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If you want to understand why Biden and Obama are called socialists, I suggest you do some reading of the Anarcho-Capitalist literature (Anatomy of the State is
by aspnet_dev 6y ago
If you want to understand why Biden and Obama are called socialists, I suggest you do some reading of the Anarcho-Capitalist literature (Anatomy of the State is the most obvious) or maybe listen to someone like Peter Schiff.
I don't agree with their philosophy as I believe it to be unrealistic but their criticisms and descriptions of what the state is and isn't is valid and why some call it socialist may make more sense to you. Hans Herman Hoppe (I am sure someone will quote mine him to smear him after I've mentioned him and haven't read any of this books) even called Democracy a soft form of communism.
- chickenpotpie 6y agoBiden and Obama are called socialists because Americans were trained to fear communism and socialism during the Cold War. There is nothing about their political stance that is socialist. Conservatives have just learned that they can score easy points by calling anyone left of Ronald Reagan a marxist
- aspnet_dev 6y ago> There is nothing about their political stance that is socialist. Yes there is. There is a tonne of stuff that is explicitly socialist. In the UK my boss (who is from the UK) has recently said that the Biden Administration is more socialist than the previous administration. The news here has said it. It got nothing to do with the cold-war. It is to do with their policies.
- chickenpotpie 6y agoBiden is socialist because your boss said so?
- aspnet_dev 6y agoI will spell it out for you. If there are quite a lot of people outside of the US that consider him to be much more socialist (and there are quite a few) than Trump, then it cannot just be "American conservatives" that are claiming this.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- chickenpotpie 6y agoYour argument is based off a quote i didn’t say. I never said “American conservatives” I said conservatives
- aspnet_dev 6y agoYou said: > Conservatives have just learned that they can score easy points by calling anyone left of Ronald Reagan a marxist
- malandrew 6y ago> There is nothing about their political stance that is socialist. I don't know how anyone can make this statement with a straight face. What about ObamaCare?
- cmrdporcupine 6y agoHow is ObamaCare socialist? It's just a giant subsidy to private insurance companies. It's literally the opposite of socialist health care policy.
- malandrew 6y ago> It's just a giant subsidy If it is redistributing wealth, it's socialist. Taking taxpayer money from person A and paying it out as a subsidy (even if laundered through a private company) to benefit person B is socialism. Anytime you are redistributing wealth under the threat of the government's right to licit first use of force, you're engaging in socialism.
- cmrdporcupine 6y agoSocialism as defined by socialists is social ownership of production. What you're describing is socialism as defined by its libertarian intellectual opponents, and that's a pretty broad definition (any taxation followed by spending is socialism? That's pretty odd... so all military and police forces are socialist?) So, fine, if that's what you choose to believe, but it's certainly not a policy proposal that is advocated by actual socialists. Even the soft left wing of the Democratic party found/finds the ACA objectionable. In fact it's explicitly the kind of policy that liberals advocate in order to avoid socialist policy measures and to avoid being called socialists.
- malandrew 6y ago> Socialism as defined by socialists is social ownership of production That's communism, a specific flavor of socialism.