Socialist Progressives
In reply to the discussion: Dumb question: what's a Socialist? [View all]Oakenshield
(614 posts)The further you go from those two political philosophers, the more varied the answer becomes to your question. Since you typically can't mention Karl Marx in the public discourse here in America without ignorant people thinking you've become Stalin, I tend to avoid the word socialism altogether unless I'm conversing with others already familiar with the topic.
A less controversial word I like to use is collectivism, which like the word Socialism represents shared responsibility and ownership. At the end of the day that's what socialism is all about. It's about giving the vast majority of workers direct control of their labor. Instead of forming unions in an effort to negotiate with the elite few who control the means of production, in a socialist society the workers collectively own the businesses in which they work....which means fair wages and working conditions.