Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?

[Rigby5]

no that’s not what socialism means…not according to Marx

Venezuela, USSR, NK, Cuba….some socialist countries for you

Marx was very clear that coercive government should not exist, and after the revolution, it should "whither away and die".
Marx never promoted a strong central government, or one that was undemocratic, at all or in any way.

Venezuela, USSR, NK, Cuba, ..., are the LEAST socialist or communist countries in the world.
You can't have anything communal, cooperative, collective, etc., without a democratic republic first.

 

[Leviticus]

Most conservatives dont know what socialism is. How man times have we seen some old guy dressed like George Washington at a tea party rally holding up a sign that read "keep you government hands off my medicare"? You know, cause he's too stupid to understand that medicare is a government program and its socialist.

A more honest sign would be "I only think taxes & socialist programs are evil when I have to actually pay for them. Stop taxing me, but let me have full access to everything other peoples taxes pay for"

 

[Burgermeister]

Because we are not morons who don't learn from history.

 

[bripat9643]

Most conservatives dont know what socialism is. How man times have we seen some old guy dressed like George Washington at a tea party rally holding up a sign that read "keep you government hands off my medicare"? You know, cause he's too stupid to understand that medicare is a government program and its socialist.

A more honest sign would be "I only think taxes & socialist programs are evil when I have to actually pay for them. Stop taxing me, but let me have full access to everything other peoples taxes pay for"

I think that happened one time, and turds like you have been rehashing it 100 times a day. If you put an end to welfare, Medicare and Social Security if I don't have to pay for them. That's what conservatives say, not that lie you posted.

 

[struth]

Marx was very clear that coercive government should not exist, and after the revolution, it should "whither away and die".
Marx never promoted a strong central government, or one that was undemocratic, at all or in any way.

Venezuela, USSR, NK, Cuba, ..., are the LEAST socialist or communist countries in the world.
You can't have anything communal, cooperative, collective, etc., without a democratic republic first.

Agreed about Marx, he pushed for Communism which doesn’t have a govt at all…but socialism is between capitalism and communism…and that does have a strong central govt that owns and operates the means of production

I agree those countries aren’t commie…they are socialist…no communist country has ever exist nor will it due to socialism…leftist tyrants won’t ever give up the power…and the country will fail…

 

[Colin norris]

We have dangerous jobs where half the people will never put their lives on the line if needed and/or have done with many of them given the top jobs because of equity. This is just one item of many. and the costs...oh the costs are massive. pay for this yourself. And give us the option to not pay for this. You have a woman being tried in court right now for the truth.

You know nothing about the subject. You've never experienced it nor are you justifications valid. You been fed a steady died of propaganda all your life.

Try this. Know anyone who gets child support? How about farmers getting massive subsidies each year?
Do you use public buildings and facilities like hospitals, courts, roads, highways, trains, buses, schools, nurses, police etc?

Surprise, that's all social funded by the taxpayer for every one to enjoy yet you ignorant fool now rail against national health care. You know nothing and that's unlikely to change.

 

[struth]

You know nothing about the subject. You've never experienced it nor are you justifications valid. You been fed a steady died of propaganda all your life.

Try this. Know anyone who gets child support? How about farmers getting massive subsidies each year?
Do you use public buildings and facilities like hospitals, courts, roads, highways, trains, buses, schools, nurses, police etc?

Surprise, that's all social funded by the taxpayer for every one to enjoy yet you ignorant fool now rail against national health care. You know nothing and that's unlikely to change.

child support is paid by the father

 

[Colin norris]

child support is paid by the father

The government give out money for children and you know it. Can you deny the other facts too?

 

[struth]

The government give out money for children and you know it. Can you deny the other facts too?

Sure they do. No i don’t deny the govt owns buildings, and so on…don’t have a problem with any of the things you listed


I was just highlighting child support is paid by the dad

 

[Colin norris]

Sure they do. No i don’t deny the govt owns buildings, and so on…don’t have a problem with any of the things you listed


I was just highlighting child support is paid by the dad

If you want to be pedantic, search for the real name it's given then tell me you don't like government, tax payer funded handouts. You hypocrites.

 

[struth]

If you want to be pedantic, search for the real name it's given then tell me you don't like government, tax payer funded handouts. You hypocrites.

i am not sure what you are referring to

I don’t mind govt handouts, but govt handouts and the govt having owning a building to hold court are two different things

moreover, what those handouts are, and how they are distributed matter too.

So not sure what i am being a hypocrite about

 

[Rigby5]

I think that happened one time, and turds like you have been rehashing it 100 times a day. If you put an end to welfare, Medicare and Social Security if I don't have to pay for them. That's what conservatives say, not that lie you posted.

Society is better due to welfare, Medicare, and Social Security, so why complain about them?
They cost almost nothing.
Almost all our taxes go to current military spending, (waste), or past military spending that caused a huge national debt.

 

[struth]

Society is better due to welfare, Medicare, and Social Security, so why complain about them?
They cost almost nothing.
Almost all our taxes go to current military spending, (waste), or past military spending that caused a huge national debt.

what? medicare is the largest driver of national debt and it’s not even close

 

[Rigby5]

Agreed about Marx, he pushed for Communism which doesn’t have a govt at all…but socialism is between capitalism and communism…and that does have a strong central govt that owns and operates the means of production

I agree those countries aren’t commie…they are socialist…no communist country has ever exist nor will it due to socialism…leftist tyrants won’t ever give up the power…and the country will fail…

Socialism can be almost anything.
But the ideal meaning of socialism is that in a democratic republic, people decide to regulate the means of production, or build public means of production.
I do not believe that socialism should be centralized or that it should be abusive, but I agree government is inherently corrupt and that if you make government too powerful, it will become increasingly abusive.

But private enterprise is also abusive.
For example, the businesses that owned the railroads decided passenger train traffic did not make enough money to bother with, and that was short sighted.
Passenger trains not only can be profitable, but are necessary even if they were unprofitable.
So socialism is necessary.
There is no way around it, and it can be done better than private enterprise.
The current problems with the medical services is another example of where the profit motive totally fails, and socialism would be much better.

 

[Rigby5]

child support is paid by the father

ADC is about the single main federal welfare, and it pays when the father can not or does not for some reason.

 

[Lakhota]

What an interesting blog article on American ideas about civil responsibility and the knee jerk reaction of Americans generally, and Conservatives specifically, to fear community welfare and immediately associate it with socialism or communism. It led to her asking “What are you so afraid of?”, and she received 5 specific groups of fears:

1. I’m scared of having to pay for other people’s laziness
2. I’m scared because I don’t trust my government or other people generally
3. I’m scared because socialism leads to authoritarianism
4. I’m scared because socialists and communists kill a lot of people
5. I’m not scared, socialism always fails

She has some good responses to these fears that I can’t do just to for a short attention span. Read the link if you want. I think these fears keep America from being a great and caring nation.

Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?
I went a little bit viral on TikTok recently for voicing the unthinkable: I said that I like paying taxes. As you might imagine, the Americans and Conservatives in my comment section were shocked and appalled. The words communist and socialist were thrown around like insults, images of gulags and famine were invoked to prove some kind of vague and poorly-articulated point about freedom.

In contrast, the (predominantly western/northern) Europeans seemed to find my explanation pretty fair and even stopped to correct me on some of the finer points of Scottish, Scandinavian and German socialist democracy.

What shocked me, however, was not that so many Americans and Conservatives seemed to misunderstand fundamental aspects of civil life — like taxation — but that so many seemed so vehemently opposed to any suggestion that we should all contribute to the collective welfare of our countrymen.

Curiosity piqued, yesterday I made the mistake of asking Americans and Conservatives: “What is it about communism/socialism that scares you?” Here’s what they said.

American socialism is great for America! Socialism comes in various forms and degrees!

75 Ways Socialism Has Improved America​

 

[struth]

Socialism can be almost anything.
But the ideal meaning of socialism is that in a democratic republic, people decide to regulate the means of production, or build public means of production.
I do not believe that socialism should be centralized or that it should be abusive, but I agree government is inherently corrupt and that if you make government too powerful, it will become increasingly abusive.

But private enterprise is also abusive.
For example, the businesses that owned the railroads decided passenger train traffic did not make enough money to bother with, and that was short sighted.
Passenger trains not only can be profitable, but are necessary even if they were unprofitable.
So socialism is necessary.
There is no way around it, and it can be done better than private enterprise.
The current problems with the medical services is another example of where the profit motive totally fails, and socialism would be much better.

no it has a definition..words have definitions…they can’t mean whatever you want them to be

 

[struth]

ADC is about the single main federal welfare, and it pays when the father can not or does not for some reason.

what does ADC stand for?

In my state the govt will pay if child support was ordered, but then the state will go after the father, and if he doesn’t pay can be held in contempt and jailed with a purge bond.

 

[Rigby5]

what? medicare is the largest driver of national debt and it’s not even close

Wrong.
Medicare is paid for by us, so is not a cost to government.
It comes out of FICA, Social Security withholdings.
If you see a pie chart of federal spending that includes social security or medicare, it is fake, because those are not costs to the federal government.

Here is a more accurate pie chart of federal spending.

 

[Rigby5]

no it has a definition..words have definitions…they can’t mean whatever you want them to be

If you look up the definition of socialism, you get the following, and it clearly allows wide differences in implementation.

Socialism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If you think it means the end of any private capitalist ownership of enterprise, you would be wrong.

{...
socialism
[ˈsōSHəˌlizəm]

NOUN

1. a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
   
   ...}