Let's face it : the terms socialism,Marxism and communism have been used so loosely for so long by conservatives they have lost all meaning . They are now nothing but frightening-sounding buzz words used to frighten naive, gullible and ignorant Americans .
I have yet to meet a conservative in recent years who actually knows what these words mean . They have become interchangeable even thought they are not the same thing . For one thing, socialism is not the same thing as communism, nor does socialism automatically lead toward creating a totalitarian communist dictatorship in any country .
Karl Marx was a 19th century German economist and philosopher who was disturbed by the way rich industrialists exploited their employees . He noticed how a tiny handful of wealthy industrialists had control over the lives of so many people in Europe . The majority of people in Europe were poor and lived lives of dreary helplessness and poverty because of a tiny handful of greedy and ruthless individualists .
So he came up with the idea of creating a world where everyone would be treated fairly and people would not be mired in poverty because of corporate greed , and he called this communism . Of occurs,e his ideas, while well meant, did not work in theory , and when communists took Russia over in 1917, many year after his death, they created a totalitarian dictatorship where all private enterprise was forbidden and the state controlled all industries and controlled wages and distribution of goods etc , and where religion was suppressed brutally .
This was a terrible economic system ; it created general poverty and the amount and quality of good available was meagre and poor , and all dissent was ruthlessly suppressed .
The same happened many year later in China when Mao Zedong took the country over . Millions and millions of innocent people were killed by the governments of both huge nations .
Communism was a huge disaster and a dismal failure, and it ended about 30 years ago in Russia . China still calls itself communist , but it has adopted a capitalist economy , and it still represses religion brutally . There is religious freedom now in Russia , but it is still a totalitarian dictatorship run by the ruthless and brutal tyrant Vladimir Putin . China is also a totalitarian dictatorship .
But conservatives in America today mistakenly equate the socially liberal policies of the Democratic party with socialism and communism , even though there is nothing even remotely communist about this party and never has been . They also equate the existence of a social safety net in America, something which is absolutely essential for nay civilized nation, with socialism, and they stupidly believe that this "socialism" will somehow lead toward America being turned into another Soviet Union by the Democrats , which is just plain ludicrous .
Any liberal politician in the Democratic party is automatically labeled a socialist, Marxist and communist . And the conservative media keeps repeating the ludicrous notion that the Democrats intend to impose Soviet steal communism on America , especially Bernie Sanders.
Sanders is not a communist. He is Social Democrat - which means that he favors the same kind of benign capitalism mixed with government control which has created so much prosperity in the countries of Europe, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and in Scandinavia .
These countries have capitalist economies , but they handle capitalism is a way which prevents big corporations from exploiting the public and their employees .
This means that everyone as good medical care , college is affordable or even free , no one dies from lack of medical care (about 50,000 people in America die from this every year , no one goes bankrupt because of major illness etc . Many,many people in America do .
What is so horrible about this kind of government ? Nothing . Do they suppress religious freedom ? No. People are still free to be Christians or whatever religion . Do people live in misery and squalor ? Hardly .
Is losing job a disaster which makes people homeless as it often doe sin America? No.
America could learn a lot from Europe . No, these European countries are not paradise on earth and they have their problems, but on the whole , people there are much better off than the mass of Americans and live much more secure lives .
Communism is dead, but totalitarianism still exists . America isn't headed toward "socialism, Marxism and communism ". It's headed toward the exact opposite of these things . Corporate fascism .
We basically are no longer a democracy or a republic any more, and we don't have real capitalism any more We are now a kleptocracy , a plutocracy and an oligarchy .
We have corporate welfare . The big corporations basically control the government now.
And Trump is a corporate raider who is using the presidency to enrich himself at the expense of the American people . Trump and his administration and the Republican party are basically trying to destroy our already inadequate safety net , and using the term "self-reliance" as an excuse to do this .
The Trump administration is trying to deny millions of Americans medical care and rob them of social security and medicare, all so the rich can get even richer . How can people "pull themselves up by their bootstraps " if they don't even have boots ?
SO the terms "socialism, Marxism and communism " are nothing but scary buzz words used to distract from our oligarchic rulers who are robbing the majority of Americans blind .
Another distraction is the bogus claim that the Democrats are "anti-christian ": and want to "persecute " Christians . It's all smoke and mirrors .
I have yet to meet a conservative in recent years who actually knows what these words mean . They have become interchangeable even thought they are not the same thing . For one thing, socialism is not the same thing as communism, nor does socialism automatically lead toward creating a totalitarian communist dictatorship in any country .
Karl Marx was a 19th century German economist and philosopher who was disturbed by the way rich industrialists exploited their employees . He noticed how a tiny handful of wealthy industrialists had control over the lives of so many people in Europe . The majority of people in Europe were poor and lived lives of dreary helplessness and poverty because of a tiny handful of greedy and ruthless individualists .
So he came up with the idea of creating a world where everyone would be treated fairly and people would not be mired in poverty because of corporate greed , and he called this communism . Of occurs,e his ideas, while well meant, did not work in theory , and when communists took Russia over in 1917, many year after his death, they created a totalitarian dictatorship where all private enterprise was forbidden and the state controlled all industries and controlled wages and distribution of goods etc , and where religion was suppressed brutally .
This was a terrible economic system ; it created general poverty and the amount and quality of good available was meagre and poor , and all dissent was ruthlessly suppressed .
The same happened many year later in China when Mao Zedong took the country over . Millions and millions of innocent people were killed by the governments of both huge nations .
Communism was a huge disaster and a dismal failure, and it ended about 30 years ago in Russia . China still calls itself communist , but it has adopted a capitalist economy , and it still represses religion brutally . There is religious freedom now in Russia , but it is still a totalitarian dictatorship run by the ruthless and brutal tyrant Vladimir Putin . China is also a totalitarian dictatorship .
But conservatives in America today mistakenly equate the socially liberal policies of the Democratic party with socialism and communism , even though there is nothing even remotely communist about this party and never has been . They also equate the existence of a social safety net in America, something which is absolutely essential for nay civilized nation, with socialism, and they stupidly believe that this "socialism" will somehow lead toward America being turned into another Soviet Union by the Democrats , which is just plain ludicrous .
Any liberal politician in the Democratic party is automatically labeled a socialist, Marxist and communist . And the conservative media keeps repeating the ludicrous notion that the Democrats intend to impose Soviet steal communism on America , especially Bernie Sanders.
Sanders is not a communist. He is Social Democrat - which means that he favors the same kind of benign capitalism mixed with government control which has created so much prosperity in the countries of Europe, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and in Scandinavia .
These countries have capitalist economies , but they handle capitalism is a way which prevents big corporations from exploiting the public and their employees .
This means that everyone as good medical care , college is affordable or even free , no one dies from lack of medical care (about 50,000 people in America die from this every year , no one goes bankrupt because of major illness etc . Many,many people in America do .
What is so horrible about this kind of government ? Nothing . Do they suppress religious freedom ? No. People are still free to be Christians or whatever religion . Do people live in misery and squalor ? Hardly .
Is losing job a disaster which makes people homeless as it often doe sin America? No.
America could learn a lot from Europe . No, these European countries are not paradise on earth and they have their problems, but on the whole , people there are much better off than the mass of Americans and live much more secure lives .
Communism is dead, but totalitarianism still exists . America isn't headed toward "socialism, Marxism and communism ". It's headed toward the exact opposite of these things . Corporate fascism .
We basically are no longer a democracy or a republic any more, and we don't have real capitalism any more We are now a kleptocracy , a plutocracy and an oligarchy .
We have corporate welfare . The big corporations basically control the government now.
And Trump is a corporate raider who is using the presidency to enrich himself at the expense of the American people . Trump and his administration and the Republican party are basically trying to destroy our already inadequate safety net , and using the term "self-reliance" as an excuse to do this .
The Trump administration is trying to deny millions of Americans medical care and rob them of social security and medicare, all so the rich can get even richer . How can people "pull themselves up by their bootstraps " if they don't even have boots ?
SO the terms "socialism, Marxism and communism " are nothing but scary buzz words used to distract from our oligarchic rulers who are robbing the majority of Americans blind .
Another distraction is the bogus claim that the Democrats are "anti-christian ": and want to "persecute " Christians . It's all smoke and mirrors .
