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The term has several meanings. Scandinavian countries consider themselves socialist for their high levels of government support of education and healthcare, but
by jhbadger 9y ago
The term has several meanings. Scandinavian countries consider themselves socialist for their high levels of government support of education and healthcare, but so did the Soviet Union and similar countries with a state-run centralized command economy. When people in the US rally against "socialism" they are either thinking that what people in favor of socialism want is a centralized command economy or think that it is a slippery slope and that government support of health care will eventually lead to a Bolshevik insurrection or something.
- TuringTest 9y agoThanks, that explanation is helpful. In the future when I discuss about socialism with US people, I'll take into account the likeliness that they're attacking a boogeyman, and that a precise definition of the term will be needed to advance the discussion.
- ulucs 9y agoyou might be interested in this http://lesswrong.com/lw/nu/taboo_your_words/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/nu/taboo_your_words/
- TuringTest 9y agoThanks for the read. I intuitively try to avoid loaded words and think in terms of the properties they define; though this thread was about the term "socialism" in particular, not just the general concepts covered by it.