In response to a video I saw via Reddit (which was very good), I wrote some thoughts I had on the subject. Only after I had got finished, it occurred to me that there may be interest from others in either what I had to say or in being able to provide their own response. Please find the text of the response below:
Part of the problem in the US seems to be that the right uses ‘Socialism’ to mean whatever they want it to mean. You’ve heard Trump recently talking as though the ‘Reds under the bed’ are coming, coming for you and coming for you now!
The right use the mechanics of Socialism all the time.
At the moment, the US farmers have had $28 Billion of subsidies. The Trump tax cut has allowed the richest 400 families pay less tax than the bottom half of Americans. The banking bill rolling back Dodd-Frank will create monopolies.
These are all examples of good old left-wing policies of redistributing wealth. Unfortunately for us and the likes of us it is being redistributed in the wrong direction.
Capitalism has been around for circa 200 years. The right constantly tell us it would be disastrous, apocalyptic, anarchism would ensue (they also don’t know what anarchism is) without capitalism.
On the timeline and scale of human existence, we have had capitalism for the blink of an eye.
If we could get the message across to those in the ‘middle’ class that there is no aspiration for them, they are tools to make money for others then we’d see change and I would imagine rapid change.
Bernie Sanders speaks to a generation that don’t know or care about the ‘Red menace’. It doesn’t exist to them. They have had their entire lives afflicted by capital and capitalism and they can see this is a pernicious, arrogant and disparaging ‘ideology’. They want something different. They want something that brings them together and call it what you will that isn’t what they’ve got now.
The right wing and those with aligned interests hold the reins of mass media.
It is through those not solely driven by profit in the mainstream and the multitude of those of us through other means of communication, like YouTube, that need to get the message out and keep getting it out. Use the format of the right against them. Make what is said simple and mantra like. Repeat it and keep repeating it.
Socialism isn’t a dirty word. In fact, it’s the only word worth saying in this arena.
You will find the video at
As I say, it is first class and entertaining. Something could be learned from this.
Cheers,
Dave
For more of Party Political Puffin please take a look at the YouTube channel at,
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