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posted by cmn32480 on Friday December 18 2015, @10:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-do-you-spell-that dept.

The Guardian reports that "socialism" was the most looked-up word on Merriam-Webster's site this year, a change the American dictionary publisher attributes to US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has positioned of himself as a "democratic socialist".

As a socialist (or communist) myself, I personally think it's great that especially people from the United States try to figure out the meaning of the word beyond McCarthyism. I'm glad that people show interest in politics and finding out about positions of candidates.

Past years winners are available on Wikipedia.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Friday December 18 2015, @02:15PM

    by zocalo (302) on Friday December 18 2015, @02:15PM (#278186)
    Hopefully many of those that are driven to look up "socialism" will also be looking up "communism" and comparing the differences. They might have been more or less interchangeable for some aspects in the past but that has now diverged considerably in terms of what it means in a modern context, and having more people aware of what the differences are should hopefully enable more people to make informed decisions on socialist policies.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @02:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @02:25PM (#278190)

    I only look it up because I can't spell worth a shit...

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @02:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @02:50PM (#278203)

    The only real difference between socialism and communism is that socialism is the useful idiots who don't realize global communism is to be brought about in stages, one of which being the "moderate" socialism.

    There is no stated end goal of socialism, because it is intended to end in some variation of Marxist communism. Read up about the Marxist think tank which branded itself "Institute for Social Research", AKA, The Frankfurt School.

    The problem with all this "equality" rubbish is that it ignores the ones who command the brown shirts are "more equal" than the common man. Furthermore, monocultures breed extinction in all of nature. Leveling the playing field is impossible without dystopian forces at work, and these tend to corruption as all large organizations do (even the human organism dies due to corruption of organs and cells). Accumulation of entropy is inevitable, but socialists and communists ignore this uncomfortable universal truth. Competition is the past, it shall be the future, as death and rebirth is the only known way to stave off corruption. Utopia, even at the cellular level, creates a monoculture which then goes extinct because it can not handle the little deaths that chaos requires of any successful self propagating system. In the short term the benefits seem beautiful, but the long term is what counts and that's where things get ugly -- Extinction is most ugly of all.

    Saying that socialism is different than communism is like saying that a continuous light sprinkling of salt is different from being heavily salted. In the short term you will reach a savory taste, but as the process continues it produces inediblity and eventually extinction as the very Earth is salted and nothing new may grow. The wise recognize that any system taken to extremes results in the same. The average socialist is foolish enough to think their utopia somehow different.

    "Socialism" as defined by socialists or "moderate communists" can only survive when surrounded by a chaotic system of capitalism, dictatorships and other forms of governance. When world communism is implemented their "permanent revolution" will carry on -- the government will fight for its survival against the common man by turning his mind to distractions rather than the cause of the despotism. If you want to see this situation unfolding today, just look up "Social Justice Warrior" and realize this is the product of the Communist Frankfurt School's Critical Theory.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by BasilBrush on Friday December 18 2015, @07:04PM

      by BasilBrush (3994) on Friday December 18 2015, @07:04PM (#278297)

      Just wait till your thinking advances from the 1950s to the 1960s. You'll love it.

      --
      Hurrah! Quoting works now!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @09:29PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @09:29PM (#278363)

      what I hear you trying to say is, There is a natural order to this world, and those who try to upend it do not fare well.
      And... The weak are meat and the strong do eat., and I'll just put a couple of words in your mouth for you, "you like to eat steak".

      OK, got it.

      • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday December 18 2015, @10:49PM

        by Subsentient (1111) on Friday December 18 2015, @10:49PM (#278387) Homepage Journal

        Cloud Atlas. I love you.

        --
        "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday December 20 2015, @02:50AM

      by Reziac (2489) on Sunday December 20 2015, @02:50AM (#278803) Homepage

      ""Socialism" as defined by socialists or "moderate communists" can only survive when surrounded by a chaotic system of capitalism, dictatorships and other forms of governance. "

      That's the most interesting thought I've seen in a while. Thanks for the insight.

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.