this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2023
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I am active in a socialist organisation in the UK called "socialist appeal". We are not so large as of now but that is to be expected as society still needs time to come to conclusions in large numbers. However, we have almost doubled in the last year which is great to see! Why am I doing this? A solarpunk future is impossible under capitalism so it is important to be actively partake in overthrowing it :)
You might be interested in this; I want to write a satrical piece titled "Roads, Utilities, and Libraries are Socialist and have no place in America!"
But actually the satire is against every ideology. Even the most socialist countries usually have the idea of "my bed", "my house", etc. There's still some form of ownership, and market driven prices.
The real point of the satire is; saying "oh that's a socialist idea" or "that is a capitalist idea" is stupid. Don't call right to repair socialist, just (truethfully) say it has bi-partisan support. Making a big deal about ideology is not helping the adoption rate. Ideas should be accepted when they're good ideas, not because they have a label. So don't label them.
Even the most socialist countries usually have the idea of “my bed”, “my house”, etc. There’s still some form of ownership, and market driven prices>
You are mistaking "private property" and "personal property". Socialism has nothing to do with personal property, such as your personal posessions that you actually use like your house, toothbrush, car whatever. Socialism wants to abolish private property, aka private ownership of the means of productions, like factories, schools, public transport and etc. As a CEO of a bus company might not necessarily even use it, it is used by the commons therefore it should be owned by the commons; your toothbrush is not used by the commons.
I don't think any socialist is making a big deal about socialism just "because it's socialism", nor any ideology to be honest. People first look at what that ideology entails, and then make judgements about it. A lot of people nowadays are seeing the contradictions of capitalism and see no future under it and crave some kind of alternative, however no current neoliberal, nor social democrat movement is giving an answer to the contradictions people see. Socialism however directly answers and explains the contradictions through marxist class dynamics.
And I dont get your point about labels. Labels are useful abstractions to summarise schools of thought. It is easier to say "I am a socialist" than to say "I believe in....:" and then just repeat the entire volume of das kapital.
Sorry, it looks like I kicked up a fire and I didn't mean to do that.
I'm a bit sad I didn't hear anything about the satire article. I thought you would like the idea. 😕 For context, it's motivated by threads like this
If you're willing to talk about it, I'm still curious if you think the article a good idea.
I just see this Pokemon meme happening a lot in the polticial space. People cant say "that seems like a good idea" if the idea came from "the enemy ™". It's really sad when an idea isn't adopted only because of that. Maybe the UK is better about it, but I see it happen every day in the US.
That's all I wanted to get across.
Sorry if my original comment was unclear. Labels and ideologies are useful, and I didn't intended to derail the original point over what owership means. I want ideas to be judged and accepted based on merit rather than what faction they came from.
I suppose yeah I understand what you mean. Especially in the US there is a lot of political tribalism and extreme polarisation, and honestly it has one of the most extreme cases of anticommunist propaganda where something as basic as free healthcare will be seen as "evil communism". Regarding your article, go for it. Clearly you identified some kind of issue that needs addressing and that article you want to make is your reaction to it. What I am trying to say is that the fact that you even want to make the article is already its justification :)
Also slightly unrelated but this reminds me of "radical centrism" where you basically take any extreme idea that sounds good no matter what side its from, be it communism or nazism.
Haha that's a good point thanks. I'm glad this conversation ended on a good note.
Interesting! I'll have to look into that.