Stop dividing the left!

110 comments

When a casual acquaintance asks my political leaning, I say Democrat to keep things simple. But, really, I'm a Bernie guy. I don't want to talk politics, and trying to explain that Democrats are actually center-right is just too much effort to put into... well, just about everyone nowadays.
- Why don't you just say progressive then seems to sum it up
- Okay, but Sanders isn’t on the left, either, despite calling himself a socialist. Sanders will say that It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism, and he’ll complain about “crony” capitalism and “über” capitalism, but as a liberal he’ll never question capitalism as such. He’ll never question private ownership of the means of production.
  
  Socialism != Communism though
  It's okay to say you're a socialist but too not like communism.
  I for one really like socialist policies like national healthcare which I get in the UK etc. But I don't think full communism is the way to go for a modern society. Plus the track record of every time a country tries to head towards full communism, the door is left wide open for a dictator, and someone takes it.
  
  Thia is kinda the point of the post tho is these guys think theres no room in the middle you must be full blown marx or bust. Which in this day and age is jist stupid
  
  Then enjoy the continued lurch toward the right that’s been going on for generations, ever since the last time politicians feared socialism enough to make significant concessions. Previously:
  When you have to go back 93 years to the Great Depression to find an example, you’ve made my point.
  FDR did what he did to save capitalism from the threat of socialist revolution, and politicians have spent the last three generations clawing back the concessions he had made to socialist & labor agitators. They also purged socialists from labor unions, and they purged and even assassinated communists, to avoid any such thing happening again.
  Chris Hedges, America: The Farewell Tour:
  The New Deal, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, saved capitalism. It was put in place because socialists were a strong and serious threat. The oligarchs understood that with the breakdown of capitalism—something I expect we will again witness in our lifetimes—there was a possibility of a socialist revolution. They did not want to lose their wealth and power. Roosevelt, writing to a friend in 1930, said there was “no question in my mind that it is time for the country to become fairly radical for at least one generation. History shows that where this occurs occasionally, nations are saved from revolution.” In other words, Roosevelt went to his fellow oligarchs and said, “Hand over some of your money or you will lose all your money in a revolution.” And they complied. That is how the government created fifteen million jobs, Social Security, unemployment benefits, and public works projects. The capitalists did not do this because the suffering of the masses moved them to pity. They did this because they were scared.
  
  This is a fundamental misunderstanding of differences between socialism and communism.
  Modes of production aside, socialism is just the transition period between capitalism and communism but does not have fundamentally different goals from communism. The goal of socialism is to reach communism. The differentiation is just a matter of how far society has progressed in that transition and their modes of production. Socialists are communists. Any differentiation outside of the above context is colloquial or otherwise a result of the uninformed misusing the terms as you have.
  Nationalized healthcare in the UK != Socialism and != a socialist policy, it is a social/welfare program. Social/welfare programs are agnostic of modes of production, which is why they can exist in both socialist and capitalist economies.
  Please refer to the socialism entry on Prolewiki as well as the modes of production link I added above. This is one of the most commonly confused things about socialism and communism. If you really want to say you don't like the idea of communism, you should at least be informed about what it is you don't like and don't think applies to our modern society. These are short articles that collectively take <5 minutes to read through.
  What you are advocating for is social democracy.
  
  MrScottyTay cannot see your comment becuaee shit.just.works has defederated from lemmygrad.
  
  Shame. Thanks for the heads up!
  
  Uk is monarchist, not socialist
  
  Because he's a politician and he understands that his rhetoric has to ramp up slowly to convince his audience. Go to your local pub/bar and say that to someone that isn't a terminally online ML, see how they react.

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