[SpaceManNabs]

Some questions on what you said:

1. Those symptoms you describe seem more general to fascist/totalitarian governments than just socialist governments. Are you saying all socialism is equivalent to totalitarian governments?

2. Do you believe those symptoms are unique and in-masse to socialist governments?

3. Why do you add China to that list when it is widely considered by many diverse institutions to be state capitalist?

[g42gregory]

> Why do you add China to that list when it is widely considered by many diverse institutions to be state capitalist?

This is a very interesting point. The Chinese State itself (and presumably 1.5 billion Chinese people) consider China a Socialist Country. No doubts about it. They call their economy a Socialist Market Economy. You could think of it as capitalist underlying economic structure and total social control of the Socialist State above it. From social perspective it's still totalitarian, which is exactly what socialism is.

It seems to be working for China and, possibly, that's what the majority of the Chinese people want. I am certainly not in business of telling other countries how to live. My only point is that it's not freedom from the liberal democracy perspective.

[mcpackieh]

> 3. Why do you add China to that list when it is widely considered by many diverse institutions to be state capitalist?

You mean China today? China today commits more than their fair share of human rights abuses, but the worst atrocities in the PRC were perpetrated in the past by staunch socialists, not those capitalist reformers who later introduced capitalist elements back into Chinese society. During the Cultural Revolution the Red Guard, a hard-line socialist paramilitary mostly comprised of students, were purging anything that vaguely resembled capitalism or tradition. They murdered millions of people for socialism.