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Alabama ranked at the near bottom of best States to live in (discuss.online)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 6 points 3 months ago (5 children)

I'm not from the US and hadn't heard of this. But are we arguing it WAS socialism?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts

From my very cursory reading of the above, seems like imperialism handing out indigenous land to settlers, no?

In conclusion, I'm saying this definitely does not look like socialism to me. Socialism is democratic control over society by the workers, and the Homestead Acts (from my cursoru understanding) don't seem to be that. Just maybe the tiniest bit better than having massive slave operated holdings by oligarchs.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 months ago

    I think that they're implying that people likely to argue that state-controlled stores are socialist are also likely to conflate any service or good offered by the state is socialism.

    In the US, "socialism" is both demonized and the actual definition is obfuscated by right-wing (read: most) media in the same way other terms are, such as "woke". This alienates the average person in the US from movements, policies, organizations, etc that would benefit them, from free school lunch programs to socialist representatives running on taxing the wealthy.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Yes, my comment was very US centric.

    First, the Homestead Act gave land to a lot of people who were tenant farmers. It enraged the rich folks who saw their profits go down, and it was a boon to the ancestors of a lot of the MAGAs. They'll crow about how their great grandparents came in covered wagons and ignore the fact that they couldn't have afforded the land if it wasn't for a government program.

    Second, in my opinion, all political labels are meaningless outside the classroom. There are billionaires in the Chinese Communist Party and North Korea calls itself a Democratic Republic.

    I've literally had this conversation with some of my fellow americans.

    Them = All Socialist states fail!

    Me = What about the Scandinavian countries?

    Them = They aren't really Socialist.

    Me = So, we can have their health care system?

    Them = [Usually silence, sometimes and explanation that it only works there because the population is not as diverse as america.]

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    all political labels are meaningless outside the classroom.

    This is the real truth. None of the world's governments are what they claim to be. All of them have taken a basic foundation, and then added various things from various systems until every government in the world is some Frankenstein's Monster of bureaucracy.

    We're supposed to be a Democracy, or a Republic, or a Democratic Republic, or something, who knows, but a lot of the best stuff in America is straight up Socialist, like parks, schools, libraries, museums, roads, bridges, etc.

    Fire Departments are one of the best examples of American Socialism. In the olden days, if you owned a building, you'd buy fire insurance from a local fire brigade, and they'd give you a "fire mark," a cast iron medallion, that you would attach to your building. That proved that you were paid up, and if your building caught fire, they'd show up to put it out. If you weren't paid up, they'd show up to watch your building burn, unless you paid.

    Eventually, they replaced the profit-making fire fighting system with a municipal fire fighting system, paid for by ALL the citizens, to benefit ALL the citizens, and not just those with enough money to pay. Same with public schools, roads, bridges, etc. Much of the best of America is already Socialist.

    NONE of the world's governments adhere to the political philosophy they claim to follow, except in the most basic ways. Whatever labels they apply to their own systems, or the systems of others, is meaningless propaganda. There are no Socialist, Communist, or Democratic nations. They are all mixed systems, that exist more by evolution than design.

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