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by jskdvsksnb 2064 days ago
> I’m not a liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, socialist, capitalist. I’m an independent individual, not a category, and I can vote for whoever I think is best.

"Socialist" and "capitalist" aren't party alignments, they have concrete meanings. As an independent individual you no doubt have some preference.
2 comments
nicoburns 2064 days ago
> "Socialist" and "capitalist" aren't party alignments, they have concrete meanings.

I agree that they're not party alignments, but do they really have concrete meanings? In my experience they seems to mean different things to each person who uses them.

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jskdvsksnb 2064 days ago
>Socialism is a political, social and economic philosophy encompassing a range of economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production and workers' self-management of enterprises.

> Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.

Both of those definitions encompass a wide range of economic systems, but they are fixed definitions. There's never going to be some inversion where "socialism" suddenly describes the private accumulation of capital.

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nicoburns 2064 days ago
A practical example:

Is a market-based system with strong progressive taxation and a large basic income capitalist? Is it socialist?

IMO it's not obvious and you could argue it either way for both terms.

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jskdvsksnb 2064 days ago
But compare that to trying to say whether that system is "Democrat" or "Republican". Either party could advocate for that policy, or the inverse policy, and they could change their stance at any time.
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alxmng 2064 days ago
They are descriptive categories, not preferences.

If someone has capital invested in a business, and votes for government health insurance, are they a socialist or a capitalist? Would it mean they prefer the government to run everything? Nonsense.

Are the Democrats the socialists and the Republicans the capitalists? These words are little more than partisan shibboleths. The media portrays the Democrats as socialists, and the Republicans capitalists. Yet Republicans vote for socialist policies (Medicare, social security, unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, etc.)

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