The Economics and Political Science Room
Using political science as a tool to understanding politics is the difference between knowledge based on science and individual opinions based on beliefs.
Presenting a WTF political science guide to understanding polarized politics
Part 2 of: http://thepoliticalforums.com/thread...-Dummies-Guide
To understand each other it’s necessary to have an agreement of shared definitions. For instance, we can’t compare socialist economies to capitalist ones, or oranges to apples, as they’re entirely different. We also can’t have a discussion on monetary values and compare the British pound to the Japanese Yen, which is why it’s necessary to change both to an agreed currency, rather like changing the uncountable plural noun of ‘water’ into bottles, or gallons. Definitions are everything and allow us to factually discuss events using prescribed terms which are both acknowledged and understood by both parties.
‘There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' - Isaac Asimov.
Some will say ‘they’re your definitions’, but they’re not; they’re definitions used in political science and why the constant divide between the left and the right as they endlessly argue opinions based on subjective (individual) beliefs. Did anyone try reasoning with an indoctrinated Democrat during the Obama years? It was like debating with a robot and the ‘deplorables’ now share many of those previous characteristics while failing to understand the similarities. So, let’s briefly explain some of the most misunderstood political definitions and why if we get them wrong our conclusions often sound so odd to others.
American Patriotism v Political Science Nationalism
At its core, patriotism is a love of one’s own country and nationalism is a feeling of superiority over others. Does ‘American patriot’ sound OK? Let’s add a word and change it to ‘White American patriot.’ It sounds odd because we’ve introduced a superiority content based on race to our former patriotism which was based on belonging and it’s become nationalistic. Our original ‘American patriot’ has now become a ‘White nationalist.’ The superiority of nationalism then is very different to that of patriotism.
Hitler too was a confirmed nationalist with the same nationalist superiority beliefs. It is not a coincidence that after the war the first line of the German national anthem ‘Deutschland Deutschland uber alles’ (Germany above all, or everything) was banned and the UN set up to try to prevent future rogue nations engaging in nationalism.
Why did it make news when Mr. Trump ‘came out’ as a nationalist? As soon as he started economic trade wars, threatened other countries militarily and labelled yet others as ‘s**t holes’ the world realized what he was, but it took Mr. Trump to tell majority America, many of who even now can’t tell difference and thought he was a conservative. Similarly, a déjà vu of Obama the cultural Marxist (identity politics) Messiah posing as a Democrat.
The correct definition of patriotism then is internal; a celebration of shared values, pride, belonging. It turns into nationalism when it becomes external and adds a superiority content of better than and not just different from others. This is when ‘Gook’s’ and ‘Spicks’ led by ‘monsters’ and ‘dictators’ living in ‘s***holes’ enters the vocabulary.
Socialism – Socialist – Communism, using political science
‘WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When asked to explain their understanding of the term "socialism," 17% of Americans define it as government ownership of the means of production [communism], half the number who defined it this way in 1949 when Gallup first asked about Americans' views of the term. Americans today are most likely to define socialism as connoting equality for everyone [23%], while others understand the term as meaning the provision of benefits and social services [10%], a modified form of communism [6%], or a conception of socialism as people being social and getting along with one another [6%]. About a quarter of Americans were not able to give an answer.’ galllup.com 2018.
Socialism is present in all countries in varying degrees. Taxes provide the finance which enables roads to be built, pays for the police force, schools and hospitals … All the things that are collectively needed to enable society to function.
Socialist policies go further and enable the state to control society to further its own political ends and uses the same (often increased) taxation and policies to achieve them. Whether right or wrong, the various Affirmative Action policies and the Affordable Care Act were both Obama driven socialist policies based on political ideas. Socialist leaders are characterized by a bloated government producing laws and regulations which are needed to promote collectivization and distribute to its own favoured groups.
Lenin once remarked that socialism is the stepping stone to communism. What he meant was that the more power a government has the more it will seek to control. Eventually the government will seize individual wealth and control the means and modes of production becoming both the owner and distributor. That’s communism. In such societies, capitalism which is an economic system will end because there is no longer competition as the government owns everything and explains the difference between the funding of government by private wealth and the government owning the wealth.
‘More than 50 percent of respondents attributed the quote "From each according to his ability to each according to his needs" to either Thomas Paine, George Washington or President Obama. The quote is from Karl Marx, author of "The Communist Manifesto." American Revolution Center, 2018.
The blurred distinctions between socialism, socialist and communism are where many Americans get it wrong and assume socialism is communism (although it might eventually lead to that), when in reality a socialist believes the state should regulate society funded by private wealth.
Where do majority American perceptions in the differences between socialism, socialist and communism arise? The Internet, where other Americans tell them socialist Hillary is a Democrat and capitalist Trump is a National Socialist.
Understanding political science
In our Google, Facebook and Twitter world of knowledge is it low information, or the wrong information? Don’t know, don’t understand or don’t care? Fake news, bias, conspiracy theories producing tribalism, paranoia and fear? In any country that ought to constitute a national emergency.
Refugee quotes:
There is a danger that Americans will one day vote in liberal or corporate fascism simply because they don’t understand what it is they’re voting for.
Putting ones hand into a fire to find out whether it burns is not political science, but neither is it based on opinions or beliefs.
Why would you trust a government to run the economy for the benefit of the few, but not to provide universal healthcare for the many?
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Originally Posted by Chris
