a capitalist country?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

or because they sort of, or they can, they have it's a bit more nuanced again, like by, I say they can't, I mean the Soviet Bloc and the Western Bloc and the Cold War because they had tensions with each other before that. The Soviet Union, after it was created, after the Bolsheviks took power and won their war, the western powers of Europe. Europe firstly, they invaded Russia in 1919 to support the whites, and then they lost. So British and French troops invaded. They lost, and then they, uh, stopped recognizing the Soviet Union. And they placed embargoes on them so they couldn't trade with with them. And for a while no country even recognized the Soviet Union in 1920s. I was just reading a book about this, uh, the German foreign minister, because Germany was also very isolated at this time. You know, they just lost the war. They lost their monarchy, their empire. They were looking for friends. They saw the Soviet also didn't have any friends and they created this treaty of rappel, I'm pretty sure it was called where they sort of recognize each other. And they started trading just general trade and also munitions which is a bit sketchy under the treaty of the size, which said the Germany cunt free arm, re-arm. But anyway, they did that. So it is not, the Soviet countries can't trade, but it's just when there's two big blocks and they're diametrically opposed as capitalism's, very much against communism. They don't want the trade. Just like, we don't really want to rely on Russia or China for trade when they're fighting us. It's, yeah, just a thing which happens,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

I like history, so Yeah. Yeah. The voice. That's my favorite subject. Least me. So,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

yeah. Well, you've obviously read your history, that's pretty cool. Yeah, you like your books and I like books, so I like that.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

It's good to hear. It's very good to hear.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

How about so there's, let's just say there's countries today, North Korea, you could say Cuba. Venezuela, like, they're, they're all in the, the midst of they've, or they've gone through some changes, but they, they all do struggle. And so what, like what do you attribute that to?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Again, I'll say probably the embargoes and all that, but also it's important to recognize. It's hard for poor countries to get rich and it's hard for, well, it's easy for rich countries to say rich, right? Over the countries 150 years ago, which were very poor, are rich Nowadays there's probably only a handful. You know, Korea comes to mind. Japan, uh, China, Singapore is probably a big one. But apart from that, basically all the countries 150 years ago, which were poor, have stayed poor. It's a hard, hard struggle to become. To emancipate yourself as a third world country. So when, you know, Cuba has always been one of the poor ones. They were oppressed by the Spanish and then the Americans, they had, a dictator in the fifties. It's, it's hard to get it to be good. And I think the Cubans have done a good job of that. They have now, I think it's very similar, even higher life expectancy than the USA they have reasonable living standards. You know, again, not, not as good as the rich countries. Historically China has been very rich. But about 200 years ago there were sort of mutilated in the process of, uh, colonization, it's called like the century of humiliation in China. And again, the communists took it, and now it's. At the top again.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

You wouldn't consider China a communist country today, right?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

It's, yeah, I wouldn't like it's sort of a mixed economy. People like to say, oh, the, the victory of China is a victory of capitalism, not communism. But if we implemented the same policies China has in the west, a lot of guys would call it socialism. Even though it's, it's not, I disagree, I'll say it, it's not, but it's very, it's much left, more left-leaning than any western society. I would say if there was a society which was most similar to, it would be the British, when the labor government had like a 20 year, uh, cement of dominance and they had like a very. Big mixed economy where the state owned like a lot of industry. And they had like a lot of government subsidized services that ended when Margaret Thatcher took into power in the uk. But it's, it's very similar to what China has today. So, no, it's not capitalist, but it's also very government guided.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

This is kind of related, this is related to communism, and I'm just curious because we've actually had a few communists on lately.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

because, around Gen Z, they're starting to become more communist. So I'm curious why do you think that like Gen Z is suddenly now like becoming more communist?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Well, I'll say. It's not necessarily they're becoming more communist, but I think there is a bit more just political extremism and politics in general in society, again, where sort of things are ramping up in the world. 30 years ago it was pretty quiet. America was the victor. People said it was the end of history. You know, communism has failed. Capitalism will be like this, it'll be all good forever. But now, you know, there's challenges. There's Russia, there's China, there's more far right, uh, extremists as well as far left. As for why they're becoming communists, I would say just society in general, the poverty in the world and all that. Cause people to become far left as well. As far right as well. So there is growing

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

interesting though because the, the, the global standard of living is higher than it's ever been. Right.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Partially that's true. We have like higher wealth in equality than the French did during their revolution, but back then they were actually impoverished, you know? So yeah, we have had better growth. But I think this is a good thing. But it's also a bad thing humans. Never satisfied. They always push for more. And it's sort of made us this big triumphant civilization that's taken domination over everyone else. We have grown as a species a lot, but we're still not satisfied. And I think it's just part of the human condition. So

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Do you think that human condition challenges some of the theory though of communism or particularly Marx Marxist ideology?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I would say it actually fits in quite well. You know, Marxism sort of analyzes history is like a struggle over material conditions. You know, it's sort of, it comes from an idea that to live even nowadays, to live we need to work, right? It has been that way the whole time. You know, cavemen, they had to each day get up and make food. Buy hunting so they can live nowadays. We still need to do that. And the way in which we work well, we, yeah, like even though it might not seem that we do, we, we still do, like if everyone stopped working, nothing would happen. So, and the way in which we work and create the goods for ourselves, which we need sort of influencers, how society works in general, you know, whether you are being forced to work by a, a harsh slave owner who's whipping you or whether you are coerced to work by, monetary gain through a capitalist, but really the capitalist exploiting you, which is what Marxists say happened in capitalist society. It changes the dynamics and what goes on. It's hedged in this idea that people want better living standards. That the, the people in the oppressed class would. If they could, they would fight and they'll take over and they'll create a better life themselves, which I think has happened over history. Whether those revolutions have succeeded or not, but they have happened where oppressed peoples slaves or, or peasants or nowadays workers have taken up arms and fought, you know, to get better living standards.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

yeah. And, and so what's the goal like of, let's say a, a communist is living in America, who has a very high living standard, even homeless people have high living standards here. And so they don't really have economic hardship because the government will provide for them, right? General like food welfare, et cetera. They think they're oppressed, but like, are they really, if they have everything that they need.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Right. Well, I'll say you can define oppression, not by whether you have everything you need. Right? Like, for example, Kings back 500 years ago, they didn't have clean water ready at the minutes notice, but you wouldn't say they were oppressed. Actually, there were the oppressors there. Were feeding on the labor of the peasants. I'll say that today we have come to a point where labor productivity is so high that, you know, even what we call high living standards is still being oppressed. We're still giving our labor to to the capitalists and you can calculate how much

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

You're talking about like surplus,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Surplus value. Yeah. Surplus labor, which you're giving.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

You mentioned earlier that people like inherently want. To do better and do more. And so like, let's just say somebody who invents something really cool. This is, I think, a challenge with, with communism. I'm cur curious like how you think about this, but people that work harder and innovate more and take more risks and delay gratification further are gonna want more out of society than somebody who sits in their mom's basement and plays Fortnite all day. So like how do you, how do you like remedy that

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I, I envision a society which levies a base tax rate, right? And this is a tax which pays for all the public services, which the government gives. And this tax rate requires everyone with society who can work, right? Like maybe disabled people or whoever can be exempt from this retired. But every able-bodied person has to work a certain number of hours per year. And if they just wanna work that and plus a little bit of extra to buy food just for the bare minimum, they can do that. If they wanna work more they can, and they'll get extra money, which they can buy to. Used to buy extra hit things, in exchange for working more for society, right? You give in more, you get more as long as the condition is, is that they don't accumulate so much wealth that they can buy, society as a whole. Right? If they buy the factory world, the other work workers, workers at, then they can start oppressing their own workers, right? Or if they buy, if they save up so much money, they can buy all the houses in their street and kick everyone else out and offer them back in as tenants and oppress them through rent, then that shouldn't be allowed. Right. Where I can imagine this working is sort of like a, maybe a deadline on when you have to spend your money so that you don't, you can't accumulate so much wealth that you can oppress other people. Right. But I do believe if people work more, they should get more. Uh,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

But to a, To a limit. To a, but only to a limit. And who

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

to a limit,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

who decides the limit.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, I believe society is as a collective should and they'll be responsible that, again, because everyone wants to secure each other's needs,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Won't, won't then, won't then society just keep the limit really low because they don't want people to get like ahead of them.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Like, but like the people in society are the

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Like how, how would they do it? Like would they vote? They would vote for this or,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I suppose. So like, again, it's not like a proper sort of coherent idea yet, but, voting or sortition, it would have to be a committee of many, many thousands of people, which we can now do due to the internet and stuff. Which, have a representative view of society as a whole. That's, that's one, sorry.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Like that would be like a lot of work. A poll that

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

it would be,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

John has worked five extra hours. Should he get$10 more? Like, and then just like going through that constantly, that seems like it's highly unnecessary.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

It definitely used to be unnecessary. It was very hard to do in the Soviet Union. They had like a committee, not, not for this sort of stuff, but for uh, like government, government planning, where to invest your resources. What, which industries should you grow and allocate funds to. It was called GOs Plan. They had around 40,000 people working for them. All of them were just like accountants sort of to calculate crunch numbers. But nowadays it's much, much easier through computer algorithms and stuff. In fact, the YouTube channel guy, he wrote a book in the nineties showing that in the nineties, right when computers were very basic, that you could, uh, plan an economy and do all this stuff with like, with a state, with like an investment of like 10 million or so. Nowadays, you could probably do it with like. A good pc, right? In the 18 hundreds, there was a British industrialist called Robert Owen. He owned his factory, but he was like a socialist right? Even though he was an oppressor, he was, he had the socialist that isn't him. And he decided, well, what if I pay my workers, not money, but labor tokens. So for each hour you work, you get one hour payment, right? Which represents one hour of your work. And with that, you could buy one hour of someone else's work, right? So say, in which is, which is the whole communist idea, right? Say your computer takes 10 hours to make you work for 10 hours, you get 10 labor tokens and you can buy that computer because that computer from the scraps, which it was, iron alloy and all that, and copper in society. We have now taken all that labor and created an actual computer, which took 10 hours. So with 10 hours of your work, you can buy that. And he did that and like it worked in his little factory for quite some time. And he did that in the 18 hundreds before any technology. So now with, you know, credit cards and digital transactions, I think it's, it's definitely feasible. And I'll say the chaotic capitalist system actually creates more, oftentimes more hardship on planning than communism does.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

How about, okay, so I, I could, I mean, there's tons of questions I could ask. It probably we don't have enough time for, but a, a couple other, like, say common critiques. One is communist revolutions or countries seem to be very ripe. And, and even by Marx's own, I think outline, they tend to go through an authoritarian rule before they can be turned over to the proletariat. Right, So how does one avoid this? Once control gets taken place, it's hard to give it back, right? And we saw this in, in many of these regimes over time. So. How do you, how does one avoid that in a communist development?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

I'm not sure if avoiding it is necessary. The Soviet Union sort of tried to start implementing communism, but they couldn't because there's the, so there's the USA and their huge military right next door. Having to completely match the USA in military spending and fight proxy wars, they never really could. So I think that that's, it's an interesting question and whether how it's achieved, it's something which is worthy to figure out, but I can't use any historical examples because we've never even reached a stage where I think it's necessary to abolish

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Right, right. Okay. Okay. Fair, fair enough. Another common critique I see is that people in their human nature obviously wanna get the best outta life, right? They wanna earn the most, have the best place, and, uh, particularly if they work hard and they wanna do that for the least amount of effort, typically, right? Like, you wanna maximize your output by minimizing your input, let's just say. But in a communist society, you have a, you have a ceiling on your output, and so then what that. Does in theory is it drives your input or your, your work or your effort asymptotically to zero, right? And so that, that level will just keep, keep lowering down. And this is, you know, theory, but it does make a lot of sense to me just based on human nature. How do you think about that at.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, like with the whole human nature thing people, yeah, they do want the best, and I'll say that that's something which supports communism, right? In Capital Society, there's a system where 99% of the people have around half their labor taken away by the capitalist group, and they want to change that, right? They want to you know, make it so they get their best. And when the 99% revolts takes over, that's what happens. That's what communism is. With the ceiling. Are you referencing like what I was talking about before, like with the deadline on payments or what

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

I mean? that, that, or that, that theory, I think, is generally common in a, in a communist society where you have a, you have a maximum or you have a cap on the things that you can have own and

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, look yeah, I'll say like there should, again, it is all, there's a big qualitative, not quantitative divide. I think if you want to have, I don't know, 50 million Legos in your house, you should be able to do that. But you can't own just one factory because that factory allows you to exploit other people. Whereas Lego, who's gonna like it doesn't matter. If you wanna work extra hours to get extra toys or whatever, I don't know. Whatever hobby you have,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Or a nicer home. Maybe a nicer home.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

At home. Yeah. If you wanna do that, I think that should be okay. As long as it's not basing yourself on exploitation of others. Right. The only other like ceiling or sort of like disincentive to working will be taxation, which is why I'm thinking a flat base. In capitalist society we have progressive taxation, right? The more you earn, the more you pay in tax, which is meant to sort of lessen the Yeah. Balance the bad things in capitalism, right? It's, it's a remedy to what I think is a bad system.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

But in my view, you just have a base tax rate where you contribute to society. And then above that you can spend as much as you want, earn as much as you want, and do that with like, innovation or like technological progress. You invent something, you get like patents, When you create something, you can still give it out to society and retain a bit of the profit, right? Because if you didn't have that, as soon as you would invent something, you would just keep it secret so only you can use it. No one else in society can use it, and that's damaging to society, right? If James, what, who invented the steam engine decides to just keep it secret in his own lab and not show it to the rest of the world, we would still be digging in dirt agriculturally, right? So, but how much should we reward the people that invent things? Some people say we should reward them a lot and give them a lot of stuff, but the thing is, is that, who invented it, right? Like James Wat, he came up with the idea for the war engine, right? Which started the industrial revolution, but before that, there was the newcomer engine, right? Which was like less efficient. So only just increased the efficiency, right? But say we decided to pay him as much money that he increased the efficiency by, right? So, the first one was like, say it'll give you$10 for each use, right? That's like a weird way to cause the image. And this one gives you 15. So for each time you use it, you give them$5, then society doesn't get any benefit out of it because each, each bit of surplus we create with a machine we give away to this one guy as it becomes increasingly wealthy. And especially when you consider that the reason why he created the steam engine was not just his own brilliant mind, but was the, all the mathematics and the physics and all the work of all his predecessors, you know, to create those other machines and to create those minds where he could create the tools for his own machine. Inventions are attributed to society, really not individual people, even though one guy does the eureka moment and events it, that invention is based on the collective effort of our society over thousands of years. So I think the benefit should go to society, right? We should have like researchers and people who innovate, but the things they create, you know, they'll get paid for it, but not excess so that they can amass wealth just themselves off the benefit of our society. No, we should use those inventions to better the entirety of society. And that's the best way to operate things, I believe.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

an interesting question as well.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

think I understand that argument. However, a counter argument might be. Well, that person had the ingenuity and the know-how to take this idea and make it much better, and why not give them more resources so they can do the same to some other industry and some other industry. Like Elon Musk is a great example that he's developed things that nobody else has, and you could say, well, he stole the ideas, or he, you know, robbed people's labor. But without him having that capability, we wouldn't have reusable rockets, we wouldn't have electric cars that are like ba basically the standard now. And so like there is a counter argument there too,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

the reason why Elon Musk has, all these industries and has implemented all this stuff is because he has the capital to do it. Right. He has the funding himself from his other businesses, which then made a profit to him, right? He's the richest guy on the planet.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

He could just be sit sitting in Monaco on a huge yacht, but he's, he's actually continuing to develop stuff,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

he is. But I believe that, his probably the, not the smartest guy on the planet. There's better geniuses than him who have less funding, and I believe, you know, capitalism misallocate that funding, again, his sort of. Yeah, it's good, good on him for inventing stuff. It's better than sitting at home doing nothing. If the state had full control over resources, we could properly allocate, funding to the actual real geniuses and the real'cause. Again, coming back to my first idea, things aren't invented by just one person. Oftentimes it is very funny to look at history because it's like, say planes, right? We're invented, we're in the vendor, we're invented, and then a southern moment, everyone can start flying, right? The Wright brothers did the first, but like weeks after that, there was all these other flights as well, which happened, which you don't hear about, right? Suddenly the technology happened, the change happened where geniuses, right? Not everyone could still, even after that happened, not everyone could fly a plane, but there was like a group. It wasn't just one. There was like a good group of people who could now. Do it and fly. Same thing with, with steam engines, with, with any invention ever. So it's not just this one person We should have, a committee where there's people who can do research and they get generous funding to do the research and a reasonable paycheck to live their life, to benefit society. I believe,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

yeah. What is also tricky is like who de like who decides all of these things in a communist society where it's supposedly stateless. Right? And, and so then who, who actually, who decides?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Again, yeah. As a mixed, one of my first ideas, which I told you guys was Ian, right? Where people are randomly selected. That works for some things, right? Coming up with like, for example, the retirement age, right? You get all the people together, they all decide, we should allocate it to this, so then the state has more funding or no, we should make it lowest. Then people have more time at home. But then eventually they come with decision, which represents what society thinks. Other things like military generals, you don't want them to be randomly selected from the public. They need to be, you know, skilled, trained in, military strategy, right? So they should be probably not even elected. They should be selected, right? Which is what we have. Now, there probably are some middle of the road positions where you want them to somewhat represent the public, but they still need to have some skills, right? We have a mix in our society, right? We have sortation for jury duty, we have election for politics, and we have selection for, again, like generals and ministers and all that. I think should be a bit of an expansion for the sortition level because they'll increase actual democracy and representation. But there still, still should be like selection of real people.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

One of the things that I would say is interesting about communism is less government, less government, less bureaucracy, less administration. However, all these things still do need to happen and, and I think of also communism as less corruption. But in reality it still like has, it's still subject to corruption, right?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

It has had corruption and it has had like black markets and stuff as well. Right. In, in last year, if you wanted to get like a pair of jeans, which the government didn't have because, well, they'll get them, but then they'll get sold out immediately. Right. And they'll just be empty. But you'll go to like a sketchy vendor, but they're having like workarounds, you know, in modern society nowadays. I think ideally communist society will be lacking of money, and I know a lot of people like money because to them it represents freedom. But I think ultimately when the whole of society is ran by people. There's no, like, who are you hiding from? Right? Like we, the government and the states, we're all your friends because we are you. Online transactions and you can't have a black market.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Now obviously people that have, let's say, assets, wealth or, okay myself, like I'm not a rich guy. However, I've developed assets. I have a home I worked hard and I got all this stuff. And so in this, let's say communist shift into our society, it would almost certainly require a revolution in my opinion, because people aren't gonna wanna give up what they have or what they've earned or what let's say earned, but but what they've attained And so it's not gonna be easy, right?

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. It's not, but it's something which I think just should happen. Yeah. Should be redistributed. And still, because of the amount of wealth as a society we have everyone will be given a reasonable amount, but Yeah. Like things might have to be taken. My great-grandmother, uh, she had it was either great-grandmother or great-great-grandmother, but she has four husbands. All of them just died randomly. She ended up inheriting like four, four or five houses like great big, estates. And then the Bolsheviks came and like took them except one, which she lived on. It was something which happened, but then, you know, those houses went to peasants who had never, you know, living by themselves ever in their lives. Yeah. So it's not like sometimes it happens randomly. Sometimes it, you work for it and you earn it, but. The creation of a better society. I think it's something which has to happen essentially. Anyway.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

We could probably talk to you for hours. I love how much knowledge you have on history

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

on these topics, so we could, like I said, we could probably go on for hours, this is clearly catching steam for whatever reason with, with the younger generation. We talked a little bit about that, but it's definitely interesting. And so we're trying to learn more about what's propelling that in the minds of young people these days and trying to understand that a little bit more deeply. The boys are obviously absorbing a lot of this, but it's it's a deep dense topic and so hence I'm a little bit more involved. But why don't we maybe wrap this up. Maybe there's a follow up that we can do at some

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

yeah. Maybe that's what I was thinking. Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Couple of final things. What is some advice you have gotten very involved in politics, history and even political theory What's the advice that you have for young people that are out there like. Living their lives.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, my, I think I'll say advice is if it doesn't properly affect you, right? If it's not directly a foot on your head, you know, which is oppressing you, which you have to change, right? Which you generally, if it is like that, you'll feel passionate feelings about it. You know, like how Palestinians feel about, you know, their occupation. But if you're just observing it from an outsider perspective and it doesn't really matter, like, yeah, maybe this policy would increase your food by a little bit. This one won't, it doesn't really matter. Try and look at both sides and understand why both sides have their views and understand how they developed and not just get into like a mindset of, these guys are evil, they're bad, these guys are good, right? I try and develop, even with like Nazis or Hitler, especially with Nazis and Hitler. Actually I'm reading a book about it right now, but you know why that developed in Germany at that time, like where those ideas came from. Why it happened. Right. And that will give you like a better, I think, understanding of society and just of anything in general, right? If you understand why things happen, you can do whatever you want. If there's a Nazi at your front door with a gun trying to kill you, it's a bit hard to do that. It's a bit hard to look at him and, and understand where it's coming from. But if you're sitting from a privileged position, you know, in my room, in my chair where, the Nazi innovations happened 80 years ago, try and look at it and figure out why things happen. Is like the best, like try and go as deep as you can essentially. Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Well, very interesting and we appreciate you coming on and joining us all the way from Australia. So it's your morning, it's our afternoon, and so it's, it's been super cool to have you on,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

I've been absorbing this. You're probably been the most knowledgeable person that we've actually talked to that's like, read a lot of the books and like understands it, I'd say pretty well. So it's pretty interesting. I mean it's pretty awesome,

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Thank you.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

Well, I'm, I'm glad to give you a little perspective on how I see things, and Yeah.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Why don't we wrap up the podcast. We wish you the best of luck and let's definitely stay in touch.'cause I wanna see how you know where you go from here. Alright, well with it.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-Alexei_Khaidurov-webcam-00h_00m_00s_606ms-StreamYard:

you.

GSD_w__Alexei_Khaidurov-GSD-webcam-00h_00m_00s_556ms-StreamYard:

Thank you. Thank you.