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Why are so many Americans so paranoid of socialism? Why do they think a socialist is one step away from being a communist? Have many lived under a communist regime and so have first hand experience.? I think not. As Canadians are we seen as socialists? Are we feared? Does our country seem undesirable for being more social minded? Just wondering if there’s any sound reasoning for this?

Bilbobagins 6 Dec 2
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1

I have lived in three different countries, Poland when it was communist, Sweden being social democratic and Australia with it's now right wing happy clappy government. The best one is SWEDEN.

Americans are paranoid of socialism because they have been brainwashed by the media. They do not understand that there is a huge difference between socialism and communism.

Jolanta Level 9 Dec 14, 2019

Yes no doubt that’s true. But the media’s pretty much of or controlled by the government or those who fund them. The other parties have their news outlets too. And America’s fairly well educated and not starving and suffering like many countries under authoritarian rule. People are free to change the channel and think for themselves. You wouldn’t think they would be brainwashed so much i
I do see many Americans with a superiority complex though. Kind of ‘we’re the best and greatest in the world’. Not unlike the ruling empire. When you think this way you stop thinking. You brainwash yourself. Trumps a prime example. They have blinders on.

@Bilbobagins The media all around the world is controlled by a handful of people. Those handful of people have to write articles to the liking of big business because big business are the ones who pay for advertising and that is how the media makes its money, not on selling papers or TV programs. Just follow the money and you will find out.

2

The writing of Karl Marx, the Communist Manifesto, stresses economic equality through the elimination of private property, a socialist government. Since the 1905 Russian Revolution, politicians have been strictly anti-communist. The 1949 emergence of the People’s Republic of China gave us another enemy to fight.

Our collective history was fighting the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the U.S.S.R., the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of North Korea since the Koran War. We see this at its pinnacle point with the 1953 McCarthy hearings. Communism was fought in the Vietnam War. US conservative politicians equate Communism with Socialism with no exceptions.

These old definitions have hung in our political consciousness. In the 1950s and 60s, in order to survive in the voting booth, both conservative and liberal politicians stood on the side of anti-communists, therefore anti-socialists.

Democratic socialism gave the US Medicare and Medicaid, our highway and postal systems, our armed forces, public education, our first responders, sewer water systems… The list goes on.

Today, American conservative politicians are hanging their hat on the being anti-communists, even though their vision of capitalism is far from the actual definition. Capitalism can work hand-in-hand with a socialist government. There would still be ownership of private property and private businesses.

What AOC, Sanders, Warren and others advocate is a strong central government providing for the poor and middle-class by placing large income or wealth taxes on the ultra-rich to provide for these services, a major source of income for the Republican Party.

SageDave Level 7 Dec 6, 2019

Isn’t it strange that the current US president is so contrary to this history and seems to have the support of most the senate?

4

Brainwashing

4

Conservatives fear it partly from ignorance, and partly(mostly) they see folks less fortunate benefiting from it. As in: somewhere, the poor are getting healthcare😱, or enough food😱. Also it requires more taxation😱. Too many folks have the attitude that ‘I have mine, so fuck the rest of you’, too.
I agree with leftover Red Scare propaganda as well.

So it really comes down to greed. Many get angry right away and it becomes to touch a subject for them to discuss.

3

There are lots of different reasons each of them tailored to a target audience. Many Americans what to feel like they live in the best country in the world and the oligarchs use slogans such as we are the best and we have the best to blind these people.

Others need to feel like the are individually superior so racism is used to control thrm.

These same people are continyally told that They could do a lot better if they didn't have to carry all the lazy poor people on their back.

In other words the people in control find the Achilles heel and use it.

Lorajay Level 9 Dec 3, 2019
3

Seems like too many don’t get it and there isn’t enough time to educate them..

blzjz Level 7 Dec 3, 2019
2

Campaign by 1% to keep us down

bobwjr Level 10 Dec 2, 2019
1

Paranoid because Democrats are not capable of implementing a sound and the good side of socialism. What socialism means to them is free give aways to the poor, free food, free food stamps, free retirement, free college, free healthcare, free prescriptions, free nanny, free home care and more free free free......

How would we fund it all?.... Well, just tax the rich to death or drive them out of the country and make a bigger Cuba here. That is the fear.

We are not progressives like that of Denmark, Norway or Sweden etc. Not a single Democrat has proposed a sound plan of funding the free spree.

Bernie is falling flat because his total scheme is full of flaws and outrageously impractical. Else he would be a winner already starting in 2016. He is dragging his feet in the second time around. 37 year old novice like Buttigieg who came from nowhere is making Bernie eat the dust.

St-Sinner Level 9 Dec 2, 2019

@Wangobango3 No wonder Bernie is faltering. Very hard to comprehend what he has been saying for 6 years now.

I still don’t see how a small extra bit of tax to the wealthy is taxing them to death. 1% ? Can’t they see that a happier, healthier population is to everyone’s benefit? And probably more productive. For example, The Christmas Story. The Scrooge transition

@Wangobango3 right on. It seems like Trumps base likes him more for the entertainment than anything else. As they laugh at each other to his stupid remarks. Show biz 24/7. Trump thrives on that too. Beats that pesky governing.

@Wangobango3 I do not have a problem with Bernie but there is a big problem with Bernie himself. Here it is:

  1. I am a Democrat. Bernie is not a Democrat. He has never been. He has no business coming on the Democratic Party platform. He should run as an independent
  2. Bernie is giving the Democratic Party a bad name by talking about far left ideas, socialism and helping Trump and Republicans paint the whole party as a socialist and ridiculous party - not in touch with reality on the ground. More people are buying this message. It is Bernie's fault. The Democratic Party has never been far left. It is a progressive, centrist party with a big tent for moderate voters on both sides. That is how we win and have won. Bernie has done a big damage to the party. he should kicked out by the DNC immediately.
  3. We are not a socialist country. Even 1% extra tax on the rich to redistribute income to the poor is not what our country is founded on. We are a place where anybody can prosper without being treated differently. We cannot punish the rich. If people are struggling, want food stamps, want handouts, they should take a good look at themselves. There is a lot of guidance and help available but the handouts with taxpayer money must stop. Most rich were poor once. But they succeeded because they did not wait for handouts.
  4. Bernie is incapable of talking any sound plan. He is faltering because he is a lousy messenger. He is faltering for the second time around now. He looks very old, frail, like a hunchback and I do not want to imagine him going over to England and shaking hands with the Queen as my representative. No candidate with his personality has ever won presidency in the last 50 years. Bernie does not even get a haircut before a prime time TV interview. Who are his advisors?
  5. How old and stupid do you have to be to fail? Bernie has spent over 50 years in politics and has been in Washington forever. I myself have been watching him over 33 years. I do not remember him as a health care and free college crusader because he has been talking about it just in presidential campaigns to get to the White House. He has nothing to show for these 2 signature issues in his long years in Washington. None.
  6. Is he also not the one who voted to ban lawsuits against gun manufacturers in case of mass shootings? And he wants Democratic votes? Who is he kidding?
  7. Bernie is also physically damaged goods. Running the country is not a joke, it is rigorous work. Most presidents age faster with the stress and rigor. We do not want see a funeral and chaos because his dying in office.
  8. Bernie is trying to sell snake oil to American people. That is how ridiculous his ideas are.

There is more but please chew on this and digest it first. Remember, this is not personal. I am talking about his bad candidacy.

@St-Sinner um, go to YouTube, see what he has been consistently saying for at least 30 Years, not "6 years",.......including concrete plans for paying for it all. Then, notice how every single candidate has plagiarized all his Original ideas to appeal to people who have no interest in actual fact-checking. I prefer the guy who pretty much invented progressive thinking in this country, and how to apply it, and who has Always been for We The People.

@AnneWimsey Ok, I will watch. Thanks.

@St-Sinner so, we cannot go to YouTube and see Bernie talking about healthcare, et al, for the last 30 years?
And would you like to show me, on most ballots in most states, the box I can check for "independent?
It is pretty scummy of you to list these "facts", and others, for us....just sad

@AnneWimsey Yes, I have not seen because I do not have to research. If a politician is active, it is in the news, he makes his mark. I have never seen or heard him in the news e talking about healthcare until he decided to run for president Now blame it on the media but he has not communicated in his career in the mainstream that way. Voters do not have to research. Most do not. We watch the news and listen to the news.

@St-Sinner go to YouTube! There us a reason the media ignores to daylights out of him, how does it feel to be their tool?

@AnneWimsey I do not agree that media ignores Bernie. I hear that a lot. A candidate on the way to winning would never say that. Most failed candidates do it. In the game of politics, somebody is always tearing down somebody. It is done fiercely. So may tried to burn Obama down but I have not heard the whining from his camps.

@St-Sinner ohferpetessake, willful ignorance is SO unarractive!

Typical over exaggerated Republican fear mongering to stay in control and keep their wealth. Most the country’s wealth. Time for change. Vote the far lesser of evils if you will

@Wangobango3 You never call voters stupid. The customer is always right.

@Wangobango3 Do you how many of products that customers buy, wanting to return but never return? Unwanted products that are kept are more than those which are returned.

@St-Sinner thanks. That was very informative. I, being Canadian

@St-Sinner Parties do evolve though. I understand that the democrat and republican parties have reversed on many issues over the years. And so they’re bound to attract different types. Lose some on the way too.

@Bilbobagins True, parties evolve but it is a generational process, not quick enough.

5

Our education system is to blame. Americans as a whole are some of the most ignorant people in the entire world!

It’s sad isn’t it? There’s more than enough money so why are those in power preventing it? Hmmm! Costs too much of ‘their ‘ money. Educates undesirables? Keep the masses ignorant therefore you can tell them lies and there’s a better chance more will believ you?

@Bilbobagins that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Ignorant people are easier to control.

4

There's a lot of profound ignorance.

We set the standards for education in the 50's and 60's...and most developed nations one-upped us. Now our best doctors and technicians have accents...and they're obviously new immigrants. America's home-grown, fostered by the #religulous push and the fossil-fuel greed, is now world leaders in...prison populations and per capita in prison. We're 30th to 40th in science and math....and far lower than that in common sense.

So true. Lots of areas to work on. I believe an highly educated public is the most far sighted progressive thing a country should /can do. And that starts with our elected government representatives. We have a drive here in Canada in some provinces to cut, cut, cut. Education first of those,then healthcare. I grant that they have to be managed responsibly

@Bilbobagins I concur;

America set the standards for education in the 50s and 60's....I went to a State U in 63...and that was the last year that it was tax paid (free to students) tuition. That's when other nations bested us...took our system and went 10 steps beyond. Now America is 30th-40th or lower in math, science, and language skills, and #1 in per capita prison population. Here's our woeful health care comparison; [healthsystemtracker.org]

Sad.

1

The 2 reasons Rethuglicans and Clintonian Center Right Democrats...nuff said.👿

Charlene Level 9 Dec 2, 2019
4

McCarthyism

Most Dems have no idea who or what He did..

@Charlene I doubt that

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