On Sun, 14 Feb 2010, shag carpet bomb wrote:
>> Just out of curiosity, what's the litmus test belief I have (or lack)
>> that makes me not a socialist?
>
> if you say you are, then you are. that's my litmus test.
Then yep, I'm a socialist.
> i've never seen you say you are.
I guess I've considered it equivalent to the equally vague "being on the left" and have usually said that instead.
But last week when I was asking why we don't call single payer a socialist program -- or why we don't call any existing or proposed government program a socialist program -- I was very much speaking as both.
That's one of the ironies of this debate. Those of us who think it might be good for our side to concretize the term a bit more aren't proposing it because we have some detailed blueprint. It's quite the opposite: it's because our idea are so vague. And we think they would be more appealing if they had some body.
And we think that being appealing helps.
Calling that a blueprint seems like calling a child's drawing of a house a blueprint. And how using such vague word-pictures can enslave future generations is entirely outside my ken.
Michael