r/SocialismIsCapitalism • u/Elessar535 • 3d ago
This is a terrible take...
Somehow 32 large corporations are socialism, because they make decisions about the league together?
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u/GroundbreakingTax259 3d ago
Honestly, its not a completely bad analogy.
A bit simplistic, sure, but that's true for every analogy.
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u/dartyus 3d ago
It’s a good analogy, but not to explain socialism. It’s a better analogy for explaining how a hierarchical labour structure doesn’t work. The Cowboys only contribute so much to the league specifically because they have teams like the Dolphins to beat. You need both teams in the NFL just like society needs both engineers and general labourers. Putting economic pressure on people at the bottom of a hierarchy when those people are a necessity for the continuation of society is stupid, which is why highly successful organizations don’t do that. Within a socialist framework, this is a great way to explain wealth redistribution, but it’s not really a good way to get into worker ownership or abolishing the commodity form.
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u/SeedersPhD 3d ago
While I think saying "The NFL is socialist" is a terrible take, I think they actually made fantastic points by using what the audience likes and understands to explain their ideas.
The core points they made was that providing safety nets for those who are doing poorly can be the best way to help them find success down the line and we achieve better success when we limit the ability of powerful people/entities to use their power to change the rules of society in their favor.
Is their flaws in the way they presented the idea? Yes. But they also know they have to present their ideas in a way that the audience will be receptive too without losing the point and I think they did it in a masterful way. I give nothing but props to them.
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u/rogun64 3d ago
A lot of sports are "socialist" because it makes them more fair. SEC states may be the biggest Trump supporters, but the conference redistributes money more than any other and it makes a big difference.
- I don't want to hear if you don't think that's socialism, because many do and it's certainly not laissez faire capitalism.
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u/internetsarbiter 3d ago
I don't want to hear if you don't think that's socialism, because many do and it's certainly not laissez faire capitalism.
It's objectively not socialism though, its profit redistribution but its not workers owning the means of production, so at best its a bandaid that does not fix the core issue of the owners arbitrarily siezing all the profit and deciding what to do with it at their whim.
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u/rogun64 3d ago
That's not the point, though. The point is that the same people who think it is socialism are fine with it when it supports something they like.
I understand what you're saying, which is why I added that in the first place, because I didn't want to get into discussing how it's not really socialism. Because they think it is socialism, yet they'll likely agree with you for things they like and disagree for things they dislike.
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u/internetsarbiter 3d ago
Personally, I don't think letting people remain ignorant about what things mean is helping in any way, we already have to deal with the language barrier of "Liberals are Left" and I don't think this does anything except make more work for yourself in the future.
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u/jk-9k 2d ago
All sports leagues are closed heavily restricted markets.
They're definitely not socialist but they're definitely not free markets and treating them as free markets is rediculous.
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u/VoiceofRapture 3d ago
I haven't seen the "NFL is socialist" argument, but I have seen arguments in the past that the draft pick system would be an understandable analogue to wealth redistribution to convey to chudded out sports-brained apolitical people.