• Veraxus@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Rightists: “Socialism is when the poors get any manner of social benefit.”

    Never mind that the poors are the primary source of the funds for said benefit. We live in a system where the rich control a system that allows them to plunder from the poor and funnel those funds to themselves.

    Capitalism is theft, and theft is capitalism. Capitalism is good.

    But pooling our collective resources for the general benefit of all us… that’s bad. That’s socialism.

    How DARE the plebes be allowed to spend their money on themselves when some multimillionaires that destroyed their billion dollar businesses need a bigger yacht and a fourth European vacation home!?

      • 1024_Kibibytes@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        But the workers literally control the means of production. We could decide not to turn on the machines until those with the capital give us more of it. That’s called a strike. There’s a couple in the U.S. that appear to be going well. I’m hopeful that other executives will figure out that they must help the workers or that more strikes occur to help them learn that lesson.

          • PigsInClover@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I mean you can make it illegal, but the more people realize they have no incentive to work themselves ragged for next to nothing, the angrier they get and fight back. That’s what we’re seeing now with the highest level of union support in decades.

            It’s just my opinion, but I think the damn is officially broken in the US now that we’ve had so many major strikes. I don’t think you can really turn things back to how they were. Not immediately.

            Unfortunately things will only escalate if there isn’t some compromise here. The greedy will continue to fight it. However I’m sure many realize that if workers’ don’t see some improvements in our current environment, it will require a much more openly violent state than we currently have to keep workers in line.

            I’m not sure the majority of those in government are willing move towards that yet as it’s inherently unstable. Hopefully they’ll be smart about it.

          • Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            Oh this is so unfair. We have had an expansion of labor rights this year, after the rail strike was blocked. Also the rail strike did have some wins despote being blocked.

        • Andjhostet@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Only a matter of time before striking becomes illegal. Nothing is going to happen unless a general strike happens among all industries.

          • PaleRider@feddit.uk
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            1 year ago

            How exactly do you force people to work? I mean you could make striking Illegal and force me into work but I’m not going to. I’ll just fuck everything up…

            • blackbelt352@lemmy.sdf.org
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              1 year ago

              The same way Texas did its abortion bounty scheme or Florida made it ok to run protestors over. Empower the chuds to enact violence, maybe lock one or two up for going too far and call it a day, while nothing is actually done to stop the violence.

            • wanderingmagus@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              What do you think for-profit prisons and state penitentiary are for? Look up the exemptions from the slavery amendment.

  • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Years ago, when I started getting over my conservative upbringing, I was telling a friend–in an awkward incoherent manner–how I thought we needed to radically reform healthcare in the US.

    She detected my mental struggle and said, “Socialism is not a dirty word”.

    That simple phrase cut through my conflicted brain. It’s embarrassing how indoctrinated I was, and how I needed permission from a smart person to just accept the obvious.

    I wonder how many other doofuses out there are like I was. They just need the right phrase at the right time from someone they respect.

  • Duplodicus@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    If it is available to all it is socialism. If it is only available to the wealthy then it is theft of national resources or graft.

  • Leap@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I mean, they’re kinda right. Taking money out of society to give to the rich isn’t socialism.

    • Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      When the government does stuff, it’s socialism. And if the government does more stuff, its more socialism. And if the government does a whole lot of stuff? Its communism.

  • Sabre363@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    But those aren’t socialism. They’re rich people jerking each other off while laughing in the face of us low socioeconomic peasants.

  • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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    1 year ago

    Socialism is when the government provides all the jobs, healthcare, benefits, and basically owns the important industries glances over at the defense budget

  • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    And then you have the capitalism sycophants that come and intentionally muddy the waters in bad faith by being pedants and demanding the term only apply to the oldest, largely outdated definition of socialism, in order to derail the conversation in exactly the same way the gun nuts intentionally derail gun control conversations in bad faith by being pedents about the term “assault rifle.”

    Because language, definitions, and terms don’t evolve constantly. A living language is static.

    Yond’s wherefore we continueth to talketh to one anoth’r liketh this.

    (That’s why we still talk to each other like this.)

    • dx1@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s being pedantic and then there’s insisting people use terms precisely. “Socialism” has multiple established meanings which can conflict with each other and sabotage communication when there’s ambiguity about which you’re trying to use. I personally try to avoid terms like that entirely for that reason, it’s a waste of time to sit around clarifying misunderstandings like that.

  • alci@jlai.lu
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    1 year ago

    Funny his socialism seems to sound like a negative word in the us, while capitalism has the sale bad connotation in the mind of many Europeans !

  • TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    This always gets me… some Americans will bitch about gas prices till the fucking cows come home. Yet they have some of the most heavily subsidized fuel in the world.

    • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because it’s never cheap enough to traverse enough of the land to live in one of our beautiful, cookie-cutter sprawling suburbs and work in the city like many do.

      The average American drives so much I think they have forgotten that other ways to live are even possible.

      • Vlyn@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        I mean they have roads in suburbs without sidewalks, it’s insanity.

    • DragonAce@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      America is also a car centric nation. Oil and gas companies have spent decades preventing any sort of alternative travel options to traverse the country. Ever wonder why the US has some of the worst passenger rail lines in the world or why every major US city doesn’t have some sort of functioning mass transit system?

      But to your point, yeah some of my neighbors won’t shut the fuck up about the goddamned gas prices.

      • TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Canada is a great example of a car centric nation that doesn’t subsidize (as heavily) fuel.

        Shit, in my province, from my city to the next large city (over 300k) is 340km away. Just one road small towns scattered in between

        Edit to clairify: subsidizing is dumb but also not investing in rapid transport between hubs is equally as dumb.

    • Z3k3@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This always blows my mind when talking to a yank (as someone in the uk)

      The last time I looked we pay more a litre than they do a gallon.

        • Z3k3@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          We’re around £1.50 at the bottom end around me. I love close enough to the largest refinery on Europe for it to be an option which has a station connected directly to it. Its the most expensive pump for miles