General News Chat

[InversneckieDob]

Have you never herad of Stalin or Mao Tse Tung? They killed 10s of millions of people. Or what about Pol Pot?

Indeed, I think they also pretended to be Communist.

[Basingstokered]

Indeed, I think they also pretended to be Communist.

Is a proper socialist someone like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro who basically just steal the country’s resources.

Was Jeremy Corbyn a proper socialist

[InversneckieDob]

Is a proper socialist someone like Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro who basically just steal the country’s resources.

Was Jeremy Corbyn a proper socialist

Nae sure TBH (as regards the first two).
From what I know of Cuba and Venezuela there's elements of the model in play, but both nations fall within a geographic sphere of influence of the U.S so would have little chance of success.

Corbyn put together a manifesto that I could have damn near voted for, but in the end I made a single issue choice.
What the socioeconomic model he'd have put together in government would have looked like I have no idea.

I get the impression my original point has been missed.

I was not espousing the practical virtues of a bona fide Socialist/Communist economic model (for what it's worth, in today's global free market, I don't think a model of this nature could work unless that particular bation was wholly resource and productivity self-sufficient).

My point was ore linguistic than ideological.

Namely, the practice of ill-informed people throwing the phrase "Lefty" "Commy" and "Socialist" in a pejorative fashion at anything they don't like, when it is patently no of those things.

I was on another message board where this particularly dumb woman, from NZ who hated Jacinta Arden, was railing against a policy relating to the indirect taxation of motorists (road tax or fuel duty.........can't recall which).

Apparently, this policy, indirect rather than direct taxation being an acknowledged tool of the right, rendered her a "Socialist b1tch".

I think this is a by-product of the whole politics as a team sport thing, which in turn is one of the products of a two party political system.

[donsdaft]

Is Donald Trump one of the good guys?

[57vintage]

Is Donald Trump one of the good guys?

Fill the **** full of bangers and jumping jacks on 5 November and we'll see.

[donsdaft]

Ken iss, 57 min.

You think you've seen it all, and then the Yanks put Trump in the Whitehouse.

Unbef'uckinlevable.

[Jupiter]

Ken iss, 57 min.

You think you've seen it all, and then the Yanks put Trump in the Whitehouse.

Unbef'uckinlevable.

4 more years

[InversneckieDob]

4 more years

Would that be a positive thing?

[Jupiter]

Would that be a positive thing?

There's only one way to find out.

[donsdaft]

Let’s hope that they don’t bother trying