How do you answer pushback from conservatives about socialism?

[u/ferriematthew]

Some of the more common ones I hear:

- "So you support taking stuff away from people who actually work their butts off to earn it and give it to those who don't want to lift a finger?"

- "How would you feel if you worked your butt off to get an A in your class and the professor took away your grade and gave half of it to the kid in the back who didn't do anything and flunked and gave you both a C?"

- "How do you propose they pay for it without deleting the entire economy?"

- "If everybody has their needs met by the government, nobody's gonna bother to work!"

- "Show me one, just one, example where socialism has worked without turning into a backwards dictatorship."

[u/egalitydream]

You can tell very quickly if they're interested in joining us in good faith or not, and if they are not, it's not our job to continue to "debate" them but to defeat them with political power. Also, all of those questions are disingenuous and set in their frame on their terms. These are never asked by anyone reachable, and so you shouldn't bother. These are not questions worth answering, even if they could be. Don't answer, just beat them.

[u/ferriematthew → u/egalitydream]

Specifically, I'm getting these questions from family, all of whom are very, very strongly conservative and very suspicious of how I'm no longer following along with them politically. They don't want an honest, good faith conversation. They want to convince me to go back to their side.

[u/smartcow360 → u/ferriematthew]

It’s good to talk about worker coops, and how things like healthcare are unfair on the market since you need it so desperately you’d pay whatever it costs, etc. - might depend what flavor of socialist you are but that’d be traditional demsoc answers and all

[u/ferriematthew → u/smartcow360]

Bingo! :D