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> ... hedging and differentiation ... How is the distinction hard to understand? Socialism is a system characterised by social ownership of the means of produc

> ... hedging and differentiation ... How is the distinction hard to understand? Socialism is a system characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to capitalism, which is characterised by private ownership of the means of production. Both are ideologies. You could have compared to Soviet or East Germany directly if you wanted to make a point about totalitarian regimes. Also, I'm pretty sure Germans don't consider socialism to be an authoritarian ideology. Maybe you're confusing it with national socialism (nationalsozialismus => nazism).

mason240 10y ago
>Also, I'm pretty sure Germans don't consider socialism to be an authoritarian ideology. I'm not sure why the opinion of Germans matters here, they have the same capitalist economy that the US and the rest of Europe do.
mbreese 10y ago
There are the proper political science definitions and then there are the meanings on the ground (so to speak). Unfortunately, the latter are fluid depending on the country and don't always line up...
sampo 10y ago
> Socialism is a system characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to capitalism, which is characterised by private ownership of the means of production. Both are ideologies. Historically, every attempt to build a socialistic society has led to tyranny. One can wonder, if this might be an inevitable consequence along the path to attempt socialism. But we have managed to build several capitalistic societies which did not fall into tyranny (although some did).
- turar 10y ago
  > Historically, every attempt to build a socialistic society has led to tyranny. http://wrightstories.com/attempts-to-fly-before-the-wrights/ http://wrightstories.com/attempts-to-fly-before-the-wrights/
  - sampo 10y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_machines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_ma...

mason240 10y ago

>Also, I'm pretty sure Germans don't consider socialism to be an authoritarian ideology. I'm not sure why the opinion of Germans matters here, they have the same capitalist economy that the US and the rest of Europe do.

mbreese 10y ago

There are the proper political science definitions and then there are the meanings on the ground (so to speak). Unfortunately, the latter are fluid depending on the country and don't always line up...

sampo 10y ago

> Socialism is a system characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to capitalism, which is characterised by private ownership of the means of production. Both are ideologies. Historically, every attempt to build a socialistic society has led to tyranny. One can wonder, if this might be an inevitable consequence along the path to attempt socialism. But we have managed to build several capitalistic societies which did not fall into tyranny (although some did).

turar 10y ago
> Historically, every attempt to build a socialistic society has led to tyranny. http://wrightstories.com/attempts-to-fly-before-the-wrights/ http://wrightstories.com/attempts-to-fly-before-the-wrights/
- sampo 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_machines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_ma...