@freemo I think it depends if you mean socialist countries currently under sanctions by USA or not. Mainstream propaganda deliberately forgets to mention important facts like this.

@freemo No, for example, there is a clear difference between Venezuela and Norway, both of these socialist countries main export is Oil, one of these socialist countries is under USA sanctions and one is not. Guess which one?

@modrobert @freemo

Let's get semantics right before we go into the rabbit hole of "socialist" vs "capitalist" - I wrote this specifically after getting bored by such debates being completely pointless due to lack of agreement on what these terms mean:

write.as/arcadian/pragmatism-a

@kravietz @freemo Yes, agreed, it's not only that, but lately communism is being referred to as socialist, but that was not the case 20 - 30 years ago. USSR (CCCP aka Soviet) was communist.

@modrobert @freemo

It only demonstrates the stupidity of "socialism vs capitalism" division. It serves nothing else but tribal wars between people who have no clue what they're talking about, but know very well what side they're on.

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@kravietz @freemo I think the debate should about the reasons for replacing "communism" with "socialism" around the time when internet became mainstream, because it seems like propaganda driven to me, or some kind of inflation moving everything to the right politically and losing the endpoint extremes in the process.

@modrobert @freemo

Everyone in this discussion is using their own private and reductionist definitions of what "socialism", "communism" and "capitalism" are, ignoring the fact that since 18th century there were literally hundreds of factions declaring themselves as the only correct version of the above.

All Eastern Bloc countries (where I was born) had both "communism" and "socialism" in their names and foundational documents, but at least specifically referred to Marxism-Leninism.

@kravietz @freemo Agreed, and an important point. It's all very subjective depending on experiences, hence my comment early on; lets agree to disagree.

@modrobert @freemo

No no, it's only subjective if we use subjective, tribal naming schemes.

"I don't like socialism" is 100% subjective indeed and means nothing.

I say:

"I don't like central planning of toilet paper production and want free market for toilet paper. Also I want central planning for healthcare and public health services with only elements of market for some services".

Is that "capitalist" or "socialist" statement?

@modrobert @freemo

In this discussion, nobody is referring to any specific political system (Marxist? Maoist? One-of-the-other-hundreds-ist?), just using "socialism" and "capitalism" in their most vague and meaningless form. If you don't like propaganda and mainstream, the best way to fight it is to first stop using its language 🤷

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