Originally Posted by
redietz
Mickey, I don't really mind the "Comrade Dietz" stuff, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm a socialist, not a communist. Now I know many Americans have trouble distinguishing the two words as they each have "ist," but if you spell them out phonetically, you'll notice there's a slight difference.
Socialists generally have broad themes using science-based perspectives and the radical idea that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." I got that line from Mr. Spock in Wrath of Khan. Anyway, the differences between socialism and communism are quite striking. If you ask a socialist how you know policies were wrong, you'll get an answer based on evidence. If you ask a communist how they know their policies are wrong, you won't get an answer because communism will default to an excuse. Communism is more like a religion. You know, like Trumpism. If you ask what would make a true believer in Trumpism change candidates, you won't get an answer. You'll get a conspiracy or an excuse. There is no real corrective mechanism for communism or Trumpism. They repeat their mistakes, and they don't course correct, like most religions. Policy is a matter of faith.
Socialism doesn't work like that. But I'm good with the "Comrade Dietz" stuff if you can't phonetically separate communism from socialism. I have a lifesize Trump cutout (a gift) and I've been meaning to get an old Soviet flag. So when I get them set up in the yard, I'll take a few photos. Then you can see how color-coordinated they are.
Comrade Dietz, we are all socialist to a degree but your form of extreme socialism is an evil I don't want to see happen to this country. You just don't get how to much socialism destroys the incentive to produce goods and services. Do you know how bad the shortage of goods is in Venezuela?
If socialism really worked it would have worked in Venezuela, the latest country to go socialist. They had a sizable minority that lived below the poverty level. Hugo Chavez came to power with the promise of making everything more equitable. Well, he certainly succeeded. In order to try and remedy the economic inefficiencies of socialism Chavez had to make another power grab. The centralization of power made things even more inefficient. So they grabbed more power and it became more inefficient. Now 80% of Venezuelans live below the poverty level.
Your vision of "the needs of the many" is a utopian dream that will never happen in this world. It goes against human nature. There will always be a person smarter than another person, more ambitious than another person, more industrious than another person. But if you reduce it to "the needs of the many" then you are relegating the real producers in this world to the same fate as the dumbest among us.
The smart, industrious people of the world are not going to produce if all they get for it is to have to live no better than all the dumb do nothing lazy slobs of the world. To have to live no better than those that consume but never produce.
Thats the cold hard reality, Comrade Dietz. No one is going to work their ass off for the good of humanity if they have to live in poverty while doing it. Under your form of socialism the producers will go away. And those that only consume cannot live without the producers. So the whole country goes to shit.
What you call Trumpism is really anti-socialism. Trump is an asshole but we much prefer him to your utopian dream of socialism. That has to tell you something. You socialists are so repugnant that we have to elect an asshole like Trump to keep you at bay.
If the choice is socialism or Trump then I take Trump everytime.