Back at ya. As I've oft said, you & I don't communicate well.No, this isn't our first rodeo. Every single time, clarifications don't seem to make a difference to you, and you end up repeating the same arguments that don't remotely represent my position.
It always strikes me that you see a fraction of my intent.
And I find your position unclear because of contradictions.
But we persist.
Going by every dictionary definition of "socialism",You seem to think that any socialist position has to be lumped in with the USSR and the rest of the list of 20th-century communist dictatorships.
USSR indeed was. It wasn't communist because there
was private property, but not private ownership of
the means of production.
Odd it is that the official RF definition of "capitalism"
includes the USSR. So that capitalist regime was
communist? We live in the post-dictionary age.
Socialism is as it is defined, & as it's been instituted.See? If I ask you what those "sins" of socialism are, I suspect you'll bring up the USSR and the same list of countries. Never mind that those have nothing to do with my own position; they must be "socialist" and therefore representative of what other socialists believe.
It has a record.
Your position (as I understand it) is an imagined
set of utopian consequences that differ from what's
actually happened.
in reality.
If these same people vote time after time solelyOn an individual level, people see that only the big two win and understandably believe their vote will be practically useless if they don't vote for either. It's a collective effect; you would need significantly large groups to vote for a third party before the rest could see that doing so wouldn't be a waste of their voice, since they would finally be able to see a real third party that could effect change.
for the Big Two because they feel 3rd parties are
wasted votes, I don't see them replacing capitalism
with socialism.
What is your definition of "communism"?That's one-party, big-state communism. Yet again an example of the conflation I'm talking about.
Most people I talk to don't give me a label.Have you talked to any socialist anarchists before and asked them what they think of a one-party system? Or libertarian socialists? Democratic socialists? Market socialists? If you haven't, perhaps doing so might prove informative and show you that they're not some uniform group of fans of the USSR and North Korea.
But it's not possible for a country to be socialist and anarchist.
Anarchism would lack the authority to enforce socialism, &
ban capitalism. And a libertarian country could not be socialist
because of the prohibition of free economic association.
Those terms are like the "world's shortest giant"...rather
mutually exclusive when applied to a country.
I'm confused again.It needs to happen before I can criticize it.
Does this mean that you believe there've been no socialist countries?
What is the difference between those terms?I think democratic socialism would be ideal, but I don't believe it should be imposed on state law by force or authoritarianism. Instead, I lean toward social democracy....
The empirical approach requires looking at bothMainly, I believe in addressing present issues using empirically optimal solutions without pulling from a predetermined, ideological playbook. What matters is what works, not what the playbook prescribes. If or when they match, that's fine. If they don't, what works should always take precedence. It's also fine if society never voluntarily adopts socialism; it should be a means to an end (i.e., prosperity and peace), not an end by itself.
socialist & capitalist systems, & comparing the results
with desired goals. I see no attempt to examine the
socialist countries throughout history...just criticism
of capitalism.
Experimenting has long gone on. Socialism has been tried.As I mentioned earlier, I believe we're experiencing an unprecedented era of human history. We will have to test and figure some things out for the first time as we go instead of assuming that previous systems will necessarily work out well. This is why I'm more in favor of an open and experimental approach rather than a formulaic one. Each country is different to one extent or another and has its own circumstances, too, so what works in, say, India or the US may not work in Saudi Arabia or France. They would each need to figure out their optimal solutions too.
Capitalism has been tried. There are many results to consider.
It makes no sense to want to steer the boat in the direction
of the system with the worse record.
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