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The ultra rich have successfully convinced a lot of people that they, too, could become ultra rich some day - but there's no place for ultra rich under socialism.
Then further, a lot of people have been convinced that only the very very poor would be better off and everyone else would be worse off. That is of course also untrue.
It is due to lobbying and astroturfing.
Simple as.
It's definitely not based in data, because that overwhelmingly shows massive economic and happiness growth happens in these states
To me the hate is quite simple to understand. Socialism means that the extremely rich will be worse off financially. The 1% have an unnatural love for money, and the idea of being less wealthy for the greater good is totally abhorrent to them.
For generations they've been able to demonise socialism using their disproportionate influence through the media, to the extent that the majority of the population now fear it.
We've really not moved on that far intellectually from the witch trials. People are collectively ignorant and fearful, and with the right nudges are easy to control to the point where they'll literally vote against their own good. They are the proverbial Turkeys voting for Christmas and I honestly don't know how we will ever get past it.
Thankfully, we're now reaching a turning point where PragerU will be used to teach directly in schools, letting kids know why socialism is bad and capitalism is good. Wait, that's the opposite of what we want, fuck!
Conservative reactionaries since the French Thermidor Reaction opposed it, believing communalism and eventually socialism undermines their existing hierarchical, feudal system. Stalin also did not help matters at all.
Yeah Stalin was like "You want to see totalitarianism with socialist window dressing?"
This is also why I can't stand tankies. Worshipping the Soviet Union, China and even modern day Russia. Clearly the "is not The West(tm)" is the important part for them, not socialism or communism. Also, I've had interactions with people on reddit where they said that the mass deportations were absolutely justified, etc.
Look, I also want a lot of the things socialism offers, without necessarily going full communist. But I'll argue all day that Nordic countries do it better. Not perfectly of course, there's still billionaires and there are still issues. But people are by and large much more free than they are or were in any of the countries tankies love, and those who aren't well-off still have it much better than they do in, say, the US.
Socialism by its barest definition is great.
Socialism as outlined in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto is a little sketchier because it makes a lot of unrealistic assumptions about human nature and is just generally super hard to implement without creating a power vacuum.
Socialism as in the USSR's Socialism is a century old practice of the cruellest and most war hungry culture imagineable, having taken advantage of the afforementioned power vacuum to starve and torture millions at home, ally with the Nazis in WWII and then change sides halfway through, tear down democracies around the globe, and push us all the closest we have ever been to thermonuclear annihilation. A threat so great that even 30 years into its grave is still a great stone over our heads, having crafted a world power balance that will threaten our destruction for generations to come.
But Socialism by its barest definition is great.
Socialism as outlined in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto is a little sketchier because it makes a lot of unrealistic assumptions about human nature and is just generally super hard to implement without creating a power vacuum.
And is still pretty vague. There was a lot of colouring in for the Bolsheviks to do.
Socialism as in the USSR’s Socialism is a century old practice of the cruellest and most war hungry culture imagineable, having taken advantage of the afforementioned power vacuum to starve and torture millions at home, ally with the Nazis in WWII and then change sides halfway through, tear down democracies around the globe, and push us all the closest we have ever been to thermonuclear annihilation. A threat so great that even 30 years into its grave is still a great stone over our heads, having crafted a world power balance that will threaten our destruction for generations to come.
I'm glad it fell (plz don't ban), but there's hella artistic licence there.
The power vacuum came from the Tsar. They were always enemies of the Nazis, although they did temporarily agree not to fight them, and then afterwards they basically won the war themselves. The US went first with the nukes. I don't even know what you mean about the current power balance - Russia is laughably weak, China is behind where it would have been if it took the Japan path. And, the thing about their cruel culture just sounds like bigotry.
Yeah, and capitalism has never lead to the toppling of foreign democracies or threatened thermonuclear annihilation
Ah, shit wait
Top of the line Whataboutism
My dad was Finnish, and I think it helps to remember, Finns were fighting Russians before and during the time Russia called itself Communist and Socialist. The western side of that divide, the Nordic countries, practiced a very different version of "socialism", with democracy, and they seem to be reaping a lot of benefits.
the cruellest and most war hungry culture imagineable
America?
BuT hER eMaILs!
Gonna go bomb a wedding, maybe torture some Muslims at Gitmo? You sick fucks can't go a year without invading a country or brutally toppling a government. What's the longest you ever not been in a war/conflict/or any other word you created to downplay your crimes?
bUt TrUmP iS tHe OnLy PrObLeM wItH aMeRicA
Yes, you have several EmAiLs to complain about instead of actually addressing anything. I doubt anyone here thinks the US is perfect, but that's not the question.
Years of propaganda from oligarchs, their think tanks and their propaganda spreaders. This has been an attack for many decades but especially after WW2 during the red scare and then after 1970 when the Powell Memo was issued. That is the origin of all of our messes, including Reagan and Trump.
Many of the same right wing think tanks are from the same oligarchs from decades ago and/or their heirs. Think Timothy Mellon or Birch Society (Koch Brother father). Even then, there was “the business plot” where the oligarchs of the 1930s wanted fascism because of the threat FDR had to their wealth and power.
The issue is in the comparison:
Socialists will compare socialism at its best against capitalism at its worst- and vice-versa.
Where no one on any side of anny argument is willing to admit that any form of government that is left to run unchecked, will always exploit the people.
Different shape, same solid.
The issue is also that people seem to be quite polarised in their groupthink. Socialism and capitalism aren't mutually exclusive, and they are only destructive if they are adopted as a pure ideology which disallows any discussion of the possibilities of the other system. In my opinion, an ideal system has protected elements of both. Healthcare, education, prisons, public services: socialised. Supermarkets, car sales, beauty products: a free market.
At the moment our society is far too capitalist, and socialism is seen as suspicious at best. This is causing harm and suffering.
The term "socialism" was poison since the Russian revolution and the red scare that followed. The rich/capitalists used all powers available to poison it so that even the mildest western EU forms didn't threaten the tiny amount of their exploitation of the working classes.
Socialism threatens capitalists -> Capitalists spend money in media and politics to ensure support for capitalism by spreading fear about socialism -> People are scared of socialism.
It's really that simple honestly. I generally hate oversimplifications but there's not that much more to it
I think socialism is awesome but capitalism, when highly restrained, is more effective at generating capital.
I think a few fairly simple steps can merge the best of both.
Limit personal net worth to, say, 01 million dollars. Companies can have a networth of, say, 1 billion tops. Below that, put like 10 or so tax brackets, the more you're worth, the more you pay tax. Anything over those limits goes 100% to tax
This favors many smaller companies working together instead of one huge monster that can't even take care of itself and requires regular bailouts
The tax income will be more than enough to support a large socialist system that can take care of free education, free healthcare, etc, hell, even universal basic income
Best of capital generation,best of socialism.
Oh yes the myth of the small business capitalism. The reality is there was once thousands of car manufacturers in the US and now there is maybe fifty with a big three making the vast majority.
Same goes for about every sector there is in every country. The ideal of a capitalist society that uses great restraint is just a fantasy. Concentration of wealth and the wealth gap is high in every single country in the world.
There is no real example of capitalism effectively addressing wealthy inequality or creating a small business form a capitalism for any significant length of time before it starts concentrating. It may start out with small businesses, but quickly concentrates.
You may ask why is it bad to have wealthy people. The problem is representation. All nations policies almost always exclusively favor those with capital. They get unequal representation.
One only has to look at the mega corporations to see the concentration and do a policy review to see the majority of laws passed directly benefit them.
I would like to see a country actually implement what you say to prevent concentration of wealth. It probably will never happen though.
Ask a typical American what they hate about socialism and they will perfectly describe capitalism