Originally Posted by Neurotoxin
Hey whoa there buddy. Don't fall into the Gingrich-style mentality of using "Socialism" as a code word for a fascist dictatorship or right-wing nationalist worker party. He doesn't even know what Socialism is, especially because there are many different forms and versions of it. There is no excuse for that kind of ignorance, though I can say that the Smith Act and McCarthyism scared Socialism/Communism out of the US public and made them seem like dangerous dirty words that will summon the Political Boogeyman, and so thinking that "Socialism" is the enemy of "Democracy" has been part of US culture for a couple generations.
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Unfortunately, yes. Well, mostly. Good thing that the younger people here (~20-40 I would guess) seem to be a bit more well informed.
Originally Posted by Neurotoxin
When I think "Socialism" I think of a properly direct democracy where everyone has a say in the political system, where everyone in the nation participates. Believe it or not, little old Cuba actually had 9 million of its 11 million population participated in a long (months to years long) national debate and decision to determine how private capitalism can be expanded in the country. If we had THAT kind of Socialism, the debate about what to do about online piracy would be open to full national participation, not left to be decided and forced upon us by a few key industries and the corporate-sponsored government.
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Dude, that's a Republic. Socialism... mostly I'd say it's common understanding here is as a term indicating the level of interference that government places on the day to day lives of it's people. Far less than the absolute control of a communist state, but still in the same vein of Government having
too much control over it's people.