Do you KNOW the difference between socialism and communism??

Ignorance is predominant on the right. That's not to say that the left doesn't have its share, but if people are willing to toss around terminology like a cream pie at a stooge party, they should have the intellect to look up the meaning of the words. There is this little thing Al Gore invented called the "Internet" doncha know.

Yes.  What do you want me to quote?  Mien Kampf or Bernie?

OF COURSE I KNOW.  It is COMPLICATED.  What part are you wanting to debate?  

Should I google the meaning of both?  Or should we get into specifics?  Communism is forced socialism that is enforced by the government.  It is a heartless poverty with little to gain and people are treated like machinery, all conforming to their borthers and sisters.

In a manner of speaking.....

and socialism is what is experienced if you don't live in a cave.

Period.  Try living without exchange.  That is anti-socialism.

We experience socialism each time we pay taxes that improve the state of the neighborhood.  Etc. Etc.  We experience socialism when we require by law that each person living in America must be schooled.  To exist among our neighbors and interact with those abroad if necessary.  We need education so we can exist in a society.  Anything that benefits the common good that requires a give and take in our lives is socialism.  Period.  

Well to be fair... I didn't really know.. I just had a vague concept and I may have been wrong.. I have an idea about what communism is.. and one regarding what socialism is.. but nothing concrete re distinguishing them.. I would have just said communism is an official government style which delivers a socialist agenda.. but socialism isn't communism necessarily.. My ideas are all very vague really as it's not something I tend to think about much.. 

Woe unto ye who draweth his worldly reasoning from the well of Rev. Huckabee. 

Communism is often described at the extreme end of Socialism. Karl Marx the Jewish/German political philosopher and economist who became one of the most influential socialist thinkers in history, referred to socialism as "The first necessary phrase on the way from capitalism to communism. His collaborator Friedrich Engels, Marx published The Communist Manifesto in 1848, which included a chapter criticizing those earlier socialist models as utterly unrealistic “utopian” dreams. Marx and Engels themselves didn’t consistently or clearly differentiate communism from socialism, which helped ensure lasting confusion between the two terms.

This is important bearing in mind, the left in British Politics called The Labour Party, was originally the Fabian Society, and Fabian Socialists get their inspiration from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.  Karl Marx was influenced by his father, and was part of the Young Hegelians.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Hegelians

Under communism, there is no such thing as private property. All property is communally owned, and each person receives a portion based on what they need. A strong central government—the state—controls all aspects of economic production, and provides citizens with their basic necessities, including food, housing, medical care and education.

By contrast, under socialism, individuals can still own property. But industrial production, or the chief means of generating wealth, is communally owned and managed by a democratically elected government.

Another key difference between socialism and communism is the means of achieving them. In communism, a violent revolution in which the workers rise up against the middle and upper classes is seen as an inevitable part of achieving a pure communist state. Socialism is a less rigid, more flexible ideology. Its adherents seek change and reform, but insist on making these changes through democratic processes within the existing social and political structure, not overthrowing that structure.

Unlike in communism, a socialist economic system rewards individual effort and innovation. Social democracy, the most common form of modern socialism, focuses on achieving social reforms and redistribution of wealth through democratic processes, and believes it can co-exist alongside a free-market capitalist economy.

https://www.azquotes.com/author/9564-Karl_Marx

This post was edited by kjames at March 8, 2021 3:31 PM MST