• diprount_tomato
    link
    11 year ago

    It definitely is just reforming capitalism tho. If you want it in America you don’t have to overthrow any government, just vote them out of the white house

    • sab
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      I can’t think of any successful implementation of socialism following from voting alone. Unionising tends to be where the power comes from.

      The historical success rate of overthrowing the government and replacing it with something more ideologically pure doesn’t really inspire confidence either. Sometimes it might be a necessary step on the winding path of history, but in terms of making anything better in the short term the track record is a bit iffy at best.

      • Zyansheep
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        Does public ownership and maintenance of infrastructure count as socialism? If so, that definitely happened.

        • @SCB
          link
          11 year ago

          Which countries do not have public ownership and maintenance of infrastructure?

          And no that isn’t socialism.

          • Zyansheep
            link
            fedilink
            11 year ago

            Then what is socialism? What does a socialist society look like?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          11 year ago

          I think by public here you mean “state” ownership. Socialists believe in workers owning the means of production.

          • Zyansheep
            link
            fedilink
            31 year ago

            So like, every co-op, worker-owned company, and software company is socialist since their workers own the means of production?

            Also, couldn’t you say that if the workers control the state, (i.e. through a democracy) that they own the “means of production”? Or does socialism have a requirement for more direct ownership?

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              11 year ago

              Worker co-ops are probably the closest thing to a glimpse of a socialist workplace under capitalism, yes, but unfortunately these companies must exist in a capitalist economy. This means they still must compete against profit-driven companies and do things that are not in the interests of their workers in order to stay afloat. If you’re interested in learning more about how this directly related to socialism, I recommend this article: https://monthlyreview.org/2015/02/01/cooperatives-on-the-path-to-socialism/.

              To your other question, the answer is no. Under a capitalist framework, corporations (the ruling class in Marxist terms) own the means of production in that they are the primary owners of private propery (the factories, machines, offices, etc that produce goods and services). They take the profit that workers generate and keep it for themselves - it isn’t distributed back to the workers. Just because the US is democratic does not mean the workers own this private property or have a say in how it is used.

    • norbert
      link
      fedilink
      21 year ago

      Yep, just support and vote left for the next few decades. Take a page from the conservative handbook and mobilize a base that will actually turn out to vote. Conservatives have spent the last 50 years fine-tuning their messaging and tapping into a base that will get involved in politics down to a local level and it’s working.

      We have conservative schoolboards across the country deciding what will be taught, activist ideological judges waiting for Federalist Society-trained lawyers to bring the next case deregulating another corpo safeguard and religious fundamentalists regulating peoples genitals.

      • diprount_tomato
        link
        01 year ago

        What left? There is no left in mainstream American politics (but that’s what they want you to think so they can get your vote)

      • diprount_tomato
        link
        21 year ago

        You really think the American Revolution created or had good ideals? Like, it was made by slave owners who wanted to evade British taxes

    • @fosiacat
      link
      English
      01 year ago

      lol yeah the lib approach of “vote harder” - look at how that goes. the closest thing they had was Bernie sanders and he was railroaded by the dnc. you’re asking the wolf to watch the wolfs.

      • @SCB
        link
        21 year ago

        Bernie Sanders lost by 3 million votes, so yes “vote harder” would absolutely have changed that situation