Where did this fear or phobia of socialism come from?

[and-justice-for-all]

I never have understood this meme that socialism is evil, why? If it works in the rest of the civilized world, so, DUH. how much of a clue do you need.

I think several things should be socialized, for the protection of the majority. There is not need to socialize everything and there would still be plenty of room for capitalism.

[annabanana]

1. 1950's Red Scare..

Like most of the RW's bullshit.

[Junkdrawer]

10. Yep. Russia's 1949 A-Bomb test caused mass panic.

The reaction was a search for the "Red Traitors" who gave away the secret of The Bomb.

[tucsonlib]

2. It's Not Socialism They Fear

Just remind them that their Police Departments, Fire Departments, Public Libraries, Public Schools, etc. etc. are all examples of socialism at work. Some things simply should not be profit-driven. Like, for example, health care?

[magellan]

5. Churches too are a form of socialism

They don't see that though.

[and-justice-for-all]

24. That is how I feel about it..

Somethings should not be profit driven.

[Two Americas]

3. it is no accident

Decades and decades of a well financed and orchestrated propaganda campaign by the wealthy and powerful few.

[cloudythescribbler]

4. Much older than 50s -- 100 years of propaganda and repression

people tend to fear what is repressed and leads to one getting screwed, and then there's mountains of propaganda and the absence of any real advocacy on the other side.

As someone who has spent decades up against the propaganda machine of our imperialist system, believe me when I tell you that you not only have to fight the OBVIOUS enemies of freedom, but craven liberals, inauthentic progressives and all kinds of forces both visible and not that are simply overwhelming.

Rationally, one is tempted to give up and figure the planet is simply going to end up in ruins with the existing power elite and their chosen successors presiding over the ruins.

Read Dennis Brutus' poem "There will be ample provision for the elite"

[deutsey]

6. Yeah, that's what I was going to say

I think the wealthy elites were terrified by the stirrings of socialism and class warfare in the late 19th century and then especially with the revolution in Russia and the Great Depression. There were a lot propaganda and crackdowns.

Then they had an effective bogeyman in Stalin's USSR in the '50s. They could point to the totalitarian brutality of the Soviet Union and say, "See? That's what socialism is!"

Of course, they never pointed to the functioning socialist democracies, but they benefited from American ignorance on that front.

[and-justice-for-all]

25. That is not what socialism is...

that is what a dictatorship is.

Obviously German, UK, France and other EU countries, that have socialism working and working well, are not dictatorships. So, that old excuse just is not going to cut these days.

It is the CEOs that fear for their Swiss back accounts that hinder the prosperity of the majority and I am sick of it.

[deutsey]

33. I'm aware of that...most Americans are not. n/t

[malaise]

7. When these IMF polcies really take hold

people will have a serious rethink re socialism. I don't think many people understand what was signed last night.

[and-justice-for-all]

26. Explain...nt

[VOX]

8. Originates with Big Business...Socialism gets in the way of cost-cutting and obscene profits...

Management never wanted any part of unions or anything that smacked of "socialism" -- why let the workers be shareholders, when the elite few can fill their bulging pockets time and time again, all in a deliberate, lockstep-mechanical rapidity? It was/is very lucrative to have no child-labor laws, no worker's compensation on the books, no health benefits, no regulation of sweatshops, etc.

Somewhere along the line, the fat-cats figured out that if you can make the *general population* fear socialism on abstract but frightening grounds, you can have a niave population doing your dirty work for you, damning anything remotely leftist or socialist as Godless -- and a threat to the nation. :grr:

[and-justice-for-all]

27. It is time to put that in its grave...nt

[RC]

9. I think Socialism works just fine

Insurance, Municipal water, sewer, Streets. Our nation wide Interstate system. Police, Fire Department. Social Security. Co-Ops. State Bank of North Dakota. North Dakota Mill and Elevator.

So why is socialized Medicine so evil? Really, why? If the rest of the civilized world can do it, why not us, U.S.?

North Dakota is a Red Republican sound bite controlled State, so why:

Bank of North Dakota, located in Bismarck, ND, is the only state-owned bank in the nation. Its mission, established by legislative action in 1919, is to encourage and promote agriculture, commerce and industry in North Dakota. In this role, the Bank acts as a funding resource in partnership with other financial institutions, economic development groups and guaranty agencies.
http://www.banknd.nd.gov/bndhome.jsp

The North Dakota Mill and Elevator is the largest flour mill in the United States. It is located in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Mill is owned by the U.S. state of North Dakota and is the only state-owned milling facility in the United States.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_Mill_and_Elevator


Nobody, absolutely nobody dare touch these! To do so is political suicide.

[and-justice-for-all]

28. Socialism is made out to be evil...

because it requires regulation, over-sight and caps profits. For the majority, Socialism in some sectors is good, it would not eliminate the need for capitalism. But what things would be socialized would no longer be a profit sector and as it should be.

[moondust]

11. Bolsheviks?

The right wing and other uninformed cretins typically consider socialism the first step toward communism and treat them as one and the same. It's a long story.

[dailykoff]

12. Huge PR effort turned WWII into a fight against socialism.

Socialism bad, unions bad, big business good, long live Texaco. That's what the 50s were all about and Ike was too oblivious to do anything but let Nixon and company pull it off.

[pnutbutr]

13. government control

Most nations have some socialist policies but for the most part cannot be considered socialist nations. It does not work well. With socialism, government controls everything including your life. It controls every aspect of business, food, economy, everything. You essentially become a slave of the government. Once to that point, corruption explodes. The elite government class gets wealthy while everyone else goes on doing whatever they do for their set government wage. There is no freedom with true socialism. We are all made equal, just like sheep. Corraled and provided sustenance by our protector. We provide our wool and go home cold.

I don't know about you but true socialism scares the shit out of me.

[100AcreWood]

16. Not entirely correct

There are plenty of examples of socialism-done-wrong. Or things call "socialism" which are not. It can be done right. Initially I was hopeful that this big financial bust would be the trigger to snap people into a recognition that there is another way to organize economic activity but now I'm not so sure.

It was bad enough when Obama wavered on implementing his economic policies (tax, etc) because of the state of the economy. But when he initially hesitated on whether to support or oppose the bailout I got really worried. Now he seems to support it, but I think he ought to let the markets fall.

Anyway, Obama is egalitarian at his core, and I see him as a transitional force as significant as FDR. This will be step to in the move away from a capital-driven economy in the US, although I think we'll remain stuck in the mixed-economy mindeset for a while longer.

Maybe Obama's second term will see a genuine discussion about a new economic order.

[pnutbutr]

23. pure socialism

is what I was referring to. Most nations in the world have socialist policies which are a good thing. When socialism is taken to the extreme and goverment controls everything as with true or pure socialism it is very very bad and never works.

Obama's policies are of the good kind but we still must tread lightly with the expansion of socialism in places like the economy. I dislike too much government control of anything as it allows for rampant corruption and the degradation of the service which becomes hard to correct since the government has so much power over it.

[and-justice-for-all]

30. You are repeating the fear mongering of Socialism...

and your description is entirely incorrect.

Government is suppose to protect its citizens, even if it is a domestic capitalist threat. Having some sectors socialized like Heath Care is not a threat. but a necessity for the sake of the majority.

[Mari333]

14. I was born in 1951, I grew up with the Commie scare tactics

as I am sure a lot of people here on DU did. I remember it well, the fear that gripped so many people. The new military industrial complex needed a boogie man. just like it does now. You cannot replenish the bank coffers of the corporate militarists without a boogeyman. The boogieman today is terra ists. back then, it was commies. All invented boogie men to scare everyone into thinking we had to go to war and fund the military.
to this day, my mother still speaks of the 'commies'. she bought it, hook line and sinker. I find it amusing, because back then everyone hated china because they were 'commie', but now they buy everything here and its made in china.
I guess it takes a long time for the meme of the booooooogieman commie socialist red to dissolve out of the collective unconcious (collective unconcious sounds strangely socialistic)...but perhaps in the coming years as people lose their jobs and livelihoods , the idea of free health care and etc will become more and more palatable.
when you think about it, jesus was totally a socialist. He passed out loaves and fishes to everyone and touted the virtues of the good samaritan. for some odd and inexplicable reason, there is this go it alone attitude in the US, as tho we are all on our own and I have mine, so I dont care if you starve you lazy so and so. That attitude pits one group of people against the other and ends up , oddly enough, with infighting amongst groups of people for the last slice of bread. This benefits the govt very well...if the serfs are all fighting amongst themselves for bread, they can go off on their merry way and fill their own bank accounts and that of their corporate friends ...
which, when I bring up CORPORATE welfare to people, they look like their heads will explode because it shakes their belief system about welfare to the core.
in the meantime, my mom wont vote for Obama because 'he will bring socialism to this country!'
she still thinks commies are right outside the door.

[earth mom]

15. The hatred for socialism has been pushed by the rethuglicans for YEARS.

Bastards! :grr:

[tjwash]

17. Because socialism would mean 2 things for megacorps...

1) Tight regulations, and oversight.

2) No multi-gazillion dollar CEO and upper exec salaries.

And since these are the same magacorps that own and operate our media and most of the ways that we acquire information from birth here in the good old USA, we get conditioned to believe from a very early age that those are evil.

[BlooInBloo]

18. You must be young. :)

[Swede]

19. I think the fear is legitamate,but not because it doesn't work.

Human nature corrupts it,like it does everything else.

[avaistheone1]

21. Well look at capitalism and the corruption we are swimming in.

[LWolf]

20. Propaganda. nt

[ismnotwasm]

22. Recently?

Ronald fucking Reagen in part. Of course I blame that bastard for several negative things pertinent to the present time. Any corporate capitalist will buy into, or promote, the Socialism = Communism in America using the disinformation of what Socialism really is and the fear of the loss of potential "profit"

Not all profit is healthy, as we're experiencing. Again.

[and-justice-for-all]

29. I agree...nt

[QC]

31. The Cold War. n/t

[lumpy]

32. There is very little diffrence between socialism and our form

of democracy. That is why so-called conservatives attack programs like Social Security that are designed to serve the welfare of the public.

[and-justice-for-all]

34. So-called conseratives is right...

the correct label is AUTHORITARIANIST