Simplifying Complexity, One Answer at a Time!
Rules
The hate against socialism is the idea that someone who doesn't work as hard as you, gets the same benefits as you, and that's not fair.
Something like that could never work under capitalism. Everybody knows that rich people work extremely hard to be rich. I work hard, and I'll be rich some day too.
decades of red scare propaganda and purposefully sabotaging public education
Seriously. People don’t seem to remember or understand how intense anti-communist feelings were during the Cold War. It would be un-American to assume anything different than capitalism.
I heard that most of my life, so it feels extremely unsettling to experience MAGA love affair with some of the tyrants their forbears would have most hated
Anti-socialism is just collateral damage
Also Cubans who act like they weren't children when their family left. Souith Florida Spanish radio is wild!
"Socialism is when the government does stuff 😭" - Average American, unfortunately
Nah seriously this is what they legit believe, they just think the government doing it means it's going to be shitty. Which is not entirely untrue. But at least it's not trying to actively rip you off while continuing to offer less and less, like any publicly traded company has a good track record of doing.
The ultra rich have successfully convinced a lot of people that they, too, could become ultra rich some day - but there's no place for ultra rich under socialism.
Then further, a lot of people have been convinced that only the very very poor would be better off and everyone else would be worse off. That is of course also untrue.
I think this is true, but id add that most socialist societies we have seen have been awful. Lots of corruption and poverty. Turns out whichever system you have there will be evil scumbags seeking to self-enrich.
Thats not to say it couldn't work, but that there are no shining examples of success and lots of examples of failure.
Those who are educated on the matter and oppose socialism do so because of a belief that continuing high-intensity development of the economy is preferable, for one reason or another.
Many of us would argue that, with the economy in developed countries at the point where everyone could very easily be guaranteed a good quality of life without further improvements, and that, in fact, further improvements at this point are more likely to come from the cultural and technological development enabled by a more equal and less labor-intensive society, capitalism has overstayed its welcome.
It is due to lobbying and astroturfing.
Simple as.
It's definitely not based in data, because that overwhelmingly shows massive economic and happiness growth happens in these states
If everyone does better, then you're doing worse by comparison.
I want 10% unemployment and 0% interest rates. That's the magic formula where I can sexually harass my au pair and she has no choice but to put up with it.
To me the hate is quite simple to understand. Socialism means that the extremely rich will be worse off financially. The 1% have an unnatural love for money, and the idea of being less wealthy for the greater good is totally abhorrent to them.
For generations they've been able to demonise socialism using their disproportionate influence through the media, to the extent that the majority of the population now fear it.
We've really not moved on that far intellectually from the witch trials. People are collectively ignorant and fearful, and with the right nudges are easy to control to the point where they'll literally vote against their own good. They are the proverbial Turkeys voting for Christmas and I honestly don't know how we will ever get past it.
Years of propaganda from oligarchs, their think tanks and their propaganda spreaders. This has been an attack for many decades but especially after WW2 during the red scare and then after 1970 when the Powell Memo was issued. That is the origin of all of our messes, including Reagan and Trump.
Many of the same right wing think tanks are from the same oligarchs from decades ago and/or their heirs. Think Timothy Mellon or Birch Society (Koch Brother father). Even then, there was “the business plot” where the oligarchs of the 1930s wanted fascism because of the threat FDR had to their wealth and power.
What you have to remember is that socialism means everyone paying their fair share, and some people don't want to do that.
Propaganda works.
Arguments I hear are usually something along the lines of "it's going to destroy the economy", "it destroys jobs", "I'm rich and they'll tax me a lot" (said by people who aren't actually rich). Also, confusing social democracy (Germany, Nordic countries) with what the Soviet Union and China were doing.
Socialism threatens capitalists -> Capitalists spend money in media and politics to ensure support for capitalism by spreading fear about socialism -> People are scared of socialism.
It's really that simple honestly. I generally hate oversimplifications but there's not that much more to it
Socialism by its barest definition is great.
Socialism as outlined in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto is a little sketchier because it makes a lot of unrealistic assumptions about human nature and is just generally super hard to implement without creating a power vacuum.
Socialism as in the USSR's Socialism is a century old practice of the cruellest and most war hungry culture imagineable, having taken advantage of the afforementioned power vacuum to starve and torture millions at home, ally with the Nazis in WWII and then change sides halfway through, tear down democracies around the globe, and push us all the closest we have ever been to thermonuclear annihilation. A threat so great that even 30 years into its grave is still a great stone over our heads, having crafted a world power balance that will threaten our destruction for generations to come.
But Socialism by its barest definition is great.
Conservative reactionaries since the French Thermidor Reaction opposed it, believing communalism and eventually socialism undermines their existing hierarchical, feudal system. Stalin also did not help matters at all.
Yeah Stalin was like "You want to see totalitarianism with socialist window dressing?"
This is also why I can't stand tankies. Worshipping the Soviet Union, China and even modern day Russia. Clearly the "is not The West(tm)" is the important part for them, not socialism or communism. Also, I've had interactions with people on reddit where they said that the mass deportations were absolutely justified, etc.
Look, I also want a lot of the things socialism offers, without necessarily going full communist. But I'll argue all day that Nordic countries do it better. Not perfectly of course, there's still billionaires and there are still issues. But people are by and large much more free than they are or were in any of the countries tankies love, and those who aren't well-off still have it much better than they do in, say, the US.
The issue is in the comparison:
Socialists will compare socialism at its best against capitalism at its worst- and vice-versa.
Where no one on any side of anny argument is willing to admit that any form of government that is left to run unchecked, will always exploit the people.
Different shape, same solid.
Ask a typical American what they hate about socialism and they will perfectly describe capitalism
It's propaganda. The reality is that much of our system is already Socialized. In fact, some of the best stuff in our society is Socialist.
Schools, libraries, fire departments, police, military, parks, roads, etc. are all Socialist concepts at their foundation.
Fire Departments used to work by subscription. A building owner would pay a local fire brigade for protection. He would get a small cast iron badge that he'd place next to his doorway. If a building caught fire, the fire brigade would show up, and if there was a a "fire mark," they'd fight the fire. If there wasn't a fire mark, they'd let it burn down. That is a strictly Capitalist concept.
It was eventually decided that public tax money would be used to protect EVERYBODY from fire, which is a Socialist concept. The old subscription-based fire brigade concept evolved into the predatory insurance industry, a Capitalist concept which has been preying upon us ever since.
Like most political philosophies, Socialism has its positives and negatives. Any political philosophy, taken to its most extreme ends, would be a disaster. The best governments take the most successful parts of any philosophy, and rejects the bad parts. A pure Democratic/Republican/Socialist government would be terrible, but a combination of the best elements, could be really great.
MAGA is not a legitimate political philosophy. it's core tenets include treason, corruption, racism, bigotry, violence, pedophilia, misogyny, intolerance, ignorance, and incompetence. MAGA is a criminal enterprise disguising itself as a legitimate political movement, and it's influence must be fully purged from our government and our society.
IMHO remnants from the cold war indoctrination.