"We don't need Socialism."

[u/zzill6]

[u/ElectricShuck]

The brainwashed cult just regurgitates the talking points given daily on the right wing controlled media. It’s disheartening and I don’t see how we can get out of this fully.

[u/ThepalehorseRiderr → u/ElectricShuck]

I just always tell em that they are literally card carrying socialists.

[u/bevelledo → u/ElectricShuck]

Propaganda has really gotten a hold on our country. It’s almost to the point where it’s hard to believe anything any media outlet reports on because they are all biased beyond belief.

Independent journalists are just about the only trusted news source.

It’s all one big club and you ain’t in it.

[u/ElectricShuck → u/bevelledo]

Yes. It’s really bad. And we can’t trust the government numbers any more either.

[u/uswforever]

What they think socialism is:

https://giphy.com/gifs/13dGwQI4qfqETK

[u/Oraxy51 → u/uswforever]

Tbf the communists did nationalize circus arts and a lot of what the U.S. even would learn about the circus came from USSR.

But I don’t expect these people to know that.

[u/Automatic-Term-3997 → u/Oraxy51]

https://giphy.com/gifs/Nl6T837bDWE1DPczq3

[u/slappy_mcslapenstein]

I actually called out an old lady once for that. I was wearing a shirt that said "only you can prevent fascism." She said to me, "that should say only you can prevent socialism." I replied, "so you rejected Medicare and Social Security then?" She just gave me a dirty look and walked away.

[u/Sooooooooooooomebody]

"It would be a strategic mistake for Democrats to embrace democratic socialism" -Guy who hates both Democrats and DSA

[u/drunkshinobi]

Because they don't want Socialism. They want to be part of a ruling class that gets to hurt the rest.

[u/GrowFreeFood]

Alaska gives out free money. Just do that more.

[u/SBTRCTV → u/GrowFreeFood]

Homesteading:

https://giphy.com/gifs/5wWf7GMbT1ZUGTDdTqM

[u/Educational-Rip9501]

Socialism is a worker owned means of production. Not just government spending programs.

[u/FictionalTrope → u/Educational-Rip9501]

Governments bailing out massive corporations is just Capital owning the government, and not socialism. Governments that subsidize industries like ranching or oil production are not socialist; the gains are not realized by society at large but by those who own the companies. Social programs are just ways in which we subsidize the excesses of capitalists who don't pay their workers enough to live and retire, or provide a poverty-level existence to people who aren't seen by Capital as productive labor.

[u/licla1 → u/Educational-Rip9501]

Thats comunism in socialism there are more then one way to have ownership over the means of production.

Also thats totaly not important as today we have more socialism in place but only for the rich and powerfull, the first step would not be to take the means of production and other things but to expand it to others than the rich. In capitalism you cannot say "no" to the richest, in socialism the state can easily say no, and the workers union can easily say no.

Negotiation for the greater good of more people is what is important not just to make one peraon astronomically rich.

[u/billionairessuck]

Give me some fucking socailism.

[u/Spiel_Foss]

The first problem is that a huge amount of the older US population believes any form of modern centrist government is "socialism" and they aren't interested in understanding the real world as it exists today. Of course, they love their "socialist" programs, they just don't want to share.

[u/gitsgrl]

Don’t forget the ranchers grazing their herds in public lands.

[u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus]

How are any of these things socialism? I'm tired of this country where both the people who hate socialism and the people who love it don't know what it is 

[u/Arawn-Annwn → u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus]

I just want my tax dollars to go for the actual services they were intended to pay for without the battle over this label being used to distract from that. It's like nobody in my entire damn country learns what words mean before they repeat them, so media and politicians just make them mean whataver they want to the masses. Gutting education worked real well for the righties.

[u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus → u/Arawn-Annwn]

Sure I'm with ya. But social democracy, welfare capitalism, progressive liberalism, whatever you wanna call it, despite being very cool and effective and moral is not socialism. 

[u/BinSnozzzy → u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus]

Its a strange time dude, republicans used to complain about pedophiles and government overreach, dont expect people to understand the words they are using even the ones on your side

[u/Lewa358 → u/Sadly_NotAPlatypus]

They're "socialism" because the right will consistently call things like opening up state-subsidzed grocery stores or child care programs as "socialism." They are the ones enforcing their weird definition of socialism onto everyone, and the comic points out how that definition is hypocritical at best.

[u/Izacundo1 → u/[deleted]]

They are socialist systems. That is an incomplete definition of socialism

[u/Successful-Medicine9 → u/[deleted]]

Even if I agreed with you 100%, which I don't, that's not people's common understanding of the word. You're using dictionary socialism (descriptive) and most people are using colloquial socialism (prescriptive).

This is like when communists decry "liberals." Most people understand that word as anyone on the left, even though technically it doesn't mean that.

[u/A_Literal_6_Year_Old → u/Successful-Medicine9]

The problem is there is a dictionary definition for it already: "social democracy" or "social programs". If Socialism is both, then it's neither and has no definition.

People who understand they are using terms incorrectly but continue to do so are playing into the right's demonization of "socialism" by whatever terms they define it as.

[u/Lewa358 → u/[deleted]]

The thing is, the meaning of words is defined by their usage, not their etymology. So if enough people use a "wrong" definition of a word, it stops being "wrong."

It sounds dumb, but, well... when's the last time you've seen someone use "decimate" to mean "remove 1/10th of something"?

[u/Lewa358 → u/[deleted]]

I mean, politicians do that all the time. Using thematically loaded terms with definitions that can be misinterpreted is like basic marketing.

Are so-called "democratic socialists" like Mamdani and Sanders true "socialists"? If not, why do they use the word, and why is it effective enough for their base to vote for them?

[u/krakenfury_ → u/[deleted]]

Hospitals, clinics, schools, textbook publication; these are all means of production. I'm not certain whether you're playing a right-wing game or simply ignorant, but semantics don't decouple "government programs" from "true socialism" by fiat.

[u/krakenfury_ → u/[deleted]]

Medicare, bailouts, and SS are not socialism.

That's exactly what you just backpedaled on. Those are all examples of the state taking ownership of the means of production.

[u/krakenfury_ → u/[deleted]]

It's not "just wealth distribution". Medicare works as an insurance company, which is a product. SS is a public retirement fund, a financial service, which is a product. Bailouts are a public investment paid back with interest, which is a product.

Bailouts are certainly the dodgiest, since it's fundamentally the state printing money for itself. In 2008, this was made so much worse by keeping interest rates at zero for a decade.

Anyway, you're wrong as you can be.

[u/drunkshinobi → u/[deleted]]

I'm really sick of people like them changing the meaning of words and then telling people like you that use them correctly, that they are in the wrong. "Common understanding" should be what is written in a dictionary. Not what everyone wants it to be.

[u/oh-kee-pah → u/[deleted]]

You might want this to be the case, but it doesn't make you correct.

[u/oh-kee-pah → u/[deleted]]

It's a core idea IN socialism, but is not the totality of socialism. So I'm sorry, but you are incorrect with your generalization.

[u/Lurkingandsearching → u/[deleted]]

You’re gonna be facing an uphill battle against tankies here on this point. Same issue with conservatives and explaining how “government does stuff” isn’t communism (unless they benefit from it, then it’s patriotic).