What is the definition of Socialism?

Question

Don't like the media? Call it socialist.
Don't like liberals? Call them socialist.
Don't like foreign nations? Call them socialist.
Don't like school? Call it socialist.
Don't Yahoo? Call it socialist.
Don't like government programs? Call them socialist.
Don't like somebody? Call him or her socialist.

From what I take it, 'socialism' is something that isn't liked, or isn't hard core right wing.

So what isn't socialist? Fox news?

All I know is that most of these "socialist" things aren't related to dictionary socialism.

Answer 1

Anything that opposes the right-wing ideology, seems to be the acceptible definition of Yahoo Answers, and talk radio.

Answer 2

Ironically, Tony Blair, aka "Bush's poodle" and beloved by every neo-con, neo-fascist, and right-wing nut-job in America is a real live socialist. The Labour party, which Blair led, is a socialist party.

Thus, cons either don't have a clue what socialism is and who is and who isn't a real live socialist, or they just take the easy way out and ape what Rush and Sean tell them to ape.

Judging from their posts on YA, my guess is that it is clearly both.

Answer 3

Freedom, Justice and Solidarity

12. Democratic socialism is an international movement for freedom, social justice and solidarity. Its goal is to achieve a peaceful world where these basic values can be enhanced and where each individual can live a meaningful life with the full development of his or her personality and talents and with the guarantee of human and civil rights in a democratic framework of society.

13. Freedom is the product of both individual and cooperative efforts - the two aspects are parts of a single process. Each person has the right to be free of political coercion and also to the greatest chance to act in pursuit of individual goals and to fulfil personal potential. But that is only possible if humanity as a whole succeeds in its long-standing struggle to master its history and to ensure that no person, class, sex, religion or race becomes the servant of another.

14. Justice and Equality. Justice means the end of all discrimination against individuals, and the equality of rights and opportunities. It demands compensation for physical, mental and social inequalities, and freedom from dependence on either the owners of the means of production or the holders of political power.

Equality is the expression of the equal value of all human beings and the precondition for the free development of the human personality. Basic economic, social and cultural equality is essential for individual diversity and social progress.

Freedom and equality are not contradictory. Equality is the condition for the development of individual personality. Equality and personal freedom are indivisible.

15. Solidarity is all-encompassing and global. It is the practical expression of common humanity and of the sense of compassion with the victims of injustice. Solidarity is rightly stressed and celebrated by all major humanist traditions. In the present era of unprecedented interdependence between individuals and nations, solidarity gains an enhanced significance since it is imperative for human survival.

16. Democratic socialists attach equal importance to these fundamental principles. They are interdependent. Each is a prerequisite of the other. As opposed to this position, Liberals and Conservatives have placed the main emphasis on individual liberty at the expense of justice and solidarity while Communists have claimed to achieve equality and solidarity, but at the expense of freedom.

Answer 4

The proper definition of socialism is ownership by the state of the means of production. Any system where wealth is generated largely by private enterprise is not socialism, regardless of what policies to reduce (or increase) economic inequality are practiced.

The informal definition of socialism in use by the right is 'anything I don'[t like'. In this usage it is a synonym for another popular term (which also has a real meaning, rarely used by rightists), communism. It's also, interestingly, a sort of de facto synonym of 'fascism', which is often used by lefties in exactly the same way that righties use socialism. Coming full circle, the latest upcoming term to replace socialism for everything bad in the right vocabulary is 'Islamofascism'.

Answer 5

To answer your question;

Socialism is a broad array of ideologies and political movements with the goal of a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. This control may be either direct, exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils, or indirect, exercised on behalf of the people by the state

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

Answer 6

For most supporters of socialism, "socialism" usually means that the workers control the means of production, while "capitalism" means another class controls the means of production.

Historically, supporters of socialism have varied from opponents of the state (like Proudhon or Bakunin) to supporters of it (like Engels), as well as from supporters of completely free markets (like Proudhon or Tucker) to supporters of planned economies (like Marx) to supporters of free access to common means of production (like Kropotkin).

Indeed, many socialists (e.g. most anarchists) regard markets where people own their own means of production (or have reasonable chances to do so) as forms of socialism, and states where the state owns the means of production (as in the Soviet Union) as capitalism, with the ruling party as the capitalists.

For many supporters of capitalism, "capitalism" means a free market and private control of the means of production, while "socialism" means a planned economy and state control of the means of production; some introduce another category, sometimes called "syndicalism," (which has more specific meanings for socialists) to describe stateless socialism.

I'd strongly suggest reading Ben Tucker's "State Socialism and Anarchism." It gives an insight into one extreme of the range of socialist thought: http://praxeology.net/BT-SSA.htm

Answer 7

The trend for current Neo-Pub's are to define terms and words as needed, worse none of the followers seem to care or question.

Answer 8

Mike Huckabee and chuck norris

Answer 9

yeap
what are they anti-social?????