Quote: (05-05-2019 11:30 PM)SamuelBRoberts Wrote:
Yeah, like in Tail Gunner's post above the word "socialism" is also just used as a grab-bag of leftist policies that the speaker dislikes.
You can kinda mentally replace it with "bad democrat stuff" and it'll read just the same.
No, you are objectively wrong. There are several types of socialism. I specifically referred to "democratic socialism," which has a particular definition and which has specific traits and programs. Almost all of the socialist action items that I cited have been practiced or promoted in most democratic socialist countries (aside from those specific to the U.S., e.g., slavery reparations, which is just another type of socialist wealth transfer).
Quote:Quote:
Democratic socialism (also known as evolutionary socialism) is a political philosophy that advocates political democracy alongside social ownership of the means of production,[1] with an emphasis on self-management and democratic management of economic institutions within a market or some form of decentralised planned socialist economy.[2] Democratic socialists espouse that capitalism is inherently incompatible with what they hold to be the democratic values of liberty, equality and solidarity; and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society. Democratic socialism can be supportive of either revolutionary or reformist politics as a means to establish socialism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_socialism
I thought that I was dealing with someone who actually knew something about democratic socialism. Your mention of Soviet Communism should have been a big red flag that you have no clue. American liberalism has always had a strong streak of democratic socialism, just as American conservatism has always had a strong streak of libertarianism. But with the acceptance of Bernie Sanders, and now a dozen equally brazen socialist candidates, the Democratic Party has definitely jumped the shark to full-fledged democratic socialism. There is no question about that. It will be the Party's downfall (shades of '68 and '72).