Is it me or are Repugs and far left liberals redefining 'socialism'

[Blue_Chill]

I keep hearing universal health care called 'socialised medicine' and the term socialism used to describe just about anything. Both liberals and conservative do this.

Has the word been redefined and I missed the memo?

[edward]

1. what is the context?

socialized medicine just means the costs are shared by "everyone."
that is what the word means. what are you contesting?

[Blue_Chill]

2. That what you just described is NOT socialism

cost sharing is not socialism.

[edward]

6. it is.

People confuse socialism with communism. Marx to some extent wanted them to be used interchangeably.
That is why so many nations around the world are proud to be socialist or have partly socialistic governments.
What are you talking about if you disagree?

[jagguy]

7. no it isnt

the sates that were commonly referred to as communist were socialist (USSR for example). No state has ever achieved communism, not really possible in my mind. The terms are as interchangable as democracy and despotism.

[izzie]

8. I thought it was the gov. ownership of production

That is why the GOP keep wishing to turn back all social progrms. But I do not see how water works and all that can be called socialism. Also in a moderm society things are so mixed up that you need an interstructure to run the place. These right wing see a laissie faire style gov. and society and how can that work in this day and age?They also wish to dump this anything goes on the rest of the world and it is not how we have got this far. A great society has always worked as a group to make things work. You can start at your bed room door and see how, for the good of many, things have worked. Hell they had to make safty laws for beds as they would make the things from hay, rags you name it for a profit, and did.

[edward]

9. Not necessarily.

For example, in France(as far as I know) the government does not own the medical insurance industry or hospitals. People send their medical bills to the goverment for partial(or whole)reimbursment.

[jagguy]

5. we alrady have that

no need to take any action

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Socialist Boogie Man

The Republicans, in general, have been trying to dismantle government programs and privatize everything (except government funding of the military-industrial complex and Christian churches is okay). One of the many ways they've done this is by creating boogie men. All social programs funded by government are referred to as socialist programs. Or "socialism." What happens is that right-winger's brains shut down when they hear the word, and their resistance becomes malleable. Because socialism is associated with the boogie man -- a bad thing, it's a thing that they vote against, without really understanding who they're affecting.

Another wonderful conservative think-tank method is to push pseudo-science that claims that blacks and minorities have low I.Q.s. Therefore, spending on social programs to improve education for them is a waste of time. Another Boogie man.

[jagguy]

4. you didn't get the memo

the term has been hijacked. The odd part is that some really are referring to actual socialism, others are not and the result is that everyone pretty much makes up their own mond as to what it means to them.