all 40 comments

[–]Chipit 12 insightful - 3 fun12 insightful - 2 fun13 insightful - 3 fun -  (22 children)

Hey, how's that socialism going in Venezuela? We stopped talking about them a while back for some mysterious reason that I don't understand.

"These days, the American dream is more apt to be realized in South America, in places such as Ecuador, VENEZUELA and Argentina, where incomes are actually more equal today than they are in the land of Horatio Alger. Who's the banana republic now?"

-- Bernie Sanders

The Venezuelan government was democratically elected by the people to seize the means of production and ration out the benefits. The United Socialist Party of Venezuela instituted democratic socialism built on the socialist policies of Hugo Chavez.

I well remember how ordinary Venezuelans, many of them, cheered when Hugo Chavez took power and began to implement socialist economic policies. And why not? Venezuela was rich, blessed with ample supplies of oil, plenty of arable land which grew coffee, good ports, ample fishing grounds, no enemies across the border, and a well educated, industrious population. How the people cheered when Chavez promised them free food, free health care, gasoline subsidies and other blessings of socialism. How they sang his praises in the streets as he nationalized companies and corporations! How they rejoiced when he nationalized the oil companies and drove out the greedy foreigners and the hated Yankee multinational corporations! How they cheered as he confiscated the life savings and property of the hated rich, so the people could get their fair share of the wealth! How the people laughed and approved as Chavez gave them permission to smash and loot electronic stores so they could help themselves to free TV's and other electronic appliances and toys.

How'd it work out in the end? I don't know because of the very strange news blackout.

[–]ctvzbuxr 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

But remember, it wasn't real socialsm, because socialism by definiton works so if it doesn't work, it can't be socialism.

[–]Jesus 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Classic red herring. Socialist elements are part and parcel of Capitalism. We have not had real classical capitalism in the US for a long time.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 4 fun -  (19 children)

Chavez, like EVERY other politician, was scum. Yet he brought a better, more fair system to his people - away from the corporatocracy.

The Venezuelan state and peoples have been systematically attacked by the USA, CIA, and countless other western forces (ie. UK stole their gold).

How'd it work out in the end? Socialism is still demonized by the West yet wanted by the people. And itt's not over, nor will ever be until the corporatocracy can take over Venezuela and get their capitalism running it, occasionally bailed out be socialism for the rich. Just like the USA.

Fuck the ruling class, their capitalist AND their socialist rigged systems.

[–]Chipit 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Socialism is still demonized by the West yet wanted by the people

What? [citation needed] Nobody wants socialism except far left nutbags. Socialism kills. It'll kill you, too.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

Nonsense.

Bernie has a great following. Biden has a great following. Both are idiots that are more republican than leftists. Bernie was a sell out coward when it counted in 2016. Democrats would rather lose to Republicans than to legit progressives. The Democratic Party has been utterly usurped by the CIA. The SJW corporate "Left" is not at all the same as the classic oldschool left. There is no peace movement. They've all been infiltrated and destroyed. Environmentalists are now called eco-terrorists.

And then there's the whole communist history, good, bad, and very ugly - and I won't delve into that. It's clear "socialism" has issues. It's also abundantly clear that capitalism has issues as we've just entered yet ANOTHER recession/depression.

There's the SJW corporate Left, and the "progressive" Bernie/Tulsi left. You're delusional to believe that the USA has the only good system - meanwhile all of Europe, Canada, etc have MORE that just 1 or 2 parties to vote for. THERE ARE MORE OPTIONS that you don't even seem to know about. The USA even has the Green Party and Libertarian Party - yet you are ruled by the corporatocracy warhawk party with two wings to make you think you have choice, keep you fighting each other, and not fighting the ruling class.

USA is no different than China except you actually believe your propaganda.

USA is already ruled by socialism. It is bailing out Wall Street AGAIN. All of your giant War Machines are funded by socialism, whether you want it or not. Same with your government, police, etc etc etc. Further your government is deeply in bed providing socialist support to all the big corporations, from Big Agra to Big Pharma to Big Oil to Big Education to Big Internet.

Yet your government REFUSES to grant you Universal Health Care like all other civilized nations. Meanwhile the public VASTLY desires it, and a better education system - whether you admit those are also socialist concepts or not.

There are 3 kinds of socialism. I only support the non-government version - worker cooperatives, aka worker directed enterprises - where everyone is part boss. You are partly correct that many socialist governments have massive kill counts. Also many do not, but most anti-socialists forget about Northern Europe and Canada, among others.

[–]SuperConductiveRabbi 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (13 children)

Chavez, like EVERY other politician, was scum. Yet he brought a better, more fair system to his people - away from the corporatocracy.

"Except for me when I'm the one in charge!"

Get fucked, commie

[–]JasonCarswell 6 insightful - 5 fun6 insightful - 4 fun7 insightful - 5 fun -  (11 children)

Get fucked yourself, if you can, as you're obviously retarded and may not be capable of handling such ambitions for your tiny dick.

I'm no commie and I'm no capitalist. You'd understand that if you actually read what I wrote. I even stated that Chavez was scum AND you fully quoted that. So clearly you're mentally disabled. I pity you.

Lastly, I don't swallow the left-right bullshit that you clearly feast upon.

"Except for me when I'm the one in charge!"

From nowhere, without context, making no sense. Sad. Bigly. Seek help troll.

[–]Jesus 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

Yup, the problem I'm seeing currently, is a deliberate push to the right. They are using the Hegalian dialectic to divide and push people into a more authoritarian form of government. A lot of people are still fooled by Trump and the right. The democrats are quite easy to see through, not so much the GOP.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 4 fun2 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 4 fun -  (2 children)

The Overton window has been sliding right and up toward totalitarianism for decades. The window is not even on the home anymore - it's only for corporatocracy. And it's moving faster than ever, but people are too distracted and/or brainwashed to notice.

Yes, the Corporate SJW Left is so utterly insane (yet somehow appealing to some) that it actually makes the right seem sane, when it is/was usually far from it.

Now the Fascists and Anti-Fascists are inseparable except by costume, label, and lingo.

[–]Canbot 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The Overton window has been sliding right

This is the most absurd thing I have read in a while. What planet do you live on? There are literally laws in place in western countries like Canada that make it illegal to say factual things like "there are two genders" or call a person by the sex they actually are. There are literally laws forcing people to lie in service of leftist bullshit. Never in history has that been true before. We are further left then at any time in recorded history.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

If you don't know that the SJW Corporate Left is a CIA controlled arm of the War Hawk Corporatocracy Party (with 2 wings: Dems & GOP), designed to lose to Republicans rather than let progressives win, then I can't help you. You are meant to believe you have a choice that matters when voting provably doesn't make a difference and is rigged in over 40 ways.

Canada is no exception. I live in Windsor, Ontario, under a globalist absurdist government too.

You need to look back in history, before 2010 and the rise of the SJW, before 9/11 and the rise of the Global War Of Terror, into the last century to find the real and old left and what it stood for. ie. No war.

Today, Tulsi is the ONLY one who does not want war - and she's just a progressive Dem. A decade ago, there was more on the Dems, with Dennis Kucinich, etc AND on the right there was Ron Paul, and maybe some other(s). That means ALL of the Dems (except Tulsi) and ALL of the GOP are FOR WAR - meaning the Overton Window has most certainly shifted right. And then there's the standard of living, hollowing out of the middle class, etc etc etc. You know, REAL ISSUES!

All this SJW shit is just political theater of the utterly absurd to completely distract us all from the real issues and imbalances.

[–][deleted]  (6 children)

[removed]

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    You are delusional if you don't see this corona virus as evidence that capitalism and communism have merged into totalitarianism.

    China is very capitalist now. America is very communist now. China has one party. America has one party and pretends like you have a choice between wings. Both are totalitarian. Anyone who thinks there's a difference in the details is retarded, like you obviously are.

    I don't sympathize for fools who got us into this mess instead of rationally thinking for themselves, not buying into the banal tribal propaganda that pits us against one another. If I gave a shit I would have patience for you. Instead, I'm bring your negativity to the attention of /u/magnora7 and /u/d3rr so you'd better shape up or be banned.

    [–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

    Get fucked, commie

    Get fucked, commie sympathizer.

    Please stop dragging discussion down the pyramid of debate. https://saidit.net/static/PyramidDebate.jpg

    [–]SuperConductiveRabbi 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

    Are you familiar with what will happen to Saidit if communities like LateStageCapitalism are permitted to thrive on the site? Learn from the sad tale of Voat when certain communities aren't made unwelcome.

    It's the responsibility of users here to push back.

    [–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    The users are very welcome as long as they follow the long-established site rules, which are more lax than reddit's.

    [–]SuperConductiveRabbi 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    That's what Voat said too.

    A nation is defined by its members, literally. The same is true for a site.

    Saidit needs to pray that the wrong type of people (and there are many) don't decide to flood here en masse. The bans on Reddit resulted in Voat being flooded by those people and it was destroyed by it.

    [–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Saidit needs to pray that the wrong type of people (and there are many) don't decide to flood here en masse. The bans on Reddit resulted in Voat being flooded by those people and it was destroyed by it.

    I mean, that's been basically the core of what we've been doing for 2 years now, is dealing with that sort of thing

    [–]Jesus 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

    If you think the current state of affairs in the US is capitalist, you're ignorant. Trump is a criminal and all the top people in governemnt and media either planned or covered-up 9/11. ALL SCUM.

    [–]Canbot 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    If corrupt politicians cause Socialist paradises to become dystopian then you have to either invent honest politicians or use a system of government that does not become dystopain from corrupt politicians. And since there are no honest politicians no one should be advocating for socialism, even by your own estimate of the situation.

    No matter how corrupt and unfair you think the capitalist system is, there is no denying that even the poor live better in capitalist countries than in corrupt socialist ones.

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    The rigged government and their rigged rules and rigged laws are written by the riggers to favour themselves.

    Until people stop swallowing their bullshit then they will always have the upper hand.

    No one should be advocating for socialism OR capitalism.

    I'll deny it!

    Bangladesh: Capitalist Haven
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/alyssaayres/2014/10/28/bangladesh-capitalist-haven/#24b00067145e

    These are the top 10 happiest countries in the world [ALL SOCIALIST]
    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/16/these-are-the-top-10-happiest-countries-in-the-world.html

    Jesus Was A Socialist
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jesus-was-a-socialist_b_13854296

    I could cite until the cows come home and prove nothing.

    Am I a socialist - or capitalist? Fuck both of them. I am neither!

    Balance and fairness is required, not division.

    [–]Canbot 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    And your solution is for you to become the rigger. Brilliant. I pity the fools who would follow you. Power corrupts. Anyone who thinks they will invent a government lead by benevolent beings needs to pick up a history book. The closest we have ever gotten to such a thing is the United States constitution.

    There is nothing balanced or fair about taking from one person to give to another.

    [–]EndlessSunflowers[S] 5 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 4 fun -  (6 children)

    $7.25 x 40 hrs/week = 290
    290 x 4 weeks = 1160
    . . . let's be generous and round it up to $1200 for these poor peasants

    [–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

    Not nearly enough to survive on. It might be different were it a comfortable amount.

    [–]Canbot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

    It actually is enough to survive on. Objectively, and factually many people do. When you grow up and stop with the hyperbole maybe we can have an intelligent discussion on the topic.

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

    If you mean surviving with a shitty as fuck life with nothing to spare, no "good" things of life, no vacations, no freedom. I suppose you could move to the third world and live like a king, assuming you could keep collecting.

    That means giving up ALL of the things most middle class folks take for granted.

    One trip to the computer store, the mechanic, the hospital - and your whole month, if not more, gone in a second.

    I'll take my hyperbole over your support of the criminal administration bullshit. Too big to fail means everyone else is too small to succeed.

    $1200 is a FUCKING INSULT ! ! !

    Sure it's better than nothing, but really they're just preparing everyone for the socialist trap known as UBI.

    [–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    Why would anyone ever work if they could live like a king on welfare? That is not what welfare is supposed to be. You are absolutely not supposed to be living like the middle class while being a fucking worthless leach. You don't deserve vacations, computers, and cars provided to you by better men who work. Least of all to force them to work while you suck the value from their work. Your entitlement is fucking disgusting.

    Your entire world view is based on envy, greed, and entitlement. The world would be better of if you did starve. What the hell is the point of keeping people like that alive?

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    You are absolutely correct. But that's not remotely kingly. And since when do kings or the wealthy or even the upper-middle class actually work as hard as so many of the poor. You're assuming the poor are worthless and leaching. You're also judging who is entitled, rather than letting them judge for themselves. Our world already has a major deficit in compassion. With more people who don't care like you around preferring the poor all starve would only make it much much worse. I don't know where you get my entitlement, much less envy or greed. I'm talking about fairness. The peons get $1200 while the billionaires now get TRILLIONS in bailouts for THEIR FAILURES. The entire system is corrupt, rigged, and utterly skewed so the rewards ONLY go upwards. Who says we actually need to work all the time? How much is too much? Or too little? Show a classroom how to earn $xxxx a day and most of them will start planning all the consumerist shit they want to buy - but I want to hang with the person who plans what they're going to do with the other 6 days of their week.

    Also I just realized, this discussion, nothing against you, is not one I want to have. We are debating and judging and nitpicking on the details about the lives of the poor. This is focusing on the wrong thing IMO. NONE of it changes unless the top changes. Whether we're punching or discussing, IMO, it should be aimed at the top. The ruling class' system must always be in the crosshairs.

    [–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    First of all it is not compassionate for you to demand that someone else take care of the poor. It is still not compassion when you obfuscate that with bullshit language like "it's society that I demand take care of them". Or even when you substitute "the rich" because in your mind their money came from magic or they stole it. What you are advocating for is not compassion but greed. Take from them and give to us. What you argue with is envy. They have more and therefore it isn't fair. You would do well to stop imagining yourself as morally superior.

    The peons get $1200 while the billionaires now get TRILLIONS in bailouts for THEIR FAILURES.

    What's the matter? This whole time you were arguing for welfare. Now that it went into the wrong pocket according to you it is suddenly bad. And not only is it bad somehow you came to the absurd conclusion that it is the opposite of what you were arguing for and instead it is a natural part of capitalism. I don't even know where to begin to unravel that birds nest of double speak. Of course the bailouts are unfair. The bailouts are Socialist.

    Who says we actually need to work all the time?

    No one. No one is forcing you to work under capitalism. Why should someone else be forced to work to produce the bread you eat, the clothes you wear, and the drugs you abuse so that you can survive without working? That is slavery. You just distributed that slavery across "society" so you can pretend that it is not someone elses' toil that you are exploiting.

    You were told that the world has progressed to the point that robots and automation make it possible that you can create everything with very little work. So that is what you want. The problem is you want that to be given to you. What your teachers cough, brainwashers forgot to tell you is that you have to create it. You have to build the industries that leverage automation. You shouldn't be having discussions about how do we steal wealth, but how do we create wealth. How much of your own savings are you willing to risk to start a factory? How many people who know you would judge you trustworthy with their savings? If the answer is zero, then why exactly do you deserve to be as wealthy as the people who did create industries?

    [–][deleted] 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    I love capitalism and I approve this message.

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

    I love d3rr and I don't know who wrote this message.

    [–]Canbot 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

    One problem is that "enough to live on" is an incredibly controversial and propagandized amount. It is never enough. The answer to "how much?" is always "more".

    The system we use, if it is to have any hope of creating a viable country, has to encourage people to work. Not just a little bit, it has to force people to work. We do not live in the Star Trek universe where things pop into existence. One could argue that if welfare pays more than minimum wage then welfare is too high.

    So we have to take a step back and calm down, and look at the whole thing without emotions. To honestly ask the question "should the minimum wage increase or should welfare decrease?". That has to start with an honest answer to "how much is enough to live on?". I have yet to meet a single person arguing for more welfare or a higher minimum wage who is willing to have an honest and sober discussion on that topic.

    It is simply outrageous how many government handouts there are. There are multiple programs purporting to give money for the same thing and people are double and triple dipping. And the welfare programs are purposefully obfuscated to prevent an honest accounting.

    There should be one, and only one welfare program. Until we can prune the giant overgrown bush of welfare programs we should absolutely not increase them.

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    Let's discuss a Maximum Wage?

    How much is too much to exploit for your workers, your society, your nation, your culture, your planet, and from nature?

    [–]Canbot 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    The way you frame it is disingenuous. No one is exploiting anyone. No one owes you a job. No one owes you food, or money. No one is born to take care of you. If you don't like how much you are getting paid go somewhere else. Or better yet start your own business.

    Any min wage has to prove itself to have some value beyond servicing your bullshit caricature of the relationship between employer and employee. If paying the bottom rung more produces benefits to society that outweigh the costs then it should be done for that reason. That means that the poor who are benefiting have to provide some extra benefit as a result of receiving more money. So one would have to set up a controlled system where such things could be measured. Increase the min wage in city A and look at the results. If the results can not show a tangible benefit then you must admit that the experiment is a failure. That paying the poor is simply a waste of money.

    [–]ctvzbuxr 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (3 children)

    Capitalism is not a system. Capitalism is the result of people engaging in vuluntary interactions. What we have today is not capitalism, but a system built in it's very essence on state coercion. We live in socialism, that is why the remnants of the market are seemingly (but not actually) failing.

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

    Shhh. Don't wake them up. They still believe in the American Dream.

    And they can't see that communism and capitalism are just totalitarianism and inverted-totalitarianism.

    [–]ctvzbuxr 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    Yeah that's... not what I said at all.

    [–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    I know. I was being silly. And expanding.

    But I really liked what you said!

    I'd go farther to say today we have extremist capitalism, aka exploitationism, including vulture capitalism, disaster capitalism (for natural and engineered events), surveillance capitalism, economic warfare, military profiteering, and a death culture. The entire military and capitalist bailouts exist from socialist coercion.

    [–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

    If they make freelancing illegal then more work will be driven underground. Welcome to Clown Town.