US lawmakers introduce bill to ban TikTok

Cheetodust

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Yeah, that's not socialism (you can technically say it's a very extreme version of socialism or fork).
😂😂You literally in one sentence say it's not socialism and also an extreme version of socialism. You are an absolute clown baby of a man. Your inability to ever admit you are wrong makes you consistently wrong in the dumbest possible ways.

And you're now saying that socialism doesn't include Marxism or Anarchism because they both believe in abolishing tbe state.

What's the 2nd "S" in USSR stand for? China is capitalist.
And North Korea calls itself a democratic republic.
Clown baby.
 
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Piscian

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I hope they do. I'm so goddamn tired of it being every ad, commercial, reddit post. I wish they could just read their goddamn spyware and see I'm still not interested.
 
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Satinavian

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The definition you gave involves the means of production being controlled by the state. That definition fails to cover most socialists and most theories of socialism. It fails to cover the utopians, the social democrats, the syndicalists... it even fails to cover Marxist socialism.
Personally i wouldn't call social democracy "socialism" either because of the means of production controlled by workers thing.

However social democracy and socialism go well together and people pursuing either often find overlapping interests when it comes to specific agendas. So when someone says that capitalist social democratic countries are "more socialist" than other capitalist countries, that is true in a way.

There is also the fact that things like Co-determination requirements are often directly supported by social democrats and those clearly do count as socialist. But those are also clearly made to work in a capitalist framework/hybrid system.

And of course Marxism is part of socialism.
 

Silvanus

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Personally i wouldn't call social democracy "socialism" either because of the means of production controlled by workers thing.
Historically, social democrats have still aimed to achieve that, though through evolutionary methods within the existing democratic framework. There were also prominent non-revolutionary communists who were formative social democrats.
 

Phoenixmgs

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...

Moving on...



Why're you asking me? Countries make different decisions. A country could have entirely different sectors socialised from another country... and yet the two could have the same proportion of socialised industry as a measure of expenditure/employment/production. This is why its useless to try to make numerical rankings or ascribe proportions of capitalism/socialism. Its not objective. There is no numerical scale. The rankings would be arbitrary.



Why? So far you're just insisting I "have to" and that one has to be the "core". Why?



And yet communism, by all accepted definitions, is a form of socialism.

Your own definition-- means of production controlled by the state-- was wrong as a definition, but most closely aligns with the transitional dictatorship phase of Marxist communist theory.



You absolutely can have myriad different forms under one descriptor. That's how the English language works.

It's more like using the term "video game" to begin with. That's a descriptor. But it includes wildly different things, from Frogger to Horizon Forbidden West.

Does this make the term "video game" too broad? No, obviously not-- because if you wanted to be more specific, you could, but "video game" is a useful category with meaningful associations.



Yes, but your definition was wrong. It doesn't cover the majority of forms of socialism. You've shown very clearly from this entire conversation that you've got a simplistic, kid's understanding of what it means.
You don't understand why you have to pick. You just have theory without any way to actually implement any of this in the real world and you just think it will all work. You can list the types of industries you want to be socialist and those you want to be capitalist; however, your economy is gonna be more capitalist/socialist if you decide that by any kind of logic. The majority of your GDP is gonna come from one of the systems. The only way you have an equal amount of both if you just arbitrarily make half the businesses one thing and the other half the other thing.

The term socialism is so broad that you can't actually legitimately say if you are for it or not without needing more explanation. You keep putting social democracies as socialist when they are 100% not socialist by any definition.


I just called you out on this shit and you're still doing it. Sit down.
Again, you can't even answer the question. USSR was a socialist country.

😂😂You literally in one sentence say it's not socialism and also an extreme version of socialism. You are an absolute clown baby of a man. Your inability to ever admit you are wrong makes you consistently wrong in the dumbest possible ways.

And you're now saying that socialism doesn't include Marxism or Anarchism because they both believe in abolishing tbe state.

And North Korea calls itself a democratic republic.
Clown baby.
I pointed out how the term has become too all-encompassing.

What a country wants to identify as and what it actually is can be 2 different things.
 

Silvanus

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You don't understand why you have to pick. You just have theory without any way to actually implement any of this in the real world and you just think it will all work.
I haven't been advocating for any particular system here-- just explaining what the theories involve. And plenty of political ideologies are 'hybrid'-- featuring significant capitalist elements and significant socialist elements. You've just insisted they can't do that with no reason given.

You can list the types of industries you want to be socialist and those you want to be capitalist; however, your economy is gonna be more capitalist/socialist if you decide that by any kind of logic. The majority of your GDP is gonna come from one of the systems. The only way you have an equal amount of both if you just arbitrarily make half the businesses one thing and the other half the other thing.
So you're judging it by the amount of GDP generated by worker-run or privately-run industry, then.

Fine. But thats completely arbitrary, and there's no reason anyone else should accept that particular metric for assigning numbers and proportions to it. Hell, that isn't how the rankings that you yourself posted do it.

The term socialism is so broad that you can't actually legitimately say if you are for it or not without needing more explanation. You keep putting social democracies as socialist when they are 100% not socialist by any definition.
They literally are socialist by quite a few definitions. They're not socialist by certain other definitions (such as the Marxist-Leninist one). But then, according to your definition, Marxist socialism isn't socialism anyway.

Do you see yet why trying to pin narrow, specific definitions to a term like this is a fool's game? It's an umbrella term. It has meanings and associations and values, but nonetheless covers dozens and dozens of variations. As do "liberalism", "conservatism", "capitalism".

Again, you can't even answer the question. USSR was a socialist country.
According to some definitions. Not according to the Marxist definition.
 
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Cheetodust

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I pointed out how the term has become too all-encompassing.
... To be covered by your weak ass definition. Dude, you're trying to claim Marxism isn't socialism.

What a country wants to identify as and what it actually is can be 2 different things.
That everyone else's point! You're the one claiming the ussr was socialist because it said so!😂
 
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Ag3ma

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I'm not really too hung up on who's more capitalist than the other, just saying the rankings when you look it up says countries like Sweden are more capitalist than the US, and Sweden is definitely not socialist. My main point is wanting socialism is a really radical and extreme view and there's no guarantee it's gonna be any better either.
No, there may be rankings that say Sweden has freer markets than the USA. But as we have discussed, the "free market" and "capitalism" are not the same thing.

I think if you want to consider what self-described "socialists" mean by "socialism" you would need to ask them (although I appreciate this might be a very tedious business, as every individual on the planet has their own idea of what socialism is). I don't think you should impose your interpretation of what "socialism" is on them: because you're likely to have a very wrong idea of what they believe in.
 
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Phoenixmgs

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And North Korea and Congo claim to be democratic. You didn't think this the whole way through, did you?
I don't care what some country claims to be, USSR was a socialist country, that's what it was. How are you gonna say USSR wasn't socialist?

I haven't been advocating for any particular system here-- just explaining what the theories involve. And plenty of political ideologies are 'hybrid'-- featuring significant capitalist elements and significant socialist elements. You've just insisted they can't do that with no reason given.



So you're judging it by the amount of GDP generated by worker-run or privately-run industry, then.

Fine. But thats completely arbitrary, and there's no reason anyone else should accept that particular metric for assigning numbers and proportions to it. Hell, that isn't how the rankings that you yourself posted do it.



They literally are socialist by quite a few definitions. They're not socialist by certain other definitions (such as the Marxist-Leninist one). But then, according to your definition, Marxist socialism isn't socialism anyway.

Do you see yet why trying to pin narrow, specific definitions to a term like this is a fool's game? It's an umbrella term. It has meanings and associations and values, but nonetheless covers dozens and dozens of variations. As do "liberalism", "conservatism", "capitalism".



According to some definitions. Not according to the Marxist definition.
I said you can't be equally both.

Huh? The key tenant of socialism is social ownership of the means of production (as opposed to private ownership). How is that arbitrary?

The Prime Minister of Denmark literally came to the US to tell the US that they (and other Nordic countries) are not socialist. Social Democracies aren't socialist. Words need to have actual meanings to actually work. I can ask someone if they are generally for or against capitalism and not have to explain anything else. You can't do that with socialism because everyone uses the word differently and it ceases having really any meaning. When socialism can be basically anything and basically nothing at the same time, this is somehow a legit word?

USSR was socialist.


... To be covered by your weak ass definition. Dude, you're trying to claim Marxism isn't socialism.

That everyone else's point! You're the one claiming the ussr was socialist because it said so!😂
As you all define socialism is basically means anything and also means nothing, that's not a valid word.

USSR was socialist because that's what they were. So according to you guys, USSR isn't socialist but Denmark is socialist?!?! This makes literally no sense.


No, there may be rankings that say Sweden has freer markets than the USA. But as we have discussed, the "free market" and "capitalism" are not the same thing.

I think if you want to consider what self-described "socialists" mean by "socialism" you would need to ask them (although I appreciate this might be a very tedious business, as every individual on the planet has their own idea of what socialism is). I don't think you should impose your interpretation of what "socialism" is on them: because you're likely to have a very wrong idea of what they believe in.
That's the exact problem. If tell you I'm a capitalist, you know what I am and don't have to ask me what I mean. There's a significant group of people that are for socialism that don't just merely want to be "socialist" as in the Nordic model but be full-on socialist like that guy (Second Thought) on Youtube that took him like half the video to plainly say what socialism is. And his channel is basically propaganda due to how bias and misleading it is.
 

Buyetyen

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I don't care what some country claims to be, USSR was a socialist country, that's what it was. How are you gonna say USSR wasn't socialist?
You suck at this. You try to pull a gotcha with the name of the USSR, then when called out on it, you go ahead and answer your own question and continue to hammer on the same fucking point as if you weren't plainly trying to bait a gotcha. And what's really sad is:

USSR was socialist because that's what they were.
You think this tautology is your best argument because that's what you're leading with.
 

Silvanus

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I said you can't be equally both.
Well, only because trying to quantify the proportion of capitalism and socialism, to stick a number on it, is an impossible errand.

Huh? The key tenant of socialism is social ownership of the means of production (as opposed to private ownership). How is that arbitrary?
That's not arbitrary. Judging it by the proportion of GDP is an arbitrary decision.

I also notice that this "key tenet" is not the same as the definition of socialism you gave before, which was ownership by the state.


The Prime Minister of Denmark literally came to the US to tell the US that they (and other Nordic countries) are not socialist. Social Democracies aren't socialist. Words need to have actual meanings to actually work. I can ask someone if they are generally for or against capitalism and not have to explain anything else. You can't do that with socialism because everyone uses the word differently and it ceases having really any meaning. When socialism can be basically anything and basically nothing at the same time, this is somehow a legit word?
If someone says they're "generally for" or "generally against" capitalism, without digging further into it, then you've also got a useless answer there as well. Because that, too, could mean a hundred different things to fifty different people.

Words have meanings. Umbrella terms are broad ones which cover lots of variation. Like capitalism, socialism, conservatism, liberalism.

USSR was socialist.
By some definitions. Not by most. Not by the Marxist definition, for example.
 
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