Oh no, I understood what you meant. But I feel that OP’s approach is correct. They used the words correctly, so that those who already know the meanings can understand what they are saying. Some people did not know what ‘capitalism’ meant, so they critiqued the meme based on their own understandings. Then OP was able to explain to them the correct meaning.

Returning to my analogy, let us say someone is teaching that 2 + 2 = 4. They can say, ‘you already know that 1 + 1 = 2, now multiply both sides by 2’. If a student does not know that 1 + 1 = 2, they can then explain it.

A meme can have only so much text. If they had to derive everything from first principles each time, we would get nowhere.

One plus one is two, not three or twenty six. If a bunch of people go around thinking that one plus one is three, that has no effect on reality. Such people must be educated as necessary, yes, but we should not avoid speaking the truth out of fear of confusing them.

India (red)

1. One man owns several major media outlets and is trying to buy up more.

2. If a newspaper publishes something the current ruling party (state or union) does not like, they paint a pretty big target on their back. They might lose government ads. They might be harassed investigated for any tiny infarction. They will likely not be invited to press conferences or given interviews.

The overall result is that most media try not to rock the boat too much. One field our media is relatively good at is world news, since we aren’t in any of the major geopolitical ‘blocs’, and foreign ownership of media outlets is banned.

Societies aren’t different because they have different technology with the same economic system. It feels like you’re saying indigenous societies wouldn’t have been able to industrialise without changing their political system radically

Societies with different technologies would tend to have very different social and economic systems. Indigenous societies that industrialise do end up changing their political systems because of this.

Drag doesn’t buy the distinction you’re making between indigenous communism and industrialised communism.

Industrialised communism does not exist, at least yet, but any industrial society will necessarily need to organise itself in a very different way from a primitive society (whether communist or not).

Language changes over time, and technical words are often misunderstood. It is definitely unfortunate, but I don’t think it is some sort of conspiracy.

The solution to ignorance is education, not humouring the ignorant. People need to have a basic understanding of the world around them if they are to improve it in any manner. Unfortunately, that involves learning some technical terms. Yes, some people will be confused, but realising that you are confused is the first step in learning something new.

They won the recent election (as part of a coalition). They are of course corrupt, etc., but at least they have local roots and influence.

I don’t think that’s the meaning OP is going for. In philosophy, idealism is the position that ideas exist independently of materials, or even that ideas are the true reality and the material world is either false or just a reflection of it. Many religions argue for some form of idealism.

Materialism, in contrast, is the idea that the material world is the primary one, and that ideas are at best descriptions of materials. Marxists and physical scientists hold this view. Finally, dualism is the idea that there is both a material and an ideal (i.e. ‘of ideas’, not ‘perfect’) world. Descartes is probably the most famous proponent of this school.

In the modern age, pretty much all serious thought accepts materialism, often implicitly, to the point that the material world is often called the ‘real world’ or even ‘the world’. But this was not always so, and there are still relics of idealist and dualist thinking.

Yes, let’s do the thing we just saw another group try (with far more advanced technology and the full support of a superpower, against a weaker opponent) and fail at, not to mention the humanitarian cost.

Or, you know, we could recognise the National Conference as the elected government of J&K, and listen to them. They don’t like the terrorists either, and they actually have public support.

It’s memes all the way down.