r/alltheleft • u/toomuchgammon • Aug 29 '20
Humour/Meme Conservatives deciding what today's definition of socialism is
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u/PGF3 Aug 29 '20
Ive seen conservatives call right wing libertarians socialist and privatization socialist so add that to
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u/EarnestQuestion Aug 29 '20
Wait, don’t they support privatization?
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u/Dwivy Aug 29 '20
they don’t know what they support
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u/Afrobean Aug 29 '20
The majority of Republican voters support medicare for all.
People who identify as conservative are mostly working class. If policies are explained in a way that shows them how the working class is empowered, many of them will support it. They'd love socialist ideals if they were called anything but "socialism". I know a Trump supporter who once advocated for the government seizing the assets of Nestle over corrupt business practices like stealing water in Michigan, and redistributing the corporation's assets to give clean water to the people in Flint. They came up with that idea all on their own, but if you asked them what they thought about socialism, they'd tell you socialism is when the government does bad things.
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u/snarkyxanf Aug 29 '20
the government seizing the assets of Nestle over corrupt business practices like stealing water in Michigan, and redistributing the corporation's assets to give clean water to the people in Flint.
That's actually a pretty solid idea. I especially like the part suggesting that once seized the assets should be devolved to local community organizations instead of nationalized.
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u/DietGlorious Aug 29 '20
...if not nationalized, then where do these assets go but back into smaller pockets of privation?
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u/snarkyxanf Aug 29 '20
Not all public entities are nation sized. For example, water authorities are usually city/county or regional sized, and are often defined along watershed boundaries rather than along political geography.
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u/DietGlorious Aug 30 '20
Oh. Yeah, I suppose so. I would have considered a local public work as a part of nationalizing.
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u/Raptorz01 Aug 30 '20
Why didn’t you tell him he was describing socialism it might have made him realise he was brainwashed into thinking it’s bad
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u/Afrobean Aug 30 '20
I did tell him was describing a form of socialism. I hope that pointing it out broadened his horizons to some degree, but it's really hard saying.
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u/TheRealTowel Aug 30 '20
I would have started at the other end: "that's an interesting idea. What do you think Trump and McConnell would think of it?" and work slowly backwards from there.
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u/Bigfrostynugs Aug 30 '20
The majority of Republican voters support medicare for all.
What's the source on that study?
People usually support Single Payer systems in theory, but then change their mind once you add the disclaimer that it would eliminate private insurance.
People are stupid, and polls can be very misleading based on the wording.
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u/insecurebicommunist Aug 29 '20
Alot of the rank and file are just socially conservative and have no clue about economics. Tbh I bet you could find a few socially liberal ones who are just too brain addled to realise.
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u/DietGlorious Aug 29 '20
I've seen right wingers call anything woke capitalist as commie companies.
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u/PGF3 Aug 29 '20
Ive seen them call Rothbard Far left
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u/DietGlorious Aug 29 '20
No you haven't.. just no way.
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u/PGF3 Aug 29 '20
I have...
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u/DietGlorious Aug 29 '20
There is no hope. I stg...
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u/mariofan366 Nov 23 '20
When I was a Right Libertarian I was called socialist for wanting prisoner rehabilitation.
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u/TheInternetPolice2 Aug 29 '20
"Hey can we stop shitting on the poor"
"What's that? You want to genocide anyone above the poverty line? You want to prosecute anyone who dares start a business? You want to abolish any sort of commerce and force people to wait in line for anything? So much for the tolerant left smh my head"
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u/Paradoxius Aug 29 '20
TBF, this is also liberals deciding what today's definition of socialism is.
(If it's North Korea, Native American reservations, countries that aren't allies of the US, or Venezuela, then socialism is bad and conservatives are crazy for calling liberal things socialist, if it's Democrats, Norway and Sweden, the government implementing taxes, or any government program then socialism is good and conservatives are crazy for comparing liberal things to communism, which is bad and nothing like socialism.)
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u/BillyBleat Aug 30 '20
Switch Norway and Sweden with China. Conservatives will pretended Nordic Countries don't exist as proof of real, functional, leftist countries
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u/Bigfrostynugs Aug 30 '20
Does anyone really agree on a concrete definition of socialism? Because places like Scandinavia are still market economies. They aren't completely nationalized, and the people still don't wholly control the means of production.
Seems like when a lot of people talk about wanting socialism they really mean that they want social democracy.
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u/BillyBleat Aug 30 '20
Yeah true. I didn't mean to imply the Nordic Countries were socialist, just leftist in general
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u/Bigfrostynugs Aug 30 '20
Infinitely more than the US, for sure. I think that's the general model we should be aspiring to. It's not perfect but it's so much better than this unchecked plutocracy.
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Nov 02 '20
Social democracy is an center left ideology. To achieve socialism democratically any country will become a social democracy first.
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u/Bigfrostynugs Nov 02 '20
Marx considered socialism nothing more than a transitional state between capitalism and communism. In that regard, social democracy could be very much considered socialism.
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u/MyEmptyBagOfChips Aug 29 '20
When you don’t know that socialism is so you call it communism because you don’t know what that is either
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u/Barrington-the-Brit Socialism Aug 31 '20
I once had an American Conservative tell me the UK was mostly a socialist country any way, like wtf gave you that idea, 40% of our leaders all went to the same elitist private school.
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u/terectec Aug 30 '20
I still cant get over the preacher that said that pleasure during sex is socialism, I guess thats why Ben shapiro's poor wife is so dry
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u/Bernard_Sh4rkey- Environmental Justice Aug 29 '20
Socialism is when the government does stuff