As a person that believes in socialism

[TEB]

And I get frustrated by the republicans in their fear of socialist. These right wing nuts spend six days week telling us the evils of socialism. Yet on the seventh day they show up in church worshiping the son of God who was a socialist.

[mitch96]

1. "evils of socialism" yup, they hate it untill wall street or the car companys need a bail out..

Then they call it an "economic stimulus".. Individual capitalism and corporate socialism...
Too big to fail but the little guy can loose his shirt... hypocrites working the system to their advantage... uff
m

[Bev54]

15. Perhaps because you call it socialism

It is not socialism, it is liberalism and it is time the people in the US understand the difference. Look both up in the dictionary and call it by its real name. People who have fled socialism in communist countries will never embrace it if you continue to call it socialism. I am Canadian and many people call us (wrongly) a socialist country we embrace liberalism.

[mitch96]

22. "many people call us (wrongly) a socialist country"... I call it smart... nt

[nuxvomica]

2. My congressperson loves to slam Dems as socialists

But she crowed when she brought gov't funded internet access to the district. So they hate socialism except when they get something out of it.

[lagomorph777]

3. Federal disaster aid is socialism.

[EX500rider]

5. No it is not.

Socialism is government owning the means of production.

[House of Roberts]

6. That would be closer to Fascism.

Socialism is a political, social and economic philosophy encompassing a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production and democratic control or workers' self-management of enterprises.

[EX500rider]

8. Definition:

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.

[lagomorph777]

11. So the distribution and exchange portion of your definition is what I am referring to.

[EX500rider]

14. That just means the gov't has a vertical monopoly.

And while "community based" sounds nice, in large terms that means the government.
If your factories and large companies are private you do not have socialism.
Govt aid, highways, fire depts, police, military etc are not examples of socialism.

[lagomorph777]

17. Almost nobody wants pure capitalism or pure socialism or pure Federalism...

...or pretty much any "ism." They are various directions to lean, or preferences to have. I don't think it's ridiculous to say that a specific policy leans more in one direction or another direction. Just because our society is not "pure" anything, doesn't mean that thing is completely absent. I don't see the world in black and white.

[NurseJackie]

10. Survey Says? .... ❌

[NurseJackie]

4. I don't believe in socialism.

[EX500rider]

7. Most people actually don't know what the word mean. (not saying you)

Snowplows are not socialism.
Fire Depts and highways are not socialism.

The govt owning the means of production are and rarely ends well. (see Soviet Union)

[NurseJackie]

9. I was almost going to include a link for a precise definition...

... and explanation, but I thought that would be overkill. Nobody would read it anyway... but plenty would reveal what they DON'T know.

[ooky]

12. It's how a party who does nothing for ordinary people gets elected. Boogeyman rhetoric.

"Socialism" and "guns".

Scaring stupid, highly gullible people to vote for people who don't give a shit about them.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

13. Don't forget

Gotta throw God in there too.

[ooky]

16. "Abortion". "Jerusalem."

[BeerBarrelPolka]

18. Yep

And perhaps their favorite fun-filled topic....Gays!!

[Caliman73]

19. Most have no idea what Socialism even is.

Even people on DU cite examples of socialism that aren't really socialism. The thing is, Socialism, like other economic and political ideologies has a lot of different facets and factions.

At its core, it is about who controls the means of production. Whereas in Capitalism, the means of production (factories, stores, raw materials) are privately owned, and labor is exchanged only for wages; in Socialism the means of production are owned collectively and labor is compensated by means of a share in the profits of the enterprise. There are different ways of structuring socialist enterprises, with some being cooperatives and some being centrally (government) run industries, and others in between.

Republicans who rail against socialism are banking on people's ignorance and are trying to set the USSR, China, and North Korea as examples of "socialism" rather than presenting them as totalitarian states with centrally planned economies. While Communism and equality were the stated aims of the Soviet and Chinese revolutions, they were clearly based mostly in the power of their leaders, Stalin and Mao, and the Kim's in North Korea.

At the end of the day, "socialism" is just another scare word that Republicans throw out to mean, "evil", "bad", "and the government is going to get you.

[Klaralven]

20. You might consider monasteries to be socialist

However, since the monks were generally forbidden to own anything, and since the organization of the monastery was not democratic, they might actually have been more fascist than socialist.

I haven't figured out how title to lands, buildings, workshops, breweries, wineries, etc was actually held? In the name of the monastery or of the Abbot or Bishop?

[procon]

21. Republicans don't even understand what socialism is.

They only know it must be bad because other people said it was. There are many types of socialism and every industrialized country uses some system designed to uplift their citizens and improve their lives.

Americans are so brainwashed that they cheerfully line up to give away their tax dollars to the rich and greedy rather than use it to make life better for themselves because helping themselves would be (gasp!) Socialism.

Why have socialism programs like universal healthcare when you can cut back on your insulin instead. Who needs free collage education if you can quit after high school and flip burgers for the rest of your life. Why have a decent place to live and enough food to eat when you can live in your car and go hungry. It's better than socialism... Right?

The stupid burns.