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by davidw 4164 days ago
"Socialist!" is one of those meaningless code words, like "neoliberal!" that just means "bad!" for the intended audience.
2 comments

Totally. Those labels are instant mind-killers and in my book they are tools of the Dark Arts. When someone calls you a "socialist" or "neoliberal" or whatever, they imply you believe everything some ideology has to say, so they can go ahead, point any random weak point (every political ideology has some) and call you a moron.

This is so totally dumb behaviour, that I can't even begin to describe it. What's equally dumb is assuming that if you agree with some group on one thing, then you should also agree on everything else.

Basically - for me, giving yourself a political label is a sign of subpar thinking. Giving others political labels is disingenuous.

"mind-killers" and "Dark Arts" are self-describing labels, though. They don't avoid being political rhetoric just because they were coined by a guy who purports to be opposed to political rhetoric.
neo-libreral means pro free trade

neo-conservate means pro war especially against non-democratic regimes they don't like seeking to remake them into democracies.