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by chickenpotpie 1923 days ago
Biden and Obama are called socialists because Americans were trained to fear communism and socialism during the Cold War. There is nothing about their political stance that is socialist. Conservatives have just learned that they can score easy points by calling anyone left of Ronald Reagan a marxist
1 comments
malandrew 1923 days ago
> There is nothing about their political stance that is socialist.

I don't know how anyone can make this statement with a straight face. What about ObamaCare?

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cmrdporcupine 1923 days ago
How is ObamaCare socialist? It's just a giant subsidy to private insurance companies. It's literally the opposite of socialist health care policy.
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malandrew 1922 days ago
> It's just a giant subsidy

If it is redistributing wealth, it's socialist. Taking taxpayer money from person A and paying it out as a subsidy (even if laundered through a private company) to benefit person B is socialism.

Anytime you are redistributing wealth under the threat of the government's right to licit first use of force, you're engaging in socialism.

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cmrdporcupine 1922 days ago
Socialism as defined by socialists is social ownership of production.

What you're describing is socialism as defined by its libertarian intellectual opponents, and that's a pretty broad definition (any taxation followed by spending is socialism? That's pretty odd... so all military and police forces are socialist?)

So, fine, if that's what you choose to believe, but it's certainly not a policy proposal that is advocated by actual socialists. Even the soft left wing of the Democratic party found/finds the ACA objectionable.

In fact it's explicitly the kind of policy that liberals advocate in order to avoid socialist policy measures and to avoid being called socialists.

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malandrew 1921 days ago
> Socialism as defined by socialists is social ownership of production

That's communism, a specific flavor of socialism.

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chickenpotpie 1921 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.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism
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