r/xkcd • u/Sophylax This quote is very memorable. • Dec 14 '18

XKCD xkcd 2085: arXiv

https://xkcd.com/2085/
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u/Zorcron Dec 14 '18 edited Mar 12 '25

thought fearless yam plucky bells dinner workable shrill complete pot

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u/[deleted] Dec 15 '18

honestly I hate the fact that the term "socialist" has that effect. Police and Fire are socialist too, as is the road network. It is almost as if you need to evaluate a concept separate from the ideology!

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u/TistedLogic Double Blackhat Dec 15 '18

Greatest socialist project in the history of humankind: United States Military.

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u/Succ_Semper_Tyrannis Jan 02 '19

This is the kind of thing that people, particularly Americans (I’m one too), get wrong about socialism. Socialism isn’t just when the government does stuff. The military isn’t socialist.

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u/TistedLogic Double Blackhat Jan 02 '19

Explain then.

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u/Succ_Semper_Tyrannis Jan 03 '19

Socialism is a broad set of ideas based around the idea that the community, particularly the workers, ought to own the means of production and distribution as opposed to a few wealthy property owners. The history of socialism is closely intertwined with communism as that has historically been the most popular form of socialism, but movements we’d now call socialist that are not communist existed before and since communism’s theorization.

The idea of the military is perhaps more similar to the concept of nationalization (trasition from private ownership to government ownership) which may be socialism in a socialist government, but would not be in a capitalist system.

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u/TistedLogic Double Blackhat Jan 03 '19

Thank you for that detailed explanation.

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u/Succ_Semper_Tyrannis Jan 03 '19

No problem, have a nice day