Rasho Brezec wrote:CluelessJackson wrote:it is a sorry day when socialism as a value system is attacked for having failed when the most corrupt man who leveraged petro dollars to buy the faith of the poor is the example of its worthlessness. socialism in the way it is spoken of by most people does not automatically convey everything being state run and all wealth is appropriated and the capitalists and the educated are run out of town so lets not be so petty about the definitions
But that's the thing. There is no example of socialism working to the benefit of the people anywhere in the world. Every attempt at socialism eventually devolves into economic poverty, brain drain and state corruption. Just like Orwell wrote it.
issues of allocation of taxation and totalitarianism are not quite the same talking points tho. since you are probably part of the former soviet hegemony, if i say stalinism and maoism was more about colonialism, slavery and terror than about the collective good does that mean i dont understand the historical meaning of "communism"? I dont think so. thats what checks and balances are for.
overly centralized power surely leads to corruption in all political systems so i recognize the frustration about current affairs most people are having even when i dont agree on policy.
i wanted sanders for one reason. he is the only american candidate in a long time who made it one of his primary issues to reform campaign finance law. this attacks the root cause of corruption in our system. and nobody has had the balls to run on that issue and he did. other stuff he said was probably too much for many and i understand why but he really was the only one who proposed the one thing that would produce real change.
and he has already proven you can run for president on small citizen donations so he has made history even if he is not the one who gets elected. that is a very big deal because he has validated the ability to run for office without super pac money. this is why he is such a big threat to established interests, not because of "socialist" ideas
that to me that is about reforming one of the broken rules that make real democratic elections harder
and definitions of socialism is really not the point. how we spend our tax money is