That's basically because most people don't truly know what either socialism or communism is. As a Marxist-Trotskyist myself, I understand it both as through what I've learned through the work of Marx, and how these forms of socialism are relatively viewed today by scholars and experts in it. In the era of Marx, communism and socialism really had no determining difference to Marx. Communism relative to community. Socialism relative to the structure of a society as a whole. Today it seemingly appears to those like Professor Wolff, it has been broken down to 3 basic types. Democratic socialism, often correlated to worker op type of companies also, in regards to the means of production. As communism has been broken down to a socialism of either state governed control, like China, Cuba, and Venezuela, or where government is controlled by sources within the country such as corporations, banking and market, and oligarchs. I would also argue that the judicial system in the US is a major negative also working for the above mentioned on a large degree. If one would attempt to separate that from representation.

How bad is it? I get on my facehack feed from a collage that offers online classes that occasionally post about the USSR history with communism. Have here a collage that attempts to define to its students that Marxism was the structure in the USSR. Why it failed. Anyone who knows the history of the USSR and knows Marxism, Stalinism obviously wasn't a form of Marxism. Trotsky who was among the major leaders of the 1917 revolution with the working class was a Marxist. Lenin and the upper middle class betrayed Trotsky and the working class joining Stalin. Which that provided Stalin to achieving power. The Marxist aspect of that revolution never took hold to claim that the USSR was a Marxist construct of communism. It's an absurd statement for a collage to make.

Those that were the make up of Marxism were hunted down and jailed, many executed, or went into exile. Trotsky himself in exile was hunted down and murdered in Mexico City a couple years later.

@William_Mary Many don't like Heather Cox Richardson but I am a fan. In one of her many Politics Chats ot it could have been a History one she totally explains how Americans confuse socialism and communisium. She did not include the whole back story on Marx or Trotsky as that is Russian history. Her focus is on U.S. history, specifically the Republican Party started at the time of Lincoln and how it has been taken over by Movement Conservatives.

@silverotter11 in the US we have a significant amount of people who will join in the bashing of communism and socialism, seemingly unaware that we have multiple socialistic levels of these structures. The most obvious should be how our taxes are used in all 3 categories of governance, local, state, and nationally.

I argue that in regards to especially local, it would be communism. State wide, a mix of both, communism and socialism? A wider participation of the use of our taxes but as a state structure? My opinion on that is based on the suggestion that we have more control through the voting process of what our local structure contains. But it stays within our community. Where our state representation is as criminal as our national. However, I also recognize that we have a serious problem within local politicians on a lot of levels also. There's still a mirroring chain of control by the wealthy, major corporations, and personal favoritism within the local arena. I view this in stages like high school where we have levels of progressing to the worse as it goes towards the national level.

Nationally, our representation is clearly bought, our MSCMs are clearly owned and the information delivery controlled by billionaires via their public relation firms.

So with aspects of police and fire departments, local and state workers of various departments, politicians etc, I know you get it.

With that said, we also have a vast amount of corporations and companies that we are sold various personal plans like auto insurance, healthcare plans through work, etc. Anything where we are grouped together putting our income into such. Is this not also a form of socialism? As members of society we're grouped into helping ourselves in these constructs? While paying some group to manage the construct.

We're so socialistic on so many levels that I find it absurd for anyone who would can't recognize this fact. But that's why they engage with this constant war on socialism and communism. So this vast amount of people can't recognize how they're being plundered while enriching the groups managing the companies from state to state across the nation.

It's basically another factor of stealing our wealth from us that a nation like China and Russia saves citizens wealth. Where we also end up with less benefits due to how it's managed. Because our representation isn't governing over it, but more so controlled by it.

I find such reactions to the seriousness of these issues that have death and destruction behind them to be profoundly disturbing. It only shows the lack of understanding of how such is also destroying our western societies and dividing our citizens into useless squabbling idiots. Western nations are presently at odds with each other now within the same type of atmosphere they have our citizenships in. The partisan environment is particularly hard to break through. As I comment on post from both sides of the establishment on a dissenting nature of both, I get it from both ends. One must determine whether they're dealing with an idiot, a troll, or someone that's actually a fascist or some degree of a nationalist. Any where I see the term woke, obviously an idiot! Don't argue with the idiots! They'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. They can't be reached.

@William_Mary LOL!! I laugh at alot of it. I have a friend on FB, I have a very short friend list and while she does more hanging with the MAGA around here and some of her family is MAGA she has now started to post facts about trump. On one I commented and added more facts, JUST fucking facts any idiot with one finger can discern from a simple search and one of her friends rigth outta the gate, in all caps - you are full of shit, an idiot, crazy and can't see anything the right.
Ad hominem no matter how lame add nothing to an intelligent discussion, which is what I replied.
I wonder if she knows what ad hominem means.
I finally had to just say to my twin 'fuck off'. The major problem is the refusal to seek information out side the bubble of FOX, OAN, Newsmax or Epoch Times on one side and all the out MSM on the other.
Because of that they lack the ability to separate actions from words and results vs words.
Someone recently said of the epic raid on the Hyundai plant that shut it down. It is like lighting your house on fire to prove your smoke alarms works.
Just read a wonderful alternative take on the wizard of oz tale.

Here's the post. Yeah it's long but fun long.
Silver Screen Hub
Yesterday at 5:00 AM
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Who’s the greatest movie villain of all time? Forget Darth Vader. Forget Hannibal Lecter. Forget Voldemort. The real answer? Glinda — yes, Glinda the so-called “Good Witch” of the North. The one in the sparkly pink gown, smiling sweetly, pretending to be everyone’s friend. It’s always the ones with the tiaras you’ve got to watch out for.
Think about it. She shows up all floaty and radiant in her bubble like some kind of celestial savior, and within minutes she’s playing a game of cosmic chess where Dorothy is the disposable pawn. The poor girl has just been dropped into a land of technicolor nightmares, barely processing the fact that a house killed someone, and Glinda’s already scheming. First order of business? Magically slap those ruby slippers onto Dorothy’s feet. Without permission. No explanation, no warning, just — zap. And then, with a perfectly innocent smile, she casually drops the bombshell: “Oh, and by the way, you can’t take them off.” Convenient, right? Almost like she wanted the Wicked Witch of the West to lose her mind. Almost like she knew Dorothy was about to become a walking bullseye.
Then comes the kicker: Glinda sends this Kansas farm girl — armed with nothing but a dog, a picnic basket, and questionable footwear — on what is essentially a suicide mission. “Follow the yellow brick road,” she says, like it’s a Sunday stroll. No mention of flying monkeys. No mention of poison poppies. No mention of, oh, I don’t know, the murderous sorceress who now has a personal vendetta against her. Dorothy doesn’t need a travel itinerary; she needs a restraining order and maybe a Kevlar vest. But Glinda? She doesn’t care. As long as someone else handles the West Witch problem, she’s free to keep floating around in her glitter bubble, polishing her crown and humming lullabies to herself.
And here’s the real punch in the gut: Dorothy didn’t even need to go through any of it. Not the trek. Not the Wizard. Not the entire Technicolor death march. She could have clicked those heels and gone home from the start. But Glinda conveniently leaves that little detail out until Dorothy has risked life, limb, and sanity. Why? Maybe Glinda wanted her occupied. Maybe she needed a distraction. Or maybe — and this is where it gets delicious — she wanted the West Witch weakened, distracted, and ultimately destroyed, without lifting a perfectly manicured finger.
But you want real proof of Glinda’s dark side? Go back to their very first exchange. Dorothy, sweet, polite, Midwestern Dorothy, says: “I’ve never heard of a beautiful witch before.” Innocent, right? Glinda doesn’t miss a beat: “Only bad witches are ugly.” Read that again slowly. What she’s really saying is: good equals beautiful, bad equals ugly. And then, later, Glinda actually asks Dorothy, “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” So, let’s unpack this. That means, in Glinda’s sparkly little worldview, if Dorothy were pretty, she wouldn’t even need to ask. But since she does ask, well… she clearly doesn’t find Dorothy’s looks reassuring. Yikes. Subtle, Glinda. Real subtle.
By the end, she sails back in like she’s been orchestrating this entire saga from her crystal ball. Smiles sweetly, waves her wand, and says, “Oh, silly me, you’ve had the power to go home all along.” And she has the audacity to act like she’s teaching Dorothy a valuable lesson about self-reliance, as though all those near-death experiences were some kind of personal growth seminar. No, Glinda. Dorothy didn’t need a lesson; she needed a straight answer and maybe a cup of tea.
So yes, while movie history loves to paint her as the benevolent fairy godmother, I’m not buying it. Behind that saccharine smile is the cold calculation of someone who knew exactly what she was doing. She wasn’t helping Dorothy. She was using her. The Wicked Witch of the West may have worn black and cackled like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, but Glinda? Glinda played the long game. The quiet ones always do.
And somewhere, high above Oz, she’s probably still floating in that ridiculous bubble, humming to herself, wondering how long it’ll take before anyone else catches on.
#MovieVillains #WizardOfOz #GlindaExposed #RubySlippersConspiracy #YellowBrickTrap

@silverotter11 I have read the book Wicked and yes, Glinda is a stuck up bitch and Alphalba is the one who was wronged.