Posted on 05/22/2011 9:04:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
so·cial·ism: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the of production and distribution of goods
That definition of socialism provided by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary seems relatively simple and anyone with a fifth grade knowledge of American history can recognize it’s not a traditional American political philosophy.
But according to HBO’s Bill Maher, it’s a philosophy Americans could learn to embrace – that is with the help of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the embattled former head of the International Monetary Fund who was recently indicted by a grand jury on charges of criminal sexual assault, attempted rape and sexual abuse. On his Friday night show on HBO, Maher explained that though what Strauss-Kahn did reason was upsetting, it could also be instructive.
“[I] was reading all week on blogs, people are upset of course, not only for the right reasons, that this IMF guy DSK, did what he did but also because he’s apparently a socialist, you know,” Maher said. “And not like Obama. He’s an actual socialist – not like a fake socialist. And they’re saying, ‘Well, he was, say, staying in a $3,000-a-night hotel suite, what a hypocrite.’”
Those standing to learn from this scandal are, according to Maher, so-called “teabaggers,” a euphemism employed by many on the left to describe Tea Party movement activists, and perhaps Americans more broadly who have a misunderstanding of what socialists do.
“This could be a teaching moment, could it not for the teabaggers?” Maher declared. “Or maybe all of America – who don’t understand that socialism doesn’t mean we’re going to come to your house and make you work on a collective farm. You know, in Europe, socialism is just another political party and it doesn’t mean that we’re against making a profit. It just means that government takes over certain things like hospitals and prisons, and the military, schools – and things that should not be run for profit.”
Gillian Tett, the U.S. managing editor for the Financial Times, explained it was even simpler than that because in some cases government knows better than markets, which makes socialism viable.
“As the European on the panel, I was going to say it’s simpler than that,” Tett said. “Socialism is really about recognizing that there are limits to what the market can do. The market is very useful, at times it works very well, but it doesn’t always work.”
MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan, host of “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” had a slightly different take. He speculated that socialism wasn’t misunderstood, but rather its definition had been hijacked.
“But it goes to the magic trick of arithmetic and fact, the same way they spin arithmetic and fact, they redefine words – socialism, we redefine capitalism,” Ratigan said. “All of these actual words that have real meaning. They’re actual things. They’re real actual basic words just like two plus two actually equals four and as soon as we’ve lifted all that –”
But Maher suggested his panel was overthinking things and explained the misunderstanding of socialism as something of a branding problem.
“You’re giving it more credit than it’s due,” Maher said. “It’s not like people here even give a definition to socialism. They just hear it and it’s evil and bad. It’s communism. They think it’s communism and they’re going to come and take…”
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Guess it wasn’t rape, rape?
Bill Maher was the kind of kid who’d pull his pants down just to get noticed. He’s still doing it , so to speak, as an adult.
It doesn't work so well when you're hung like a hamster...
Cheers!
His act is the same as the character Snot at the Renaissance festivals. Be as insulting and obnoxious as possible and everyone has a good laugh.
Out of sight does not erase or even hide the millions of deaths and the misery Socialism has caused everywhere except for European homogenous societies, democratic in more than just the name. And those are slowly crumbling.
What planet do these doofuses live on?
Good heavens, Bill. A 32-year old widow immigrant is sexually assaulted by a powerful man and all you do is go for jokes at the TEA Party expense? You are loathsome.
I know it’s herding cats - but why must this brainstem’s spew pollute this board?
Idiots.
Part of Karl Marx’s Communism included total equality for women and Women’s Liberation. His idea of equality of women was equality of women with each other. His concept of Liberation was something he called “community of women” i.e. free access to any woman for men. It is certainly an interesting concept.
Bill is out of material when he has to reach this far to get nowhere.
There will be a day when this fool mets his maker.
Never let him get away with even the simple fact that he is calling 12-year-old girls, and 80-year-old Grandmas “testicle suckers.”. Don’t let him get away with this. The Tea Party is a movement to keep taxes low. He has no right to call a Minority by a cruel, crude name.
There are horrible car accidents every day and people get into horrible deadly configurations with bodies smashed and bloody on the highways. It’s so unfair that none of these tragic victims are Bill Maher, the ugliest man in the world, inside and outside.
‘’Hung?’’ You know Maher is ‘’hung’’? How?
I thought this lying POS was a “libertarian”.
Now the hate-filled, ugly, talentless little Commie is pimping “socialism”.
I cannot think of a person I would less like to be than Smegma Maher.
Well maybe Al Franken...
Good anology, Bill!
As long as “government” is controlled by “socialists” he means. Because we all know that when the “evil” conservatives control the “government” then everything that “government” does is evil, wrong and “Bush's Fault”.
I find it disgusting that they could even find enough people to fill an audience that would applaud anything those four asshats said.
...in some cases government knows better than marketsHey Bill, name one.
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