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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: 2) by Freeman on Friday December 18 2015, @08:49PM

    by Freeman (732) on Friday December 18 2015, @08:49PM (#278349) Journal

    Most of the bits you're saying at the end are in the US Constitution. With safe guards in place (2nd Amendment) to ensure that the government doesn't get too big for it's britches. Though, really, the government is way past that point. The government is trampling all over the Constitution and no one cares enough to do something about it. Why? Money, is about as good of an answer as I can see. Assuming we actually stuck to the ideals of the US Constitution, we would be in a better place than we are now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_service [wikipedia.org] There's a reason why they are called Civil Servants. The ideal behind it is that they are working for the people, but that fact seems to get lost in the shuffle all too quickly. In reality there can't be a perfect form of government, but no form of socialism that I have seen has been any better than the Capitalist mentality of the US. There are plenty that are worse off though.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @10:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @10:28PM (#278380)

    Socialism is an *economic* system.
    The governmental system is Democracy.
    Until people understand that, progress on the discussion of Socialism will remain a case of determining how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

    are in the US Constitution

    I suggest that you get a copy of that and compare it to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    Be prepared to be thoroughly shocked at the contrast.

    no form of socialism that I have seen

    You could have mentioned an actual EXAMPLE so that someone could make an actual analysis.
    In this (meta)thread I have mentioned the Mondragon cooperative and the thousands of worker-owned cooperatives in northern Italy.
    Mondragon doesn't have layoffs; during lean times, the worker-owners adjust work schedules so that everybody still has a job and an income.
    Your **not any better than Capitalism** statement is easily rebutted and shows your narrow view of the world (due to Lamestream Media, I'm betting).

    ...and we're getting into the DPRK thing again where entities call themselves 1 thing and actually are quite another.
    Cuba *calls* itself Socialist, but is hardly a workers' paradise.
    Cuba's gov't DOES have 1 guideline that I rather like:
    An individual is allowed to own a (Capitalist, obviously) business BUT he is not allowed to franchise or make that into a chain operation.
    In Cuba, (abusive) megacorporations are clearly not a thing.

    N.B. USA.gov keeps trumpeting how it is "opening up" Cuba.
    That remains to be seen.
    When USA megacorporations butt heads with the mandates of Cuba's revolutionary framework, I foresee a giant stall in the USAification of Cuba.

    -- gewg_