51–60 of 330 posts
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Having implemented social policies doesn't make the EU States socialists... You should do some reading and learn the differences
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There are other political parties against authoritarianism (such as chat control), like the liberal Renew Europe or Volt.
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Please don't conflate socialism with authoritarianism. There's non-authoritarian socialists; there's non-socialist authoritarians. They are two independent axis. In the case of the EU, it's a capitalist authoritarian project.
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There is no meaningul difference between socialism and communism, especially on this aspect (ownership of means of production), which is key to conclude that the system must be authoritarian.
"According to The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx, "Marx used many terms to refer to a post-capitalist society—positive humanism, socialism, communism, realm of free individuality, free association of producers, etc. He used these terms completely interchangeably. The notion that 'socialism' and 'communism' are distinct historical stages is alien to his work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death"" [1]
The 'distinction' was created by Lenin and the Bolcheviks for political purposes.
"The distinction between communism and socialism became salient in 1918 after the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party renamed itself to the All-Russian Communist Party, interpreting communism specifically to mean socialists who supported the politics and theories of Bolshevism, Leninism and later that of Marxism–Leninism,[53] although communist parties continued to describe themselves as socialists dedicated to socialism." [1]
In Europe, most socialist parties have evolved to simply seek to implement socialist-inspired ideas within a capitalist society and perhaps state capitalism, whereas communist parties stayed on Lenin's line and seek to overthrow the system to set up a fully socialist society.
Why is anyone surprised about this? This will be a global phenomenon since LLMs together with ubiquitous surveillance brings down the costs of policing to 0. Just add police drones and you have a foolproof system. There is not a single country in this world whose leaders will decide that "nah we dont need perfect surveillance"
> Just add police drones and you have a foolproof system except you don't. And this is exactly the issue here: by removing police from the streets, doing policing work, not repression as they do in the US, people started feeling less and less secure, which is somewhat also kinda true and they will gladly accept anything that promises more security, which in turn will increase the sense of insecurity and promote more…
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I think it's more the Nordic countries which are seen as socialist; the EU as an institution is the kind of light-touch, states are sovereign, "fundamental rights and trade only" focus that Republicans seem to wish the USA federal government was.
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In what way is regional development or common policy or regulating business "socialist" in any way?
Collective control over the means of production, and redistribution of wealth.
Has anyone in power thought through the scale of this? Even if it has a frankly exceptional error rate of just 0.001%, that still means tens of thousands of innocent Europeans will have their lives ruined every day. And, assuming there's a human in the loop, who are we going to traumatize to check The Machine's work? Is it going to be Kenyans again^, or Eastern Europeans this time? ^ https://theguardian.com/technolog…
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I have never ever before in my whole life seen anyone, either online or offline, under any circumstance, seen someone point to something good the EU did and claim it as an example of socialism working. It's simply not socialist.
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I live in the Netherlands. I pay more than 150 euros per month out of my own pocket for health insurance (it's mandatory to have one and they are in this price range), and even though I pay that much per month, I still have to pay the first 385 euros out of my own pocket if I go to the doctor for anything.
I fucking wish that healthcare was socialized.
And do you know what I get for this price. Access to a private GP that will at most give you some ibuprofen before they send you home.
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Socialist?? The EU is still primarily a neoliberalist institution, I can't think of a single socialist reform it upheld. It's all about enforcing privatization of what wasn't yet and fostering economic competition among its members. Are you just throwing words you don't understand?
Tell me more how all the money transfers are neoliberal? How the “creating of european idea” is neoliberal? How “we must have minimal taxes in europe” is neoliberal. Industrial subsidies for car and aeroplane companies. Compulsary social and retirement policies. In EU socialism is the norm, everything outside is branded almost extreme right. And right is a bad word in EU. If you take right and cut out russian support…
That describes to a T the French party "Les Republicains", and nobody calls them far right. So no, you need the extremist "migrants bad" with zero nuance, heavy doses of populism with no foundation, promises of more money distribution (in France, the Front National is promising raising the minimum wage, bringing back the wealth tax, and other such populist "give money to the real people" things), and yes, lots of Russian support and money and dicksucking, and you get a classic European far-right party.
> In EU socialism is the norm
What is your definition of socialism? Considering the EU hasn't nationalised/EU-lised anything to control the means of production, I can guarantee you it's wrong.
The EU is neoliberal in many aspects, like the railway packages, strict rules on country subsidies into many sectors (countries can no longer just bail out their national industries when they fail). But it isn't only neoliberal. Consumer protections with warranties, GDPR, Digital Markets and Services Acts, etc. aren't strictly neoliberal.
I don't know why anyone would think something as complex as the EU can be described with a political label. Hell, most parties can barely be described with a single label, let alone a multi-government entity with many institutions and responsible for some of the greatest progress and unity the continent has ever seen.