Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?

[Weatherman2020]

From the days of McCarthyism through today's trumpism, the right-wingers have been taught lies about communism and socialism.

They are certain any government assistance to the poor, disabled, elderly, children, homeless, etc. only encourages laziness. But these same willfully ignorant fools wholeheartedly support government handouts to the billionaire class and Big Business. They stupidly believe these costly benefits create jobs that offset the local, state, and/or federal governments' expenses.

Those opposing socialism fail to realize the biggest percentage of the United States' $30 trillion debt has gone into the pockets of the billionaires and corporate heads.




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The lies of communism and socialism!

Yet you refuse to live in a communist or socialist paradise you refuse to name.

 

[22lcidw]

Socialist ideas don’t restrict freedom. Social security, post office, public roads… here are 75 ways your life was improved with socialist programs:

75 Ways Socialism Has Improved America

This is a repost of a blog I wrote last year. You can see the original here . It's exactly the same except the original has pictures! I just wanted to bring this back in hopes of sparking a real, ...

m.dailykos.com

There is nothing wrong with government being involved in pushing things. Eventually the costs get out of control. Social security is a direct payment that gives 95% of the money back. Of course, that is at 15% out of paychecks. The Post Office under law is supposed to be paid for completely by itself. It is 22 Billion Dollars in deficit with the taxpayers paying the freight. The roads costs have skyrocketed compared to how they were built in the past. The men who forged these things are long gone. We see it now in big ticket government projects and the massive costs.

 

[Weatherman2020]

There is nothing wrong with government being involved in pushing things. Eventually the costs get out of control. Social security is a direct payment that gives 95% of the money back. Of course, that is at 15% out of paychecks. The Post Office under law is supposed to be paid for completely by itself. It is 22 Billion Dollars in deficit with the taxpayers paying the freight. The roads costs have skyrocketed compared to how they were built in the past. The men who forged these things are long gone. We see it now in big ticket government projects and the massive costs.

SS denies citizens of trillions of dollars in investment growth, and road costs have skyrocketed because of government spending boondoggles.

I drive roads built in the 1700’s by local citizen on their own dime and time, and the only maintenance over the centuries has been to occasionally lay down some gravel.

 

[Votto]

You're confusing fear with hatred.

But you should fear the National Socialists of Germany, and the Soviet Communists.

Never before has mankind seen such carnage and death and genocide and oppression.

The head scratcher is, even though Marxism has murdered hundreds of millions more than Hitler, Marxism is still cool as organizations like BLM are openly Marxist

Imagine if they came out as Nazis.

LOL.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

What an interesting blog article on American ideas about civil responsibility and the knee jerk reaction of Americans generally, and Conservatives specifically, to fear community welfare and immediately associate it with socialism or communism. It led to her asking “What are you so afraid of?”, and she received 5 specific groups of fears:

1. I’m scared of having to pay for other people’s laziness
2. I’m scared because I don’t trust my government or other people generally
3. I’m scared because socialism leads to authoritarianism
4. I’m scared because socialists and communists kill a lot of people
5. I’m not scared, socialism always fails

She has some good responses to these fears that I can’t do just to for a short attention span. Read the link if you want. I think these fears keep America from being a great and caring nation.

Why Are Americans and Conservatives So Afraid of Socialism?
I went a little bit viral on TikTok recently for voicing the unthinkable: I said that I like paying taxes. As you might imagine, the Americans and Conservatives in my comment section were shocked and appalled. The words communist and socialist were thrown around like insults, images of gulags and famine were invoked to prove some kind of vague and poorly-articulated point about freedom.

In contrast, the (predominantly western/northern) Europeans seemed to find my explanation pretty fair and even stopped to correct me on some of the finer points of Scottish, Scandinavian and German socialist democracy.

What shocked me, however, was not that so many Americans and Conservatives seemed to misunderstand fundamental aspects of civil life — like taxation — but that so many seemed so vehemently opposed to any suggestion that we should all contribute to the collective welfare of our countrymen.

Curiosity piqued, yesterday I made the mistake of asking Americans and Conservatives: “What is it about communism/socialism that scares you?” Here’s what they said.

So basically just good ole American ignorance.
We already knew but it’s always interesting to see it broken down.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

the reason is described in this video, its called sadopopulism. however, they arent actually 'scared', perhaps some of this is due to fear, but in many cases its just that they feel better when others have less




and 'socialism' isnt really the correct words for your use here. because socialism is where you have democracy in the workplace, also known as 'workers self management'. if youre only referring to general welfare, there might be a better word for it.

That has long been my belief. Those in opposition to social safety net spending don’t want the economic gap to be closed as they would no longer feel as accomplished as they do otherwise. They would no longer be special if everyone has access to what they have. It is pretty sadistic.

 

[bripat9643]

So basically just good ole American ignorance.
We already knew but it’s always interesting to see it broken down.

ignorance of what?

 

[Hutch Starskey]

Great. I look forward to your link demonstrating the effects of immigration on GDP.

He won’t like what he finds.

 

[Hutch Starskey]

ignorance of what?

Exactly!

 

[bripat9643]

That has long been my belief. Those in opposition to social safety net spending don’t want the economic gap to be closed as they would no longer feel as accomplished as they do otherwise. They would no longer be special if everyone has access to what they have. It is pretty sadistic.

Social spending is a toilet bowl into witch you piss all your money.

 

[bripat9643]

Exactly!

In other words, you can't name anything.

 

[Votto]

Social spending is a toilet bowl into witch you piss all your money.

Al Capone ran soup kitchens

It gives them legitimacy.

 

[bripat9643]

He won’t like what he finds.

What's the point of increasing GDP if it all goes to immigrants?

 

[Hutch Starskey]

In other words, you can't name anything.

No. You can’t.
Get it yet?

 

[bripat9643]

No. You can’t.
Get it yet?

You don't get it, turd.

 

[pknopp]

Of course you never voted, fence sitter

I vote every year............There is more to life than the red/blue cults. There is life outside of red/blue.

 

[pknopp]

It's mostly Democrat debt.

Trump ran up as much as Obama and Obama had 8 years.

 

[bripat9643]

Trump ran up as much as Obama and Obama had 8 years.

Wrong, douchebag. You don't get to blame Trump for the shutdown spending.

 

[Batcat]

Move to Denmark, fuckwad.
See how you like spending your life working to enrich others.

Denmark is not a true socialist nation.

One moment, please...

scandification.com

 

[Senter]

Are you afraid of bread lines?

Getting shot if you disagree with the State?

Dumb ass

So here's what a "dumb ass" is: a dumb ass reflects on a strategy and policy and mistakes it for a finished functioning system.