Damn someone should crack open a window so we can let the stink of all that unprovoked sarcastic racism out

If that's the best you can do, I guess

Okay then. Socialism, in practice, is the government stealing property from some to launder it and take their cut before choosing to whom and how they will deliver it.

And so the best way to prevent this from happening is to elect a president who does exactly that, but instead of giving the money to Americans who need it, he gives it to KGB agents and medieval kings in the Middle East. Yes, that makes sense! Conservativism means laundering money ("socialism") on behalf of oppressive Islamic regime and Russian mobsters, got it. Sure sounds like something Ronald Reagan would have approved of!

Sounds like a problem with every bad government ever in practice. You could say this about Ancien Regime France, Nazi Germany, the USSR, Ancient Sparta, or the U.S. today.

So basically you don’t know the difference between taxation and socialism. Got it.

Is colonization socialist?

Well, this was supposed to be my offensive definition but I think I pretty much nailed it. Socialism is implemented through taxation. A definition of taxation would be much different although it certainly can include the government theft of property. I prefer taxation that doesn't include that.

Ask the Martians when we get there.

And at least if you oppose conservative politicians in TYOOL 2018, you are fighting for those tax dollars to benefit those within our borders.

Hell, even Ron Paul was always justifying his pork barrel amendments by saying he was simply making sure he brought the money back to his district. I guess the only thing stopping you guys from applying the same reasoning to bring money and influence back that would otherwise go to Russian mobsters is that the United States as a whole (unlike Ron Paul's district) contains black people in it. In other words, you've decided that black people are more cancerous than rich traitors, so you've opted to starve yourself along with them (even if it means giving up your sovereignty).

That's cute. Why are we talking about Russian mobsters?

Your definition of socialism is broad enough to include the (probably illegal) activities of the money laundering traitors that you guys put in the oval office.

I see. So wise, you are.

But I forget, at least they weren't secretly born in Kenya or something, so I am sure they are all loyal to white people the US.

You lost me there.

Wth?

FWIW, some of the European Trump supporters I've spoken to have no loyalty toward or even a passing interest in / knowledge of the politics of the US, but one thing they've got a whole lot of is loyalty to white people. So much to the point that they'd be happy to see the country go down in flames, if only they got the pleasure of seeing one single person of color deported, denied a visa, or killed.

Did you forget about the birther movement? I'm not sure how, given that one of the pivotal figures behind it is currently the president.

Oh I'm sure there was nothing racist at all about Trump's birtherism, no way.

What in the hell does any of that have to do with the current discussion?

It is literally impossible to implement socialism through taxation. You don't know what you're talking about.

In order to fast forward the conversation, I spoke with CleverBot about some issues regarding conservatism:

Why are you a conservative?

I believe in small government and originalist interpretation of the Constitution.

Why do you believe in an originalist interpretation of the Constitution?

Because there are things that are holy.

What part of the Constitution is holy?

That humans should be treated equally.

Isn't that in the Declaration of Independence?

No it's the Gettysburg address.

It does a pretty good job at being a substitute for Wookie, I think.

If only I could get this kind of turnaround.


What is socialism?

I don't know.

What are the means of production?

We will hang them with the rope they sell us.

Perhaps mandatory charitable contributions to the motherland would be a better term.

To be fair it took a few tries to get that response. It loves to reply with gibberish.

Go back and read this thread from page 1.

Wrong again.

No you're wrong Colonel Sanders!

who is this performance even for

it's just us girls here

one might say it's a charitable donation to the motherland.

I also thought socialism was implemented through taxation. Now I'm lost too.

I asked cleverbot "what is socialism" but it just replied "communism".

ok but you're capable of admitting it, so I will actually help you.

"Socialism" and "Capitalism" are opposing philosophies about who should be in charge of a business. Capitalism says businesses should be controlled by private individuals. Socialism says they shouldn't.

That's it.

The reason you think socialism is about taxes is probably because of the R-word, right? Wealth redistribution. The thing is, that doesn't mean what you've been led to think it does. When socialists say they want to redistribute wealth, they aren't talking about you - they're talking about taking control of corporations away from the rich. Rich people really don't want that; control over businesses is how they make hundreds of times more than we do. So you've been led to believe it's about raising your taxes, because that's personal to you and makes you feel opposed to it. When really it's not about that, it's about firing your boss.


Somewhat confusingly, though, there is a thing that's just about raising income taxes. That's called social democracy. Basically it's the "give them welfare and free tuition so they don't build guillotines" strategy. Rich people don't like this either. I guess they figure it's bad enough they're already paying you to make them rich, they shouldn't have to pay you to not build guillotines too. From what I can piece together, I think Wookie06 believes social democracy is the same thing as socialism. Trust me, it isn't.

So apparently if you look back through like 60 years of presidential administrations, Republicans absolutely dominate on having their people get charged, convicted and sent to prison. Like by a landslide Republican presidencies are more criminal.

industrialist party is more criminal????

I can't immediately see how socialism would view my specific situation: I get paid by medical specialists, who get paid by health insurance.

Would a socialist say, that ideally I would claim my salary directly from public and private health insurance?

It depends. Remember how I said that capitalism says businesses should be controlled by private individuals, and socialists say they shouldn’t? Well, exactly who should is hotly debated.

As a rule, though, democratic socialists - meaning the ones who aren’t Stalinists - just want the workers to be given their own surplus. If you make money from doing your own work and you don’t have any employees, you’re already getting that. Socialism wouldn’t change anything for you. It would only affect you if you were in an employee-employer relationship.

Pretty nice then, that I can remain largely indifferent about politics.

So the UK is "Stalinist," to the extent that the NHS is a state-owned enterprise? And a single-payer healthcare system in the US would also be "Stalinist", to the extent that it would be a state-run enterprise (rather than merely a company with a certain management structure which empowers workers)?

So Jon's opinion is that seizing control of a corporation isn't equivalent to seizing property? Okay, we'll just agree to disagree on that one. "You didn't build that," doesn't apply here?