Socialism: salvation or sacrilege.

[C......N......C]

Anything that will really help is socialist. Wall Street takes socialist solutions for themselves and then tells the rest of us it is treason for us. Every joe six pack thinks socialism is treason. Is it game over and some of us are just grumblers.

[Xenotime]

1. socialism is a welcomed change.

The only people who are scared of if are those stealing from the poor. Those who profit off others who suffer. They sell lead based toys to our children and go home to their fat mansions and fuck their plastic wives.

It's time that those who support the old way of thinking are forced to change or else.

[havocmom]

2. I live among a mess of people who rage about socialism, and taxes

but they ALL want lots of services provided!

My blog about it from a few months back (and I have posted it here before)

Friday, November 7, 2008
Memo to those who feared Obama would make us a socialist or communist nation:
IF you have ever driven on a road which was built, maintained, patrolled for safety using public monies.... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you helped your elderly parents sign up for Medicare so you would not have to pay for all the healthcare they need... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you have ever eaten ANYTHING you did not grow yourself, anything which was grown with any governmental program to help the producer, shipped over any public roadway, inspected for your safety at any point.... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you sent your kids to a public school... YOU may be a socialist

IF you home-schooled, but asked for any help from any public official along the way, or if you used a public library rather than write, print and use your own books... YOU may be a socialist.

IF you are a proud Libertarian but have EVER ventured off your own property, used anything you did not grow, harvest, manufacture yourself on that property... YOU may be a socialist

IF you are a Libertarian or anti-government voter who ever invested in buying stock, held a bank account, owned or used American currency... YOU may be a socialist.

If you have been anything but a hermit in a loincloth, you may be a socialist. If you define socialism as any form of taking tax money from people to provide people with the services and infrastructure, you are lying to yourself about how ruggedly independent you are. You are dependent on the society and the society takes care of many needs.

If you want help me make a list of groups who may be socialists, leave a comment and add to the list. It is Friday, end of a very long week, we could use an exercise in consciousness raising that could provide us with a bit of humor too.

[C......N......C]

3. And it is a dirty word to so many.

[havocmom]

11. Thinkin' brain damage: too many hits to heads from jerking knees

One thing the GOP knows for sure: Pavlov was right and damned useful for their strategy of control through propaganda and group-think

[No.23]

4. The problem with...

discussing socialism is... it comes with a lot of preconceived perceptions and biased views... which makes it difficult for some to discuss it rationally.

Perhaps if we reframed it to a more simple equation:

should a government be created to fulfill only certain people's needs and wants, or everyone's basic needs first?

That, to me, is what a discussion about socialism is really all about, I think.

It is important to point out, too, that a democracy is rule by a majority. And if you think about that, a majority is a form of "certain people". Not "all people".

[C......N......C]

5. "democracy is rule by a majority"

Democracy is an "election" by a majority. Rule by a few lobbyist and lot of money.

[No.23]

8. I agree.

I was referring to the principle, not its application.

But even if the application reflected the principle, I'd have some qualms with rule by a majority.

More often than not, the majority isn't always the wisest.

[C......N......C]

9. I think that rule by majority was never intended.

I think it was a phrase to qualm the masses. Majority does not equal right.

[Terry in Austin]

6. Socialist = commie

That's the popular subtext. Basically, leftovers from the Cold War. Mm -- time to get over it, maybe?

[elocs]

7. For Joe and Josephine 6-pack of 2009

socialism=communism of the 1950s. They really have no idea what it really means, but they are against it. They like to rant against socialist healthcare, but they overlook that we already have a form of it here--VA Healthcare.

[Jennicut]

10. Actually many people are now adopting socialist attitudes they just do not realize it

We trust the government more then big business right now per many polls. That is a huge change. The idea that health care is a right not a privilege as expressed by Obama in the general election is a big change as well. We are moving closer to socialism all the time. The average person mixes it up with communism. Current socialist countries like Sweden are actually more like a mix of socialism with capitalism. That is not a bad way to go.