Comments on: Chris Matthews Wants to Know Why Socialism is a Bad Word in America

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:23:13 +0000

It's very simple, America was NOT designed around "WE", It was designed around "I" A collective "I" but NOT "WE"..
Any attempt to GLUE us to our neighbor is a step away from individual freedom.

When candidate Obama chatted "YES WE CAN.".I kept thinking "WHo is WE?" Don't remember signing up for WE?

Think of "We the people.." as "A bunch of Collective "I" in unison..but NOT GLUED together. Once you start gluing us..you are just slowing progress., it slows and goes in the other direction. ….the begininng of "The Fall"

By: Christer Carlson

Christer Carlson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:09:31 +0000

So… Why are there so many people trying to explain a Swedish economical system, when they quite obviously know nothing about it?

The Swedish economy is currently turning deep blue, with more and more public companies being sold out to private ventures. Not by economic choice, but political. When you have a right wing government, that's what happens. The interesting thing is that this garage sales more often that not show us the main problems with a capitalist system: 1) It doesn't bring more diversity but less since all companies tend to pile up with the most profitable products, 2) it doesn't bring more quality but less, since schools, hospitals etc need to put the money in marketing instead of pedagogic development etc. Whatever's left is going as profit down the pockets of the owners instead to the students where it should.

And – the Swedish economy has NEVER been a plan economy as the Stalinist (NOT communist) USSR. It was just a capitalist economy with regulations to secure the right of the individual worker/consumer instead of the company owner.

You're just one of these examples of people who wants to believe when they don't know. The sorry thing is that you say that what you believe is a fact. Is it okay if I say that the US is a fascist country? It's just as correct…

By: Christer Carlson

Christer Carlson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:53:06 +0000

Sorry to have to correct you… All schools in Swweden are free, all the way up to the graduate levels… You could work your way through the whole education system without paying a penny in fee…. And this is for everyone, as long as you have the necessary credits to be admitted. Why we Swedes, Norwegians and Danes sometimes study abroad is perhaps because we want to broaden our perspecitves and learn the true nature of things. Maybe something you could think about too..? Your so very welcome to Sweden. Where the school is free.

By: hallie

hallie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:51:03 +0000

Sound like any small town usa.

By: Paolo

Paolo — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:30:44 +0000

It's a "bad word" because whenever it is used, it is used to describe the fascist/authoritarian movements of the 20th century that often ran under the "socialist" or "communist" moniker.

Cuba/Cambodia/USSR were to socialism as Chile (under Pinochet) were to Capitalism.

By: Gunnar

Gunnar — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:53:15 +0000

I look at socialism as a means to an end. That end is totalitarianism. Socialism is a way to sap the will of the people. But it does so very slowly. The government chips away at the freedoms of the people, almost imperceptibly at times. This means that people become habituated to it and since most of us are creatures of habit, we will continue on in a system that slowly erodes our freedoms (as it has been doing since the 1930s) until the government controls every aspect of our lives. And I mean every aspect, just like in 1984.

As Saul Alinsky said, “the issue is not the issue”. With respect to socialism, I think there are many radicals who could care less about socialism but are only interested in it as a means to secure power. Totalitarian power is the ultimate end of socialism.

By: David

David — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:38:16 +0000

Did anybody else see that fingertip in his mouth ?
-sockpuppet

By: Carterthewriter

Carterthewriter — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:14:33 +0000

Obama is the spokesman for a gang of commies working in the White House which, ironically, is protected by our constitution; literally and physically.

By: Richard Ketchum

Richard Ketchum — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:57:14 +0000

Yes Obama is a socialist, and I don’t doubt that if he thought he could get away with it he would try to bring full blown communism, not must socialism but communism to the US. The damage that the socialist in the White House are doing to the US will take many decades to repair, and I doubt if many understand the blood that is going to be spilled around the world because of the current disastrous foreign policy.

By: tar and feathers

tar and feathers — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:19:15 +0000

True enough. I think it can be said that socialism is soft tyranny to communism’s hard tyranny. It’s a little bit like being given a choice between syphilis or gonorrhea. Either way you’ve been screwed.

By: unseen

unseen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:19:21 +0000

Just like medicare and social security and FDIC are socialist programs that have failed. FDIC was the root cause fo teh banking crisis has people no longer had to worry about risk in their depsoits and demanded banks go for the higer and higher return. Social security is broke. If instead of giving the money to the government the FEDeral government would have simply manadated savings for retirement in the 1930′s every retiree would be a millionare atm. Medicare is failed again because it took freedom away from the users of the system. Instead of paying the doctors, hospitals ect the government could have given vochers and allowed the people to make the choice of what to do. Yet are politicans are too afraid to talk about any of this.

By: Doug Loss

Doug Loss — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 02:20:57 +0000

Better read up. Socialism most definitely is necessarily anti-capitalist, as that is the primary meaning of the term. As for being anti-entrepreneurial, if you’re anty-capitalist you are by definition anti-entrepreneurial also, as all entrepreneurs are capitalists. As for it not being communism, you’re just nitpicking there. But I’ll agree with you in so far as not all socialist regimes were also communist. Many were (and are) fascist. (Yes, I’m using the actual accurate definitions of the terms, not the leftist “words mean whatever we want them to mean” definitions. Deal with it.)