I am a Liberal

go look up welfare fraud and welfare babies and then tell me why we need to expand welfare.

oh and don't worry I didn't overlook the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics like you did

I know I know!

It's because Communism got demagogued, so commies needed to come up with another word.

Yeah that's my bias, so what? anyone that wants to make me share my stuff is a socialist, as far as I am concerned. Go get your own stuff! Oh, and if you ask real nice and don't get your big brother (government) to take it from me, sure, I'll share.


Edit:
has anyone noticed the propensity that liberals have for being both condescending and trying to get other people to do thier work for them?

USSR - Union of Soviet _Socialist_ Republics

"The Soviet Union and other countries ruled by Communist Parties are often described as 'Communist states' with 'state socialist' economic bases. This usage indicates that they proclaim that they have realized part of the socialist program by abolishing private control of the means of production and establishing state control over the economy; however, they do not declare themselves truly communist, as they have not established communal ownership of property"

... since the original point was about functionality of *socialism* (or lack thereof) and both USSR and Warsaw Pact countries *were* utilizing socialism mechanics ... bringing communism in this is just a red herring.

Go compare the health statistics of real socialist nations to those of the United States, and get back to us. Aha! Welfare and poor people are evil, therefore socialism is bad. That makes sense. No, wait, it doesn't.

The name is irrelevant. Go look up real history and get back to us. I can call my country the "Union of Happy, Freedom-Loving, Stylish Sports Fans" and that doesn't mean it actually describes the country. Plenty of nations use "Democratic" in their names and are dictatorships. Look up a few.

What is it with the plural thing?

And well, since there's apparently so many of you, one of "you" can do the legwork and provide the facts you are vaguely referring to. Like for starters, what country in current world you consider to be "socialist nations"...

wow! I bet you have the ability to keep an even keel, and diffuse RL debates.

Anyway, Communism is not entirely a red herring. Billy did cite their failures as failures of socialism.

Don't you think words are too imprecise to get that technical? It seems to me that citing communism can mean communism, just like citing socialism can mean socialism, buy words are not always that wooden. For example, the way I saw it, Billy intentionally sprinkled both terms into the conversation to illustrate the point that he was attacking neither communism nor socialism specifically, but rather <i> any </i> communal mentality to the left of his own personal bias. Which is standard operating procedure in english, afaik

...er, at least that's what I thought, I could be wrong

Your ignorance of the subject is striking.

Socialism is an older word than Communism.

Classical liberalism is great, but now that liberalism (along with "progressive" has become a euphemism for socialism and/or communism, it's not great.

I consider myself a right-leaning libertarian, meaning I'm basically a libertarian, but lean to the right on some issues, like border security, national defense, etc. I believe strongly in capitalism, gun rights, drug legalization, and the government staying the f**k out of our business as long as we're not infringing on the rights of others.

wohoo! a libertarian! those are like the irrational numbers of the political spectrum XD

so you are a conservative times the square root of -1

(me too)

Go read my posts in this thread, and tell me where I mentioned welfare or said I was in favor of or opposed to any form of economics/goverment.



"Euphemism for socialism"? Wow, what state - or other country - do you live in?



You can consider yourself whatever you want, but we call that a Republican where I'm from.

"Euphemism for socialism"? Wow, what state - or other country - do you live in?

Well, being the delicate wordsmith that you are, I'm sure you can appreciate this:

I said ANOTHER word, not A NEWER word. Which is quite typical in such cases. The word socialism is in the process of being redefined as communist are calling themselves socialists, all the while, those communists/socialists argue vhemently that they are two different things in the vain hope that socialism will not be demagogued the same way communism has.

(now don't argue with me, or you will prove my point )

really? we had an openly gay, left leaning libertarian run for governor in my state.

It's certainly a "vain hope" when they're talking to people like you, but for those of us who actually understand both words, it's not all that difficult to understand why they're different.

Kinda like "Conservative" and "Fascist".

I'm sorry, what relevance is this supposed to have to anything? Nevada had a porn star run for Governor, just to toss another one out there.
Running for an office doesn't mean much, getting elected does.

perhaps. but libertairianism and fascism are like oil and water. they cannot mix because the tennets are opposed. (What would a libertarian fascist government be? a government that uses the military to force people to be free?) That is also why you can have right and left leaning libertarians. I would say I am a libertarian first, and a conservative second. (or to put the same thing in the negative) I am opposed to fascism first, and liberalism second.

it's entirely relevant, you equated libertarians with republicans

oh poo, it looks liek everybody else left.

toodles

Actually, I equated *you* with a Republican, based on your stated political beliefs. Besides, even if I had equated Libertarians with Republicans, it would have had no bearing on whether Libertarians could lose elections. Furthermore, Libertarians running would not have had any bearing on an assertion that they were functionally equal to Republicans. Had someone stated "the Libertarian Party does not exist", your example would have been a relevant counterpoint.

Has anyone noticed that most forum neocons are morons who don't know how to spell simple words like "their"?

How the hell do you normalize to color, fool?

I had to reply to your post again. Every single sentence in it is wrong. In regards to the single one above, your statement is laughably false, as graphs in general can show multiple simultaneous measures.

You are no longer allowed to post in this forum, as you frankly don't meet our standards (which are pretty low actually). Go try Fark.

In that case, why does it surprise me that they don't understand the difference between socialism and communism?

Who's panties are you wearing?

This thread has to be one of the more brilliant starts at a game of Troll: The Provoking. http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue9/troll1.html

~Kami, taking notes.