They don’t! Trump and his people call people communists and I would argue. It has no real meaning outside of that ideological bubble. But because there are no longer any real communists to deal with it kind of doesn’t matter - ThreadSky

radiofreetom.bsky.social • 69 days ago

They don’t! Trump and his people call people communists and I would argue. It has no real meaning outside of that ideological bubble.
But because there are no longer any real communists to deal with it kind of doesn’t matter

Reposted from Wade Neal

If I agree with Tom’s point, I wonder if he would also agree that GOP “overusing” Marxist/Communist/Radical may have led us to a similar problem in that these words have no meaning a la politics and ze English language

Comments

pygmalion55.bsky.social•67 days ago

sanjuans52.bsky.social•69 days ago

I’m afraid that, at this point, all of the afore mentioned terms just mean that you don’t agree with me

shoutingboy.bsky.social•69 days ago

Trump also calls his enemies fascists! It’s just name calling to him, “I know you are but what am I”.

overthekill.bsky.social•68 days ago

Agree with Tom, here. Trump goes with Communists, Socialists, and now, The Radical Left. He knows none.

rosieogrady53.bsky.social•69 days ago

Since 1996, FOX has used "Communist" & "Socialist" & "Community Organizers" (Obama) interchangeably as descriptors for Democrats & their voters.
The historic examples or encyclopedic definitions of the terms is irrelvant...They became synonyms for EVIL.
30 years of indoctrination have paid off.

kglick1.bsky.social•69 days ago

and yet there is an actual shitload of dyed in the wool Nazi's and Fascists running around.

javiertf.bsky.social•69 days ago

In September 193 in Chile, after Pinochet seized power, and the military took control of radio and TV, it became jarring to hear the constant repetition of "marxista", with an exaggerated emphasis on the "x" (markssista) so as to make it sound even more ominous.

javiertf.bsky.social•69 days ago

*1973. The Chilean military didn't have time machines.

kdmacleod.bsky.social•68 days ago

I like how Heather Richardson connects the word socialism to the history of slavery and racism. Here in Canada the word has none of those connotations. Which is one reason a democratic socialist party was able to engineer the creation of a universal healthcare system in the 1960s.

bacongrease.bsky.social•69 days ago

People have been mislabeling things "socialism" forever but yet there are still plenty of people that get sucked in.

wadeneal.bsky.social•69 days ago

Fair point then! I try to avoid using the word fascist because of what you are saying. Wish more people would be hip to “this is growing Putinism/Orbanism/Pinochetism”

Let’s just get rid of Trumpism whatever it may reflect

wadeneal.bsky.social•69 days ago

It has to be said Orwell would surely think we ALL overuse the word fascist. He thought so in the 40s!

wadeneal.bsky.social•69 days ago

Everyone listen to Tom and do what he says. ;-)

seabeegator46.bsky.social•69 days ago

Fascist.

wadeneal.bsky.social•69 days ago

Hehe /s

ebberman.bsky.social•69 days ago

But communist/socialist/Marxist remains politically and motivationally *effective* for them

Which - again - strongly suggests "some people use it loosely" is not the root of our problem

jaypay.bsky.social•69 days ago

This

schwartzmatt81.bsky.social•69 days ago

The thing is, it did work. A significant enough number of voters still believe that Obama, Hilary, Biden, Harris etc. are radical socialists. And I believe it’s because it wasn’t just internet randoms and college kids throwing the word around. It was and is establishment republicans.

rlgottwald.bsky.social•69 days ago

Right but those voters were nearly all in the bag anyway. The main thing that Republicans calling Obama a socialist accomplished was to drive up socialism's favorability numbers among normie Millennials.

schwartzmatt81.bsky.social•69 days ago

And then what happened? Obama is the aberration here because he was/is tremendously charismatic.

rlgottwald.bsky.social•69 days ago

So was Bill Clinton, whom also got tarred as a "socialist". Biden wasn't, charismatic that way and neither was Harris – but I can tell you from plenty of conversations with "I don't like Trump, but..." types that they didn't think those two were socialists either. The folks in the cult, OTOH...

schwartzmatt81.bsky.social•68 days ago

Bill Clinton’s most recent win was almost 30 years ago and I think that if Trump doesn’t botch the early pandemic response he…who knows. Anyway, I know a fair amount of “I don’t like Trump, but” types too and anecdotally they didn’t vote for Harris b/c “too far left”

aggiewill666.bsky.social•69 days ago

It’s all about making it good vs evil. Communists, satanic, socialists, liberals. I mean, no sane person could support that evil. And it has worked. How many republicans you met that ever voted for a dem before trump? Or after. Like the dispatch crew doing write ins

sailbarque.bsky.social•69 days ago

True, but the ideological bubble is something like 70 million zonkers.

eigerjoch.bsky.social•69 days ago

It matters in the UK, where nutty elements on the right fling ‘Marxist’ around. There still is a hard left in the UK and they controlled a major party not long ago, and I think some (admittedly dumb) people missed the danger for this reason

chipdaniels.bsky.social•69 days ago

How does the "overuse" theory work?
Can it be documented and measured?
Can you produce a person who sees Elon giving a Nazi salute and responds, " Gee, it looks like a Nazi but ppl said the same abt GWB so I dunno."?

littlefonzie920.bsky.social•68 days ago

Tom blocked me!? Why? For saying he is trolling? Isn’t that what quoting people and dunking on them is? What a thin skinned jerk store.

littlefonzie920.bsky.social•69 days ago

Tom’s just trollin.’

jeanlucp.bsky.social•69 days ago

The definition of a communist state requires ALL countries be communist. Otherwise it’s socialism. Therefore there has never been a communist country and no doubt will never be.

genejockey57.bsky.social•69 days ago

I think my favorite use of Communism/Socialism as a scare word was when Mitch McConnell said statehood for DC and PR was Socialism. It really was such a pure expression of "Everything I Hate Is Socialism".

radiofreetom.bsky.social•69 days ago

I was having arguments with fellow conservatives years ago about calling Obama socialist, which made no sense at all to me, and I suggested to many of them that if they keep doing that, millions of people might think socialism is actually pretty cool 😎

homermke.bsky.social•69 days ago

I think even most Dems would agree on the numbing effect hearing those claims over and over again had at that time. When you can't even bother to explain why it's wrong anymore, it's that feeling.

genejockey57.bsky.social•69 days ago

You may recall the consternation, especially on the Right, a few years ago when polls showed a large percentage of young people were okay with Socialism.

jwcreighton3.bsky.social•69 days ago

“Cultural Marxism” is the idiotic & nonsensical term I always am bemused at right-wingers throwing around.

Now that really is code for “anything I don’t like.”

benmakuh.com•68 days ago

https://bsky.app/profile/bmakuh.bsky.social/post/3lklnr72qlk2h

kevinwmoore.bsky.social•69 days ago

"Cultural Marxism" was always code for "Jewish" going back to the Nazis themselves and the far right ideologues who followed in their wake.

mpzrd.bsky.social•69 days ago

No wonder the young people aren't that interested in the Democratic Party then

cabbageridge.bsky.social•69 days ago

Don’t forget we get called Marxists as well

topladave.bsky.social•68 days ago

This has currency with 80 year olds.

wombat2k.com•69 days ago

I think it would be more accurate to call them neo-fascists because although they share a lot of traits, this is much dumber and fascism has a distinct time and place in history, but you know, at this point, it feels pointless to argue over semantics.

econhook.bsky.social•69 days ago

Evidently, something like 1/4 of federal judges are "radical left lunatics" according to Trump. Amazing how the conservative Americal legal system appointed so many "radical left lunatics"?!

dyslexnick.bsky.social•68 days ago

Hard disagree. The average voter doesn’t understand what real communism means and is swayed away from candidates that have been successfully painted as socialist. Good god, just look at how the label “Liberal” has been turned into a slur.

susanlibris.bsky.social•69 days ago

Red Scare; Red Scare; Red Scare!!

eeeeeeruck.bsky.social•69 days ago

Pink bait!

guybaddis.bsky.social•69 days ago

Ah, but socialism has political history in the US.

Socialism is when the government taxes former slaveholders and uses it to benefit society, including formerly enslaved people. The usage expanded in the 1950s and 60s to include civil rights for the same group. Obama represents socialist takeover.

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