- Apr 1, 2011
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Socialists don't communicate. They spew propaganda.I have a lot of frustration with our political discourse in general. I don't know how we're going to fix anything when we can't even agree on what terms mean. We can't communicate if we can't even agree on definitions, and we can't fix anything if we can't communicate.Yes, the word has been scrambled and mangled pretty well.You didn't answer my question.I never said any such thing. What the democrats want doesn't define socialism. It's a word with its own meaning that predates the political career of anyone in said party.
bripat9643, I'll ask you both again:
Do you think the Democrats are using Venezuela as their model, instead of Germany, Canada, Australia, Norway?
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Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. When I pointed out that I never said any such thing, I thought it was pretty obvious that I was ridiculing you for applying that idea to me. No, I don't think they're using Venezuela as their model. Even if they thought that Chavez's exact moves were all good ideas, our economy isn't fueled by oil money to anywhere NEAR the same degree as theirs. Chavez's maneuvers wouldn't translate in the first place.
Here's the thing, though. Germany, Canada, Australia, Norway. . . they didn't nationalize their economies. They simply have large welfare systems. Most normal democrats prefer that model; a private market with an expansive social safety net. But as long as they keep saying they want "socialism", I'm going to keep countering that statement with the ACTUAL definition of socialism which, in my experience, most lefties (along with most right wingers) don't seem to understand that they're misusing.
But the Right has overused it in its efforts to scare itself and others, and now it can mean pretty much ANYTHING. Just as the Left has done with the term "racism". And it both cases, those words don't scare anyone any more. They're diluted.
So if the Right wants to slow down this clear momentum towards a Euro-social democracy, it had better start using a more honest and intelligent approach to this.
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I'll give you that, the blind fear tactics don't seem to have done the trick with socialism OR racism. Personally, I'm a hardcore proponent of using words, particularly political and legal terms, properly, and upholding their distinction from other similar terms. Language is arguably our most important tool and should be maintained accordingly. But, nobody's perfect, so do feel free to ridicule away if you see me mangling a key term. I promise not to whinge excessively
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