Trump Declares Global War on Socialism

[MisterVeritis]

I will donate $20 to Trump’s 2020 campaign if this prediction is wrong: You have no idea that those three ideologies are wildly different and in many ways opposed to one another.

You and I will not agree, of course. All three, communism, socialism, and fascism are tools in the authoritarian statist toolbox. Mix and match as appropriate to seize and retain control of a nation.

[Chris]

@IMPress Polly -

Well, that’s 37 minutes of my life I’m never getting back. Short version: completely lacking in substance or anything meaningful. How does he plan to stop the spread of socialism worldwide? That necessarily includes the U.S., how does he plan to stop it here? He never says, though he does say repeatedly that “all options are on the table.” What is he willing to do?

The real question is why would he even have to? Socialism is not spreading. In the US it's heyday was around 1919.

[Chris]

State capitalism is socialism. Or perhaps you prefer fascism.

It is neither. It is capitalism managed by the state, not all that different than the managed or fixed market here in the US.

[MisterVeritis]

State capitalism is socialism. Or perhaps you prefer fascism.

It is neither. It is capitalism managed by the state, not all that different than the managed or fixed market here in the US.

You and I won't agree either. Capitalism managed by the state is socialism.

[Chris]

With MAGA-hat-wearing goose-steppers leading the way in the Beer Halls?

Silly.

[Chris]

No, it's really not. State capitalism is, according to Wikipedia's helpful definition..."an economic system in which the state undertakes commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are organized and managed as state-owned business enterprises (including the processes of capital accumulation, wage labor and centralized management), or where there is otherwise a dominance of corporatized government agencies (agencies organized along business-management practices) or of publicly listed corporations in which the state has controlling shares."

Or, in shorthand, state capitalism refers to a system wherein the means of production are state property, but wherein the state operates on a for-profit basis, more or less as if it were a traditional business corporation. Socialism, in contrast, is a general system of social (which doesn't necessarily mean state) ownership and management wherein production occurs for use, not exchange, i.e. essentially to fulfill needs, not to acquire profits.

True except the state need not own the means of production just manage it, tax it, regulate it as is the case here in the US.

Socialism, in contrast, is a general system of social (which doesn't necessarily mean state) ownership and management wherein production occurs for use, not exchange, i.e. essentially to fulfill needs, not to acquire profits.

You express it as a reduction of production to meet just needs not profits when socialism claims it will increase production by putting the workers in democratic control of the value produced. That value still has to be used for education, welfare, worker pay and benefits, etc etc etc. It's supposed to produce a better world.

[MisterVeritis]

True except the state need not own the means of production just manage it, tax it, regulate it as is the case here in the US.

This is fascism.

[Chris]

State capitalism is socialism. Or perhaps you prefer fascism.

You and I won't agree either. Capitalism managed by the state is socialism.

So the US is socialist.

Meaning scatters on the wind like dust.

[Chris]

You and I will not agree, of course. All three, communism, socialism, and fascism are tools in the authoritarian statist toolbox. Mix and match as appropriate to seize and retain control of a nation.

And what do you call the centralized, authoritarian government that regulates business and the market in the US? If authoritarian is the essential aspect of socialism then we live under socialism.

[Max Rockatansky]

With MAGA-hat-wearing goose-steppers leading the way in the Beer Halls?

Silly.

Agreed. It was meant to be silly unlike this silly statement:

...Our police state will show itself as soon as there's any significant resistance.