Most Disturbing Article I've Read About Mccain

[gaia.plateau]

3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles."

Just throwing it out there that socialism is, by definition, connected linearly with communism

Not at all, actually.

Socialism and Marxist Communism are essentially one and the same idea, though still very different in modern context*. But what you need to understand is that the popular understanding of communism is absolutely and completely unrelated (save by history and perverse misinterpretation) to Marx's vision of Communism.

We understand communism mostly by the Soviet/Bolshivekist/Leninist/Stalinist/Chinese/Maoist models, which really have nothing in common with Marxist ideas apart from the name.

Do you understand how "big L" Liberalism, as in the political ideology fathered by people like John Locke and Thomas Hobbes, is different from "small L" liberalism, as in the political parties popular in many Western states, such as the UK, Canada, France, and the US? In the same way, "big C" or Marxist Communism is entirely different from "small C" or Soviet communism.

To put it in terms that may be easier to understand- you live in Florida, in the US. Every single citizen of the United States is a big L Liberal, but only roughly half of them are small L liberals. In the same way, virtually no citizens are small C communists, while in terms of your education, police, social security, pension, and corporate bailouts**, every single citizen of the United States is a socialist, which is in basic theoretical principle the same thing as a big C communist (though not in modern context).

I can elaborate further if this is still too unclear.

* Socialism has evolved and been tempered into what we now use today, if Marx was alive now he probably wouldn't relate our uses of socialism to his idea whatsoever.
** Technically this is fascism, not socialism, but since every single talking head in your country refers to it as socialism I'm just going to roll with it. Edited November 3, 2008 by gaia.plateau

[clibinarius]

I think Socialism and Communism are the same, simply because what most liberals say to mean socialism, they actually mean social democracy. It is the extreme leftists who say socialism and mean communism, and they exist. They also blur the lines, which makes socialism more of a slur than it is. Social Democracy has problems, certainly, but its not communism. Obama is best described as a Social Democrat in my view; and I don't have a problem with that inherently. With the problems excessive free market/government growth/pro-corporate policy, perhaps its time to take a more Social Democratic outlook for getting out of this economic crisis. For those who say you can't tax and spend out of a recession, I would ask them to name one instance that was true. If they name Reagan, they would be right, but they would be right because Reagan's recession was at the end of inflation, and supply side was necessary to prevent stagflation. Given that we're staring at deflation, demand side is more in need: supply side must be repealed. This is to keep the economy moving despite the gain of the dollar. Taxing and spending, thus, are the only real proven ways to do it, be it Keynesian economics or the real demand side economy (war) that has proven so successful in the past. That's not saying taxes MUST go up. That's simply saying the rhetoric is really wrong and ignorant. Taxes might go down, even. But they will play a significant factor, and people are either lying through their teeth about that or just ignorant.