Fellow Commies

[Peikko 1,575]

Not particularly. You appear to think it's quite ok to use liberal, socialist and communist interchangably. If that's the case, your grasp on these ideological concepts is quite poor.

Well not really. Socialism and communism can be coupled together. The Soviet Union was a Socialist Republic.

The term liberal was thrown in because a lot of American liberals, connotative definition of liberal, have quite strong Marxist views.

No BY, they can't. If you look at political ideologies in terms of a spectrum of right to left (or vice versa, I am not that fussy) socialism is to the right of communism.

[Heracles 417]

No BY, they can't. If you look at political ideologies in terms of a spectrum of right to left (or vice versa, I am not that fussy) socialism is to the right of communism.

Communism is a socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership of the means of production and property in general. It is usually considered to be a branch of socialism, a broad group of social and political ideologies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism

The Soviet union, which my example was referring to, is a socialist republic.

The term socialist state (or socialist republic, or workers' state) can carry one of several different (but related) meanings:

• In strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state organized along the principles of socialism may be called a socialist state. The term socialist republic is used by those socialists who wish to emphasize that they favour a republican form of government. Furthermore, since socialism purports to represent the interests of the working class, many socialists refer to a state organized according to their principles as a workers' state.
• According to Marxism, socialism is a stage of social and economic development that will replace capitalism, and will in turn be replaced by communism. Thus, in Marxist terms, a socialist state is a state that has abolished capitalism and is moving towards communism.

Edited August 13, 2008 by Aficionado

[HAL 9000 96]

Fascism can also be considered a branch of capitalism. Does that make them synonymous? Nope.

[Peikko 1,575]

Liberalism is not socialism and socialism is not communism. Whether Marx was correct in his ideological discourse is rather moot in terms of where socialism leads to because no one here wants to go down the extremist road and that's what communism is, an extreme ideology. The fact that communism can be put in the 'socialism' branch of political ideologies is fine as far as it goes but that doesn't go very far.

As for what the political reality of what the soviet union became, that's another discussion. However, for many the political structure resembled a dictatorship far more than a structure of the people for the people. Pretty much, the role of the prole remained the same and the elite changed from being hereditory to being political. However, that is somewhat of a red herring.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Fascism can also be considered a branch of capitalism. Does that make them synonymous? Nope.

I was thinking exactly that.

And... wikipedia is very nice, but taking it as a definitive source in anything does say something....

[HAL 9000 96]

Fascism can also be considered a branch of capitalism. Does that make them synonymous? Nope.

I was thinking exactly that.

And... wikipedia is very nice, but taking it as a definitive source in anything does say something....

Ain't that true sister Len.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

One might reach a different conclusion from reading the post you quoted and your response to it.

Not so much a joke as a below the belt, opportunistic dig.

Lets post the entire post first, as context is key.

I still find it fascinating people making jokes about something they were never a part of, and dont really know about.

It is always the case though.

One of my Steven like uncles, to this day, swears by socialism and communism. Ironically he lived all of his life in a democratic country and has never been to a communist country.

The post was responding to the quoted comment. As in, my uncle who tends to have a similar stance on various issues with Steven (which is what Ilya R's post was responding to) swears by communism. My uncle believes in socialism and communism. The post never implied that Steven believed in that.

This is so silly. Are you even serious here - its a blatant comparison of Steven to your Uncle according to views they allegedly share.

If you didn't mean it that way - why mention Steven at all?

[HYENA 4]

I've never sworn by socialism or communism. You really have no idea most of the time what you are talking about. In fact, I don't know anyone here on VJ who has made more outrageous statements that indicate a very skewed political ideology than you.

Don't confuse my lack of interest in discussing ideas with some of you to being incoherent.

As you said yourself, I made a statement, a one liner. Yet you have no problem taking it out of proportion.

That guy going on about tuition in NJ is great! (booyah) I was waiting for some gray matter to start seeping out of his ears! LOL!

Edited September 18, 2009 by HYENA

[HYENA 4]

Fascism can also be considered a branch of capitalism. Does that make them synonymous? Nope.

I was thinking exactly that.

And... wikipedia is very nice, but taking it as a definitive source in anything does say something....

Ain't that true sister Len.

I've written for wikipedia...it's user fed....

We're not capitalist anyway, this country is clearly a corporocracy.

I think we should vote for the lobbyists; they're the one's with the power!

[HYENA 4]

all this political #######! we need a dictator! LOL!

[HYENA 4]

did that picture really have everyone staring at the screen for this many days?