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'Socialism' the Most Looked-Up Word of 2015 on Merriam-Webster

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

An Anonymous Coward writes:

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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Original Submission

• ''most Americans are socialists'' (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @11:14PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 18 2015, @11:14PM (#278393)

  Don't Bogart that joint, my friend.
  From your description of what you see, that must be some really good shit.

  You're quite wrong.
  Most USAians are Right^W Wrong Wingers. [politicalcompass.org]
  If they were actually Leftists, they would be voting for Ralph Nader, David Cobb, Cynthia McKinney, Jill Stein, Dennis Kucinich, etc.

  If we plotted Bernie Sanders on that grid, I figure that vertically he might be a tiny bit closer to the center (but not below the dividing line).
  Horizontally, however, he would be in with that cluster of Blues.

  My perception of USAians as a whole is that they don't know history and they willingly accept whatever Lamestream Media tells them.
  They also don't want to vote for someone who won't be in the top 2 finishers.
  In short: Sheep.

  In 2016, we'll have a chance to see if they're actually fed up with the status quo and
  1) show up at the polls
  2) cast a vote for something different and (one hopes) better.

  -- gewg_

  Parent