Sharing something that I posted on X: https://x.com/manualzuru/status/1890403646048768450?s=46

There’s a deep cultural trauma around collectivism. When people hear socialism or communism, they think of failed authoritarian regimes and for good reasons. Those who claimed to practice them have often created systems that lead to oppression & economic failure.

1/ 🧵 Thread

There’s a deep cultural trauma around collectivism. When people hear socialism or communism, they think of failed authoritarian regimes and for good reasons. Those who claimed to practice them have often created systems that lead to oppression &amp; economic failure.

1/ 🧵 Thread

ManuAlzuru🥑

Humanist, lovepunk, engineer, experience producer, musician, angel. DAOs since ‘16. Experimenting with human protocols, trust networks & decentralized societies

Instead of a classless society as Marx envisioned it, communist regimes concentrated power even more. Ruling elites controlled wealth & resources while the majority struggled. These systems claimed to empower people but ended up reinforcing inequality under a different name.

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I grew up in Venezuela, where socialist propaganda justified government control over land, resources, media, institutions & political powers. They expropriated my family’s land & attacked us just for thinking differently.

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My dad has Spanish origins, and the government used “colonialist & imperialist” propaganda to justify targeting people with European roots & seizing their land, even though Venezuela declared independence from Spain in 1811. So my dad and my grandpa had nothing to do with it.

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It’s clear to me that what happened to my family wasn’t about justice or equality. It was about consolidating power. The same leaders who preached against imperialism lived in luxury while using identity politics to divide people & justify expropriating land & resources.

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During university years, I protested after they took my father’s land. Later, I got hired at Schlumberger one as an apprentice wireline field engineer, working on rigs for PDVSA (the state oil company). Every single rig I went to, we found oil 🤯. Venezuela is insanely rich.

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One time in Barinas, we found transparent oil (ultra light crude). Seeing this firsthand was surreal. Venezuela has some of the world’s largest oil reserves, yet the people live in extreme poverty. The wealth is there, but it never reaches the people. It’s just benefit few.

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When Chavez died, I spoke out & protested against authoritarianism & government tried to kill me, not once but 3 times. They murdered one of my best friends, jailed many of my friends & extorted us constantly. They wanted to silence me & I had to flee the country to survive.

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This pattern isn’t unique to Venezuela. Many “socialist or communist” states follow the same path where elites hoard power & wealth while using collectivist propaganda and silencing those against it. Instead of abolishing class distinctions, they become the wealthiest class.

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Yes, capitalist societies offer some meritocracy where people with valuable ideas can escape poverty & gain freedom. But in reality, capital follows capital. Most successful entrepreneurs get backing from those who already have power & wealth.

There are few exceptions.

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Similarly, in socialist societies, those connected to power are the ones who benefit. The ruling class brings in their friends, family & loyalists, just like in capitalism, but under a different narrative. In both systems, access to wealth isn’t as open as it seems.

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Having lived years in the US, France, Germany, Spain & spent months in multiple countries with different governance models, I’ve seen how both capitalism & socialism when taken to extremes both fail to empower people. The real issue is centralized control, in any form.

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That’s why it’s interesting how many blockchain leaders who claim to support decentralization are actually hyper capitalist maxis. They fear anything social or collaborative as if it automatically leads to authoritarian control due to our collective trauma.

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But real decentralization is about collective empowerment. It’s about designing systems that prevent monopolization, whether by corporations, governments or crypto whales. If blockchain just becomes another tool that’s used only for capital accumulation, what’s the point?

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The challenge isn’t “capitalism vs communism”. Both systems, as they’ve played out, end up concentrating power, one through the state and the other through wealth.

The real challenge is breaking free from centralized control in any form.

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We need new language, new models & new experiments that avoid the baggage of past ideologies while embracing what actually works. The future isn’t capitalist or communist, it’s decentralized, resilient & radically collaborative + human centric & not capital centric.

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If we don’t reclaim the idea of collective power without control, we risk repeating history, just with different rulers.

Blockchain was meant to disrupt power structures, not recreate them in digital form.

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We need to keep fighting for freedom & the values that preserve life without discrimination based on class, religion, race, or any other bullshit. No ideology should justify oppression. True progress comes from real empowerment, not control.

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If you resonate with what I’m saying, let me know, post here or send me a DM. Let’s connect!

It’s time to create something truly new.

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My dad owned radio stations where free thinkers could share opinions but that was enough for the government to see him as a threat.

Under the banner of “power to the people,” they silenced anyone who questioned them while enriching themselves.

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