in the OG Matrix: Cypher isn’t evil because he betrays everyone and gets some people killed, which is undoubtedly an evil act. No, Cypher is inherently evil because he not only doesn’t care, but he actively chooses ignorance. He CHOOSES to go back to sleep. This is the avg American. They chose ignorance because they WANT to be mesmerized and lied to, Americans enjoy and celebrate it. IGNORANCE IS BLISS.
The opinions shared about socialism in this thread prove you right, unfortunately.
The amount of people who are completely ignorant about socialism and communism in this thread is evidence that the first sentence of this tweet is true, and that it was super effective.
…but Corporate Socialism is widely accepted and successful in the USA. The Americans will not top the 1st class European countries, because the vast majority are slaving away at work and simply too tired and stressed out to protest or vote out the asswipes supporting the current system.
That and most of us didn’t pay attention to school.
The rich use their money to make and separate classes using information/propaganda/public relations/marketing/slogans or whatever your favourite word is for communication to the masses.
americans hate it cause they want to hate it.
There are millions upon millions of americans and millions of them are armed. If they wanted a socialost state they could have had easily have gotten one by nkw…but they STILL havent done that…
So clearly they dont want it.
“Nothing is substantial until it is substantiated”
Communism is the honeydew of left-wing ideologies. Stop trying to work it into every post about free healthcare, income inequality, human rights and so on. Stop trying to normalize. It’s literally banned in multiple countries for legitimate reasons. It’s been used to oppress millions of people. If you support it you clearly don’t understand it. And people who put it next to socialism are clearly trying to smear socialism. Seriously.
Socialism and communism are not the same thing and American right wingers in particular keep trying to make it look like they are because it helps them win elections. Trump’s new thing is “Democrats are communists”. Think about it. He’s calling democratic socialists communists. Grasp the nuance and use it to your advantage. Stop upvoting this type of stuff. You’re digging yourselves into a hole.
Anyway… I wish I could be telling this to OP, but that is a Twitter screenshot there, I think, and I sure as fuck am not going there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYAKQ5Crers
EDIT: I just remembered this. 2020. Not too recent, not too old. https://politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/04/scott-walker/no-bernie-sanders-not-communist/
EDIT 2: Gonna go ahead and block this group. Anything to do with “workers’ rights” around here is braindead dictator worshippers
Communism is the goal of socialism. The original democratic socialists, people like Eduard Bernstein, called it that because the idea was that communism could be achieved through gradually reforming existing political systems. It became more and more obvious that this was just a pretense for opportunism, with things like the betrayal of the Second International and the demsoc support of WWI, and now we’re at a point where the pretense is often dropped entirely, or forgotten altogether.
It’s been used to oppress millions of people.
Communism has never been used to oppress anyone because it’s never existed as a system (not counting primitive communism). There have only been socialist states that claim to be working towards communism. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was not called The Union of Soviet Communist Republics.
“Bernie Sanders is not a Marxist” or “not a Marxist-Leninist” would be the correct way to say it.
Also, it hasn’t been used to oppress millions of people because it straight up hasn’t. The history of socialism that Americans and other Westerners have been taught is filled with lies, exaggerations, and missing context.
from an American perspective, anyone suggesting communism is saying with their entire chest “Why don’t Americans opt for a system of economics and government that fell to despotic dictatorship decades faster than the system they’ve got?”
You’re right, the American perspective is absurd and brainwashed
waaait the solution to deal with our pedophilic and corrupt governemnt is to give that same government more power through socialism???
isnt that kind of self-defeating???
to give that same government more power
No, absolutely not. Socialism has nothing to do with giving capitalist states more power.
The US used to be a world leader in anti-fascism. There’s even those old-timey films explaining how letting it in would ruin the American way.
https://youtu.be/42X_eAOU4DU “Don’t Be a Sucker”
Eeeh… It was only anti-fascism as in “anti-others” (who happened to be fascists in a way they differentiated from). The US has been real fucking bad from the very start and there hasn’t been a single moment where that stopped. I can’t see a single period where it isn’t the modern day meaning of fascist. Yeah, the civil war was won by the better part but it wasn’t a “good vs evil” black and white thing, because nothing is like that in reality. Faschism is deeply ingrained in the US and has always been so, especially when it comes to politicians, military, police force etc.
The US used to be a world leader in anti-fascism.
anti-fascism or anti competing fascism?
Isn’t manifested destiny already fascism?
They even called out Alexander Hamilton for being a proto-fascist.
Then that one Wall Street fuckwad wrote a book about him filled with lies and eventually turned it into a play.
If you want a hero in the founding fathers, look up Aaron Burr
And T-Paine while you’re at it!
Because the American Way™ competed with fascism about many of the same things. It is not the brag you think it is.
Both of the Cold War empires spent decades lying about what socialism was, and that process continues to this day. No wonder people are confused.
Yes.
The fire department is socialist. People like the fire department.
Ah yes, the famous socialist, Comrade Ben Franklin.
Yes, exactly that.
What an absolute joke.
Socialism is not “when the government does stuff.” Governments are tools that can be used to advance any sort of ideology or agenda. Socialism is a specific ideology (or set of ideologies), which Ben Franklin did not and could not have subscribed to on account of the ideology had not yet even been developed.
When a member of the capitalist class lobbies the government to introduce regulations designed to prevent small business from competing with his monopoly, that is not making the system “more socialist” because the government is doing “more stuff.” It is making the system more capitalist. A system that is controlled by and works for the benefit of the capitalist class is a capitalist system, regardless of the degree to which the government does things.
If anything, the more correct term would be “statist” but that’s also an absurd term, because again, governments are tools. Whoever holds power in a system will use that tool to advance their own interests, and if the tool does not exist, then it will be created. This ridiculous idea that socialism is simply an ideology based around supporting the government doing things, any government doing any things, is complete nonsense. There is not any ideology that says that, it isn’t something anyone believes. The difference between socialism and capitalism is not the degree to which the state is being used but who is using the state and to what purposes.
Capitalist states do not have fire departments because they are “partially socialist” but because capitalists don’t like having their buildings burn down any more than anyone else does.
Socialism is not “when the government does stuff.”
Of course not, only an idiot who is trying to undermine someone’s argument would claim that. Socialism is when the means of production are collectively owned, such as when a fire truck is owned by a city.
Socialism is not when the city owns stuff either…
socialism is when the principal mode of production is owned by the workers.
Socialism is not when the city owns stuff either…
No, but it includes the fire department which is when the city owns fire trucks and pays firefighters to fight fires.
State ownership is not the same thing as collective ownership, especially when we’re talking about a bourgeois state.
If a king rides through a village and says, “I really like the views around here. Seize the land for the state and kick out all the peasants so that I can come here without having to see them spoiling the view.” Is that “collective ownership” because the land is now held by the state? Is that “socialism?”
Treating state ownership and collective ownership as equivalent is just “socialism is when the government does stuff” with extra steps.
State ownership is not the same thing as collective ownership
No, and yet both can be examples of socialism. As in, when the city owns a fire department which is paid for by city taxes and available to help anybody in the city any time there’s a fire.
I don’t! They only show up to my house when there’s a fire! They bring bad juju, and fire!
oooh look it’s the truth
commies look look - this is why you are hated and your recent terrorist supporting populist/authoritarian fantasies are just making it worse!
The Zionist is mad
What
All major media outlets are fascist mouthpieces
Sweet
“Means of building collective power”. That’s the right thing to communicate, My take is we need a new word that’s not socialism, communism etc because those words have lost concrete meaning, similar to globalism and neoliberalism no one knows what they mean anymore because they’ve been targeted, abused, redefined and vilified.
People have knee-jerk reactions to those words.
I think basically stop denonising unions. I’ve been hesitant to join mine, as I don’t want to be seen as a trouble maker. Funnily I’ve already received my ‘last promotion’ at 56. I could shit on the marble floor and not get sacked (because vital skills). However, simply displaying solidarity with my younger colleagues would be deemed ‘offensive’. Two more years and nearing retirement, I think I’ll let rip
Yeah… most people in my country don’t have a union available, and there are no prospects for creating one in the near future. I don’t mean any offense myself, but just having access to a union and not joining it is… an interesting choice from my perspective.
A cooperative economy, co-ops in general, is the answer in my opinion. Anarchists and communists are mostly on board, if only seeing them as stepping stones towards larger goals. Being a form of socialism, socialists are on board. While being stateless and still relying on markets they may be able to sway conservatives. Their economic proof of success already might convince liberals. And who doesn’t want democracy in their workplace?
I tried that in a group of people the other day. I got a resounding “Nah, I’m good”
What do you do when everyone is happy to die? Because right now my plan is “try my damned best to make sure these dipshits don’t take me down with them”
Whenever I see posts about “rebelling” and “standing up” I just think…are you assuming that the vast majority of people in this country ARE NOT okay with their lives? I mean, that’s the only way a true “rebellion” will ever occur. And despite what liberals and the Left say, most Americans are content with their lives.
How does one connect with one’s humanity?
How does one connect with one’s community, especially if somebody has to start?
Maybe some voluntary work? That should tick both boxes
Doesn’t really exist here, there’s work that most people drive to from 30+ minutes away and church which I refuse to go to for obvious reasons. Everything closes at 10 including on the weekends, there’s a lot of lot of America that’s like this, I’ve tried moving, didn’t help.
Oh, that’s sad to hear. I live in Germany in a relatively small town (~50k population). I work in a much larger town but I have a lot of remote work from home. In my home town are at least 10 places where I could volunteer and get there by walking or bike.
I actually do at a place where I try to teach some older folks a bit about computers.
However, there’s also an animal shelter, voluntary fire fighters, a second hand shop that donates the income for disabled children, a nature preservation station and probably a bunch more.
I actually considered both animal shelter and vfd, animal shelter wasn’t interested and it would cost around $600 to get started for fire department, yes cost. Been so bored I’d do yardwork for free but once again equipment cost etc, plus everyone is convinced you’re out to murder them.
I see. Maybe you can do something in line with your professional work? E.g. if you work with computers you could also help people in the neighborhood. Especially older people often need help.
Another thing I just remembered nearby are repair cafes, I’m not good with electronics so it’s not for me but maybe it’s something for you? Also we have people that help immigrants with bureaucracy, translation or just integration into society (eg. local sports clubs)
Anyways, don’t pressure yourself into something. Just keep your ears open, maybe something pops up.
Grab a bucket and pick up trash along your street. Take the old lady’s trash out. Paint something that’s worn out (with permission where appropriate). Find the ugliest yard in the neighborhood and offer to cut some of it back or just clean up an abandoned yard or park. Landscaping goes exponentially faster with power tools, but a hand pruner, hand saw, and cheap weed whacker can do a lot.
On a restaurant supply site, or maybe even just ask a local restaurant, aquire a quantity of take out containers. Make a large batch of inexpensive food, chicken and rice is a good one. If you have a little extra cash grab a huge bag of Halloween candy. Drive to your nearest economically depressed area, and look for someone outside. Offer them food. If they say no, ask if they know anyone that could use a meal. The food will be gone quickly. Don’t means test, just give. It feels pretty good.
Volunteer work
“Parasitic pedophile class” is a lot of words to just say “conservatives”.
The 1%
Conservatives are the footsoldiers of the 1% and are in complete agreement with them on pretty much every topic. Conservatives see themselves as temporarily embarassed billionaires.
Conservatives are the reason for our wealth inequality. If not for conservatives, the normal people would be able to regulate the hoarding of wealth and the behavior of the 1%. Conservatives are the sole reason laws do not apply to the wealthy.
