[lbo-talk] 36% of Americans have a positive image of socialism

Sean Andrews cultstud76 at gmail.com
Fri Feb 5 06:37:49 PST 2010


On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 06:08, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Feb 5, 2010, at 3:35 AM, Lenin's Tomb wrote:
>
>> That's more than I would have expected.  It doesn't matter so much that
>> people are confused and think they like 'small business' (no one actually
>> likes small businesses, because most people have to work for one of the
>> suckers, but it's the sort of thing you're supposed to say).
>
> So when 95% of Americans say they like small biz they don't really mean it,
> but when 36% say they like socialism they really do?
>

While I also think it is completely possible that few of the people asked have any idea what socialism actually means (and likely think it is something more like Social Democracy) I also think there is something to the fact that there isn't much of a strategic ideological advantage to claiming to support socialism in the US. Saying you like Small Businesses is something of a hegemonic reflex--like saying you love freedom or liberty. You almost *HAVE* to say that you support small businesses to feel okay about yourself (well you, Doug, don't--and with good reasons I am increasingly persuaded by, but the average citizen is fed a steady diet of pablum about pa and ma shops); but saying you support socialism in a culture that has typically seen the term as a slur seems to have more agency involved. If, as Richard says, this has to do with the population that have most recently taken up the slur, then I agree, it would be a good opening. (the Handle quote is great.)

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