this post was submitted on 11 May 2026
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me_irl
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Coworker: No way. That'd be socialism.
Me: Socialism isn't a bad thing. Do you like having a fire department and roads? Those are collective funding of collectively beneficial services through government programs. Socialism.
Coworker: That's different.
Me: No, it's not. How is it different?
Coworker: That's... Socialism is... Um... Yeah, well...
The best things in our country are Socialist - public schools, parks, playgrounds, libraries, museums, roads, bridges, etc.
Getting rid of any Socialist influences means a society where the ONLY priority is making money for some rich guy. Want to have a picnic at the park? Go make money. Want your kid to go to school? They have to make money. You can't afford it anyway.
The only people who can enjoy leisure time are rich people, because leisure is expensive, and only rich people can afford it.
But you're trying to explain this to people who believe the best things in our country are strip clubs, Disneyland amusement parks, Caribbean Cruises, luxury SUVs, and gold toilets.
Sure but where do they drive those SUVs? How do they get to strip clubs and Disney land?
Do you think they're capable of joining those dots?
They clap with their fingers spread.
Valid. I just saw that Trump had said that he has no use for Libraries and Museums. Of course not, he's a Sociopath, he doesn't have even the slightest understanding of art or beauty of any kind.
Not to mention that he can't read
But wasn't it better when everyone worked 7 days a week and your children died in the mines?
Socialism is simultaneously any public spending and also explicitly when nobody owns anything, depending on what they want to argue.
So, Socialism has never worked, but also, a fraction of the safety nets that Europe has is Socialism.
Ring-wingers. It's good socialism if a billion dollar company gets a giant bailout from the federal government. It's wellfare socialism if any of the 5,000 employees laid off by said company get any fork of unemployment...they should have planned better
Social programs are not the same thing as socialism. Socialism is collective ownership of the means of production so that the economy is democratized and its benefits reach the people who built it, the workers.
that's different because those also benefit corporations...
So do most others, and not even with many more steps. Fire department means fires are fought, saving structures, including corporately owned ones. Housing the homeless means they aren't breaking into buildings to find a place to sleep, including corporately owned ones.
Well, for starters, my fire department and my road construction/maintenance are heavily privatized.
Of course they just take payment up front