this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 152 points 8 months ago (28 children)

European here.

This seems to mainly only be an issue in the US. Socialism = Communism = Enemy

If at all anything, the opposite seems to be the case here. We're looking at the US as a "this is how bad it will get if we let go" example

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 56 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

In addition: government programs that help everyone = helping black people = no.

I think this is the fundamental reason why the US never went to public/universal anything, be it healthcare, education, whatever.

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[–] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.world 37 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Yeah y'all really don't want to end up like us. We're not the land of the free. The streets are most definitely not paved with gold. We're just a giant ponzi scheme.

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Paved with gold? Lucky they're paved at all this time of year.

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[–] Deestan@lemmy.world 78 points 8 months ago (16 children)

As a european it's always been fucking WERID how americans panic and reach for their guns at the mention of socialism.

[–] AdmiralShat@programming.dev 29 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (8 children)

I mean

There was this whole thing called the Soviet Union then there was like a missile crisis

And there was like a group that called themselves National Socialists and they did a genocide and tried to take over a bunch of land by force

We also had to fight a bunch of talking trees that dug tunnels because military industrial complex and heroin

It's definitely many layers of propaganda but as an American I definitely understand WHERE it comes from, I understand why most people here flinch at the word.

You also gotta understand we had multiple generations in a row huffing lead gasoline so while younger millennials aren't impacted as bad, MOST Americans are legitimately lead brained.

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[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.social 62 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (51 children)

By "socialism", are we talking:

A. Worker-controlled economic system, or

B. What American liberals think is socialism, which is just a capitalist system with welfare.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 8 points 8 months ago
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[–] z00s@lemmy.world 30 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (27 children)

"Most powerful empire the world has ever known"

Lol Americans

The Romans conquered the known world with pointy sticks and diplomacy.

The US hasn't been on the winning side since ww2 despite having nukes and spyplanes.

Even the British Empire spanned the globe, and all they had was cannons, rum, and syphilis.

[–] JustJack23 41 points 8 months ago

Yeah they may not incorporate other countries like previous empires, but their sphere of influence is undeniable unfortunately.

[–] boatsnhos931@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Did they have taco bell tho

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[–] Tja@programming.dev 27 points 8 months ago (11 children)

No. My impressions are based on having lived it before the iron curtain fell.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Unless you're over a 100 years old you lived in a totalitarian system masquerading as Communism.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 16 points 8 months ago (4 children)

But prepare for a 25 year old who lives in his mom's garage in rural Indiana to try to debate you on the subject anyway.

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[–] Grayox@lemmy.ml 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Lol at the person who said Lemmy doesn't have many comments.

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 22 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Oh time for my link

Frame Canada

Wendell Potter spent decades scaring Americans. About Canada. He worked for the health insurance industry, and he knew that if Americans understood Canadian-style health care, they might.... like it. So he helped deploy an industry playbook for protecting the health insurance agency.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/19/925354134/frame-canada

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[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 18 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Yeah, of course I have.

In particular, I've noticed how the pro-capitalist people don't seem to realize that we're not living in a pure capitalist system. Instead we're living in a mixed economy where key elements are socialist: road building, firefighting, postal services, food and drug safety testing, old age pensions, even ambulances (except for one minor exception).

A 100% socialist (a.k.a. communist) system might not be possible (at least not yet) due to human nature. The few times that it has been tried, at least in theory, it has quickly become an authoritarian system instead. But, AFAIK, it's so obvious that 100% capitalist would fail completely that no society has even bothered to try it. Hundreds of years ago there were brief experiments with things like capitalist fire services, and Pinkertons as police, but they failed so spectacularly that nobody even thinks of going back.

So, instead we quibble about "capitalist" vs "socialist" when we're really just arguing about whether the mix should be 80% capitalist, 20% socialist or 60% capitalist, 40% socialist.

[–] AaronMaria@lemmy.ml 29 points 8 months ago (11 children)

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of what socialism and capitalism are. Simplified it's who owns the means of production, that is basically the "capital" in the name "capitalism", in socialism these means of production have a shared ownership. Now you can have a discussion of what that means, if state ownership counts or whatever but as long as individuals own the means of production it's not socialism no matter how much you tax them(it would still be an improvement to tax them more it's just not socialism)

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 15 points 8 months ago

Ummm excuse me, no, the CIA is an extremely based communist organization because taxes.

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 13 points 8 months ago (20 children)

What "Human Nature" goes against the idea of sharing tools, rather than letting wealthy people hold dictatorial control over them?

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[–] jlou@mastodon.social 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Socialism is not when the government does stuff, so those institutions are not examples of socialism. Anti-capitalists are arguing for the complete abolition of exploitative capitalist property relations that violate workers' human rights.

This is a false dilemma. There are other alternatives to capitalism besides communism. It is entirely possible to have a non-capitalist non-communist system (e.g. an economy where every firm is democratically-controlled by the people that work in it)

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[–] FrostKing@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago

I'd like to point out that the majority of people on Lemmy 100% think about this. Hence how many up votes it has :p

[–] rickdg@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago (5 children)

Any criticism of capitalism is the same as historical communism and therefore always wrong. Accept your fate, citizen.

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[–] rusticus@lemm.ee 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This post is WAY more insightful than 99% of people realize. I would argue that the only people that fully understand are part of the corporate engine that drives it.

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[–] Flumpkin 10 points 8 months ago

Comrade pinko barbie!

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 8 months ago
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