Thread by @santiagomayer_

There is nothing that makes me sadder than seeing people accuse others of not knowing what something is, while not knowing what it is themselves.

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Socialism is a utopian fantasy, it’s not good not bad, it’s a dream. What the left supports, and what the right is against is social democracy.

How are those different? Here.

In a socialist country, there would be no private industry. All the means of production would be controlled by the government, which would be made up from the “proletariat”, or working class.

There has never been a socialist country, nor will there ever be.

Countries that claim to be socialist are not really it. The USSR, for example, didn’t follow Marx’s theory of socialism, but Lenin’s modified version of it. Same with China claiming to be communist.

“Socialist” revolutions have mostly been a tool for demagogues to get to power. They present themselves as a populist icon, but once in power, reveal themselves as authoritarian leaders.

Democratic socialism and social democracy are different too.

Democratic socialists want to conserve the governmental system of democracy, but get completely rid of private industry and transition the economic system from capitalism to socialism.

Social democracy, on the other hand, aims to conserve capitalism for non-essential products, but move to a socialist system for essentials (food, healthcare, education, etc). The government would remain a democracy, thus the “democracy” part of the name.

I find it incredible that both sides are uneducated about this topic, the right hates anything that resembles socialism without knowing what it is, and many in the left support it while being just as lost.

There’s a reason that this happens, during the Cold War, as tensions between the Soviets (the “socialists”) and the US (the “capitalists”) both sides thought their children to hate the other system, without ever reaching what it truly was, or it’s variations.

No, Venezuela is not a socialist country. It’s a failed authoritarian state.

No, Norway is not a socialist country.
It is a social democracy.

No, the Soviet Union was not a socialist country.
It was a Lenin-style socialist authoritarian state.

Please, don’t ever hate or love what you’ve been told. Always research and learn about your ideals.

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Add-on: Yes, Bernie labels himself as a democratic socialist.

Yes, his policies are socially democratic policies.

No, I don’t know why he does this. His campaign might simply be unaware of the difference, but I doubt it.

It really boggles my mind.