222
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Fundamental to communist ideology is the common ownership of the means of production and abolishment of social classes and social hierarchy. In practice, that means no (or very few) private property ...
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188
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
TL;DR: because communism did, in fact, kill people. Between 23 million (low estimate) and 100 million (high estimate) of them killed by regimes that collectively self-branded themselves as led by "...
- 91.9k
128
votes
Accepted
How does Hitler's interpretation of "Nationalist Socialism" relate to the modern interpretation of "Socialism" and "Nationalism"?
National Socialism is a specific thing. You can't just take parts of the name and then assume what it means based on these parts (another example: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not a ...
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115
votes
Accepted
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
Basically Bernie Sanders used the wrong term and it stuck. For some unfathomable reason, he refers to himself as a socialist while espousing policies that are clearly social Democrat in line with most ...
- 3,495
101
votes
Accepted
Can socialism and capitalism coexist in the same country?
Yes.
You have set up a false dichotomy: that either a country is "socialist" or "capitalist". Nearly all countries have aspects of both.
In socialism, the ownership of property and the "means of ...
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92
votes
Accepted
Why has Venezuela's economy collapsed when Cuba's has not?
The reason Venezuela's economy collapsed was its over-reliance on oil exports. In the last half of the 20th century, the Venezuelan economy focused on growing its oil industry, while relying on ...
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91
votes
Why has Venezuela's economy collapsed when Cuba's has not?
Wait up a minute. Who says Cuba didn't fail spectacularly?
Miami (and Florida in general) have a huge Cuban population. Generally, because Cubans did anything they could to leave that country ...
- 2,441
71
votes
How is North Korea democratic, if there's only one party with one ideology?
North Korea is far from the only example. Wikipedia lists a couple of other countries which claim to be democratic but are not, according to 'Western' standards:
Many countries that use the term &...
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69
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in western countries?
Simple answer is them vs us. This was previously nationality, but cold-war era saw this them vs us line drawn more ...
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65
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Communism has committed atrocities far greater than the Holocaust.
Holodomor: up to 12 million dead
Khmer Rouge: up to 3 million dead
The Great Leap Forward: up to 55 million dead
Tanzania ...
- 6,014
65
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
Why is it that Bernie Sanders always called a "socialist"?
I think getting a quick history lesson to get some context might help explain how "socialist" is used in US media.
First, I want to ...
- 4,850
65
votes
Accepted
Why do some (North Americans) consider Europe socialist?
The Word Has Become Political Shorthand
The Pew Research Center examined how people in the United States were using the word and what they meant by it. Regardless of the term's academic definition, ...
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59
votes
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
It seems likely that people call him a socialist because he's self-identified as one on multiple occasions.
and
When he first won election to the House in 1990, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) embraced ...
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57
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to be a socialist and a capitalist?
What you are describing is a Mixed Economy. Essentially the state takes over certain markets either through direct control or regulation while letting others be more free-market.
Numerous ...
- 712
57
votes
Accepted
Confused about the term 'Bourgeoisie'!
The Wikipedia page for Bourgeoisie is informative, and worth the read.
Strictly speaking, there was no equivalent of middle, upper, or lower classes (in the modern usage of the terms) prior to perhaps ...
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56
votes
Accepted
Alternatives to money and power as social incentive mechanisms
The trouble with plain "social recognition" is that it doesn't scale. Dunbar's Number is the number of people you can "know" in the sense of having stable social relationships with ...
- 20.7k
55
votes
Why do one-party states still have a party at all?
While it needn't be this way, per se, political parties and the government are often separate institutions as a matter of having different operational objectives.
The job of the government is to run ...
- 16.4k
54
votes
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the United States?
Why is communism considered as evil (like fascism and nazism) in the
United States?
Short Answer
The background necessary to accurately answer your question is complex in both history and culture, ...
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50
votes
How is North Korea democratic, if there's only one party with one ideology?
Just because a country calls itself something doesn't mean it's true.
Point of fact, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is said to have four false statements in its name:
It's not democratic, ...
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48
votes
Why aren't nationalizations in Russia described as socialist?
Because nationalization is not necessarily socialist
Nationalization is the government taking ownership of private property. Socialism is "social ownership" of the means of production. ...
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45
votes
Are there examples of grassroots-level corruption in the history of socialism/communism?
I don't know how to find statistics or studies on the case, but as a native I can give my memories of communist Poland. Grassroot-level corruption was ubiquitous. Introduction of ration stamps in 1976 ...
- 2,601
41
votes
Accepted
What is a "democratic dictatorship", and how is it not a a contradiction in terms?
The term 'democratic' literally means 'rule by the people'. In the West we normally associate that with a particular set of institutions — capitalist property rights, free and fair elections, open ...
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38
votes
Why do some (North Americans) consider Europe socialist?
Americans have been fed a constant diet of propaganda about how evil Socialism is, especially seeing it as a "gateway to Communism". The definition of Socialism is so loose that almost ...
- 15.2k
35
votes
Can socialism and capitalism coexist in the same country?
There are over 40 definitions of socialism. However a common-enough one (SEP) is that:
The bulk of the means of production is under social, democratic control.
And in contrast the corresponding ...
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34
votes
Is Venezuela an example of socialism?
Venezuela's economy
Venezuela is a communist planned economy with an authoritarian government. It is, therefore, an example of Socialism. Under Chavez and Maduro, Venezuela's economy became a ...
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32
votes
Alternatives to money and power as social incentive mechanisms
Modern production requires enormous coordination and incentivization across cultural, technological, temporal, and geographic barriers ("scale"), often even within a single country much less ...
- 8,657
32
votes
Why do some (North Americans) consider Europe socialist?
A lot of political terms are used very differently in the US vs in Europe.
We can debate for a long time whether the Americans just misuse these terms or not, but that does not seem to be very ...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible