From Eric of Classical Values:
But here’s my problem: I am sick to death of this creepy feeling that I can’t talk about socialism without sounding like a kook.
He presents this in a greater story about how the word socialist has been tainted by the tendency of those on the right to use is to beat their opponents, no matter how undeserving or ill fitting. I feel the same way he does. You can’t say that nationalizing the American auto industry is “socialism,” when that’s exactly what it is, without associating yourself with overblown rhetoric.
RACIST!
Same thing, but right-flavored. Then, when the real Socialists / Racists raise their head, calling them on it has lost all ‘oomph’.
Words have meanings, folks.
Well, except that this particular move is totalitarianism.
An alternative to socialist is collectivist. You might also speak in terms of a “centrally planned economy”.
I chalk it up to the ongoing and deliberate obfuscation Socialists like to maintain – it’s their whole, “Tastes Great! Less Filling!” rhetorical gabfest – just different expressions of flavor between National and International Socialism.
Fascism, Nazism, Maoism, Marxism, Feminism, Environmentalism, Communism, Democratic-Socialism, all are different branches of the same poisonous tree; Socialism. Anybody who attempts to dissuade the use of this term is almost certainly a Socialist, whatever their stripe.
There is this notion, propagated mostly by the Left, that using the language correctly is tantamount to blasphemy against a supreme being. This is nonsense. These are the same people who call themselves “Liberals” by the by. They most certainly aren’t. I’m a Liberal, and it is my sworn duty to destroy these bastard pretenders. The beginning of wisdom starts with calling things by their correct name. Let’s call a spade a spade, and anyone who rolls their eyes, gafaws, or mocks us is clearly telling us more about their own cards than they are of our own.
All together now:
Nationalizing the American Automotive Industry is SOCIALISM.
Nationalized heath care is SOCIALISM.
Barack Hussein is a SOCIALIST.
See? Doesn’t that make sense? Don’t you feel better?