I think a lot of the problem is a lot of people, even a majority, aren’t sure what a lot of those terms even mean. I’m not sure the people saying it know what it means.
And I’m one of them, I’m not entirely sure what a socialist is or isn’t, but I know it’s an insult that the far left and the far right use.
It’s jargon, and people are just baffled by it.
Except for Harris calling Trump a communist, that’s just plain stupidity.
Except for Harris calling Trump a communist, that’s just plain stupidity.
Not really. If you use Hayek’s term for socialism, which is synonymous with totalitarianism and command economy, it fits. The entire Austrian school of thought would define (if they were honest) Trump as communist. From that perspective: communist, socialist, fascist, totalitarian are distinctions without a difference.
Americans are lazy and opt to think in buzzwords and slogans for the most part. To the right, Communist means bad, so you call bad people communist.
Many free-market economists and business leaders who have long worshipped the free-market ideals of Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman should be aware that their idols would be rolling in their graves right now, as rather than pursue standard laissez-faire conservative economic policies, MAGA has gone Marxist and even, increasingly, Maoist.
We must here return for a moment to the position which precedes the suppression of democratic institutions and the creation of a totalitariam regime. In this stage it is the general demand for quick and determined government action that is the dominating element in the situation, dissatisfaction with the slow and cumbersome course of democratic procedure which makes action for action’s sake the goal. It is then the man or the party who seems strong and resolute enough “to get things done” who exercises the greatest appeal. “Strong” in this sense means not merely a numerical majority — it is the ineffectiveness of parliamentary majorities with which people are dissatisfied. What they will seek is somebody with such solid support as to inspire confidence that he can carry out whatever he wants. It is here that the new type of party, organized on military lines, comes in.
I should add, the right generally has a vague, emotional, derogatory meaning to those terms (communist, socialist, marxist etc), so using those terms on them can short circuit their programming.
I think a lot of the problem is a lot of people, even a majority, aren’t sure what a lot of those terms even mean. I’m not sure the people saying it know what it means.
And I’m one of them, I’m not entirely sure what a socialist is or isn’t, but I know it’s an insult that the far left and the far right use.
It’s jargon, and people are just baffled by it.
Except for Harris calling Trump a communist, that’s just plain stupidity.
What “far left” uses socialist as an insult?
Not really. If you use Hayek’s term for socialism, which is synonymous with totalitarianism and command economy, it fits. The entire Austrian school of thought would define (if they were honest) Trump as communist. From that perspective: communist, socialist, fascist, totalitarian are distinctions without a difference.
Americans are lazy and opt to think in buzzwords and slogans for the most part. To the right, Communist means bad, so you call bad people communist.
https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/magas-march-toward-command-economy
The Road to Serfdom, Hayek.
I should add, the right generally has a vague, emotional, derogatory meaning to those terms (communist, socialist, marxist etc), so using those terms on them can short circuit their programming.