Stop Socialism Memes

[Raginfridus]

 

[pcosmar]

Some nice Memes ya got there.

Apply to Authoritarianism. or else you get into the whole "my Authoritarian Government is better than your authoritarian government arguments.

 

[Madison320]

"But Socialism isn't Communism!"

100% tax rate is bad, but 80% is ok?

 

[truthspeaker]

Ugh. Saw a meme on facebook where Socialists actually declared that businesses voluntarily giving aid to Florida hurricane victims was an example of Socialism.

This misinformation war is what I know we may end up be fighting against.

 

[Identity]

If you guys ever wish to be taken seriously you might actually wish to engage in actual Socialistic policies and not make this very strange (and very American) equivocation of Statism with Socialism, the two are not necessarily interlinked and the most successful Socialist societies have been of the Libertarian variety. Concerning the lame memes on Venezuela & the tedious arguments against Socialism: it all seems like a gigantic case of projection. Whenever there's a crisis in capitalism, a critique concerning market inefficiently (which guys like Chomsky outline very accurately), critique of modern Western society the very first response from Austro-Libertarians is: "but it's not troooo capitalism." Funny enough, whenever a person from the other side merely points out that Socialism is worker control over industry (famous examples would be Revolutionary Spain, Paris Commune) and not a clumsy, third-world, economically undeveloped country we get mocked and you throw the lame, "oh so it's not trooo socialism?' meme at us. My tradition of Socialism stems from 19th & early 20th century thinkers. Completely outside of the traditions of the USSR & Communist China (although it's curious that USSR is the epitome of wickedness when American atrocities are swept under the rug).

Now onto the pics:

The inference is that "Socialism" (whatever that means given the perversion of the term) creates massive wealth inequality- how? Where? Even if you have this weird American belief that Socialism is automatically linked to big gubmint & state intervention into the economy, can you provide examples in first world nations where this has been the result? I'm not aware of a rampant poverty level in Scandinavian nations, Germany, S. Korea, or Japan? Anyhow, is that picture even from Venezuela? That looks like the massive slum in Brazil which is the largest in all of Latin America, dwarfing every single other 'ghetto/slum' in the Spanish-speaking world. What a weird argument. Have you guys been to Latin America? Try traveling the slums of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia and get back to me. Ah, but I forgot, "not trooo capitalism."

One could easily change "Communist regime" to "Democratic regime." After all, just about every single 20th century authoritarian State self-identified as "democratic" and "people's republics." Just ask our contemporary benevolent Dictator in the DPRK today. Notice that "D" part of the name? Yeah. The whole "Self-identify" argument has to be one of the lamest and misleading one in these sorts of circles; talk about obfuscating.

Here's BadMouse's video on the matter if you guys are interested further. His explanation is in-depth and goes into the history of Venezuela (which seems to be a power struggle between State powers and oligarchs, hardly an indictment on Socialism or any economic system for that matter)

https://youtu.be/le86H7Xfjrc

Now please make a meme thread on the lovely Capitalist paradises in Somalia, the rest of Sub-sahara Africa, most of Latin America, the "PIGS" countries of Europe, and China. Cue the "Not trooo capitalism.. austrian economics!!!11!" ​response in five seconds.

 

[not.your.average.joe]

But aren't 'neo-nazis' supposed to be white supremacy extremists on the far right? I would ask socialists, 'what about socialism and Nazism has changed since WWII for the two philosophies to be so diametrically opposed?' (Hint: Nothing has changed and they aren't opposed.)

 

[brushfire]

'Cause socialism and its absolute successor (communism) are based on what amount to very altruistic principles. The intention behind these social systems is easy to understand, but for many, why these systems fail is not as easy to understand.

Solzhenitsyn's, "Gulag Archipelago" is quite an appalling account of where socialism leads. Of course, another household favorite is Bastiat's, "The Law". "The Law" literally gave me goosebumps - an essay written in 1850, and aside from its references to slavery in the US, it could have just as well been written last week.

Most will wait for the mistake to be "fixed" for them, just like everything else. Its a race to inform folks, before the day of reckoning. Right now, it doesn't seem like the masses will reject socialism, and history will likely repeat itself - again.

 

[brushfire]

Who likes slavery? What if its public slavery? That's what socialism is, public slavery.

 

[Danke]

Who likes slavery? What if its public slavery? That's what socialism is, public slavery.

He marched (walked) with us in the Rally for The Republic in 2008.

 

[William Tell]

It's pretty funny to hear liberals try to explain how national socialism is not actually socialism.

 

[kcchiefs6465]

If you guys ever wish to be taken seriously you might actually wish to engage in actual Socialistic policies and not make this very strange (and very American) equivocation of Statism with Socialism, the two are not necessarily interlinked and the most successful Socialist societies have been of the Libertarian variety.

Statism is in fact necessarily linked to socialism, at the least, as it has been practiced by any socialist government tried (unless you are speaking of small communes operating largely on agreed free will and a pooling of resources). How is socialism inextricably tied to socialism? It is the use of force of a particular majority, or often times an irate minority, to seize the means of production and redistribute resources in an arbitrary and often politically influenced manner.

For example, socialized medicine. Might I refuse coverage? Or pool monies with my neighbors to purchase a coverage plan not recognized by the state? Or practice medicine without a state license? The scheme relies on collecting money from all, particularly the healthy, to care for some, particularly the sick. There are no real concerns for the healthy's opinion on if they are to have coverage or finance the scheme. When you introduce market inefficiencies, insurance requirements and a legal system which has encouraged lawsuits for every perceived injustice or injury you get what you have in the United States. Largely unaffordable medical coverage with hospitals testing every possible condition to avoid a malpractice lawsuit (further driving up costs for everyone).

Concerning the lame memes on Venezuela & the tedious arguments against Socialism: it all seems like a gigantic case of projection. Whenever there's a crisis in capitalism, a critique concerning market inefficiently (which guys like Chomsky outline very accurately), critique of modern Western society the very first response from Austro-Libertarians is: "but it's not troooo capitalism." Funny enough, whenever a person from the other side merely points out that Socialism is worker control over industry (famous examples would be Revolutionary Spain, Paris Commune) and not a clumsy, third-world, economically undeveloped country we get mocked and you throw the lame, "oh so it's not trooo socialism?' meme at us. My tradition of Socialism stems from 19th & early 20th century thinkers. Completely outside of the traditions of the USSR & Communist China (although it's curious that USSR is the epitome of wickedness when American atrocities are swept under the rug).

That is fair to a point. I think the difference is capitalists, outside of Chicagoans celebrating Augusto Pinochet in Chile (and a lot of those people don't celebrate Pinochet but rather the success of Chile after adopting free market principles) don't celebrate mass murderers, tyrants, etc. Regardless of your apparent enlightenment to the evils of Lenin, Guevara, Castro, Chavez etc. they are still largely celebrated by the left in general and by self-identifying socialists in particular.

As far as the crimes of the United States, they ought not be ignored and in fact this forum has served as a great place to document them.

Now onto the pics:

The inference is that "Socialism" (whatever that means given the perversion of the term) creates massive wealth inequality- how? Where?

Yes, granting a few people the authority to dictate how resources are spread out would never lead to the government getting richer while the people get poorer. It isn't as if people are inherently corruptible and will enrich themselves at the expense of others given the authority and opportunity to do so.

Furthermore, I don't necessarily argue that wealth inequality is a primary issue with socialism. You will all be equally poorer than otherwise.

Even if you have this weird American belief that Socialism is automatically linked to big gubmint & state intervention into the economy, can you provide examples in first world nations where this has been the result? I'm not aware of a rampant poverty level in Scandinavian nations, Germany, S. Korea, or Japan?

I will provide some material after this post. I'm on a tablet (God bless capitalism) and it's hard to format/jump between pages.

Quite simply, none of those places you mentioned are bastions of individual liberty and each have their own issues as it relates to socialism and tyrannical mob rule.

Anyhow, is that picture even from Venezuela? That looks like the massive slum in Brazil which is the largest in all of Latin America, dwarfing every single other 'ghetto/slum' in the Spanish-speaking world. What a weird argument. Have you guys been to Latin America? Try traveling the slums of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia and get back to me. Ah, but I forgot, "not trooo capitalism."

I'm not sure if it is Venezuela. There are many verified pictures of empty shelves and poverty in Venezuela. And likewise why don't you travel to Chile?

And furthermore, are you really positing that Mexico, Colombia and Brazil are capitalist enclaves in South America? First, why didn't you mention Chile unless you were intentionally attempting to mislead and second, all of those countries have sectors which are socialized and there is large government collusion between different industries.

You also fail to mention the tens of thousands of Venezuelans fleeing to Colombia for food and supplies.

One could easily change "Communist regime" to "Democratic regime." After all, just about every single 20th century authoritarian State self-identified as "democratic" and "people's republics." Just ask our contemporary benevolent Dictator in the DPRK today. Notice that "D" part of the name? Yeah. The whole "Self-identify" argument has to be one of the lamest and misleading one in these sorts of circles; talk about obfuscating.

Democracy does lead to some awful things, yes. Namely; socialism.

Here's BadMouse's video on the matter if you guys are interested further. His explanation is in-depth and goes into the history of Venezuela (which seems to be a power struggle between State powers and oligarchs, hardly an indictment on Socialism or any economic system for that matter)

https://youtu.be/le86H7Xfjrc

I will check it out, thanks. I will also include some 5-10 videos below.

Now please make a meme thread on the lovely Capitalist paradises in Somalia, the rest of Sub-sahara Africa, most of Latin America, the "PIGS" countries of Europe, and China. Cue the "Not trooo capitalism.. austrian economics!!!11!" ​response in five seconds.

Somalia has actually gotten better on every measurable metric since the collapse of their quasi government.

Socialism necessarily makes people poorer.

 

[kcchiefs6465]

In no particular order:

 

[kcchiefs6465]

 

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Anyhow, is that picture even from Venezuela?

Yes, it's from a USA Today video.

That looks like the massive slum in Brazil which is the largest in all of Latin America, dwarfing every single other 'ghetto/slum' in the Spanish-speaking world. What a weird argument. Have you guys been to Latin America? Try traveling the slums of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia and get back to me.

Get back to you for what? I've been to three Latin American countries. It includes vacationing on a tiny unnamed island adjacent to Margarita Island and seeing the slums of Caracas. You don't even need to visit Latin America to figure out that pic could be from a lot of different places. Your suggestion is like seeing a large grove of pine trees and assuming it must be the western US. And, I looked up that picture and found it in literally two minutes.

So, you actually sound like a person who is not well traveled, and one who understands little about differences and similarities among places. That doesn't make you weird, but spouting about it makes you a blowhard.

 

[osan]

 

[A Son of Liberty]

Damned good idea!

This is where the battle is.

'Communism is like Prohibition; it's a good idea but it won't work.'--Will Rogers

The big theme seems to be, it government would work better than it does if only the right people were in charge. We've been failing to put the right people in charge for an awfully long time now; surely there's ample meat for making memes in that simple fact.

People who say things like that (the Rogers quote) clearly do not understand the nature of human existence.

Communism, nor Prohibition, are not "good ideas". They're terrible ideas conceived by control freaks who hate the idea of human beings living free. There isn't a construct wherein communism nor prohibitionism are good or workable ideas.

Just thought I'd point that out.

 

[acptulsa]

People who say things like that (the Rogers quote) clearly do not understand the nature of human existence.

Communism, nor Prohibition, are not "good ideas". They're terrible ideas conceived by control freaks who hate the idea of human beings living free. There isn't a construct wherein communism nor prohibitionism are good or workable ideas.

Just thought I'd point that out.

I stand by what Rogers said. Clearly he was a humorist, and clearly there's humor to be found in a concept being both a good idea and doomed to failure. He could have said, it seems like a good idea to people, but it isn't a good idea, because it won't work. But who would have laughed?

From the perspective of ninety years later, is it not true that the USSR must have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it never did work right? Well, I say give Will Rogers some credit for seeing that at a very early date.

 

[AZJoe]

 

[AZJoe]

 

[kcchiefs6465]