What Would US Socialism Look Like? with Bhaskar Sunkara (2/2)

1. I hope you idiots get what you want. Your kids are going to suffer for your bad choices. SOCALISM NEVER WORKS!!!! NOWHERE!!!! AND IT DEF ISN'T GOING TO WORK IN A COUNTRY OF 300 MILLION PEOPLE.

2. maybe interesting/beguiling criticism of.. "vanguardism"? the true face of the jacobin magazine? "..Assessing Che..": https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/05/cuba-che-guevara-fidel-raul-castro-communism

3. We should portray Sanders and AOC honestly. People who are committed to improving the lives of working people under a capitalist framework, but aren't of the opinion that having more radical measures taken be necessary. They are sincere, honest actors who have the potential to inspire much more.

4. This discussion is pointless, it will NEVER happen!

5. I know what I would be doing if I didn’t live in the invisible prison that is being in America. Over 90% of human potential is tamped down by our corrupt sociopathic rulers. Imagine the world we could live in.

6. US stop this nonsense about socialism and start talking about social democracy.

7. elites (gina reinhart, tiggy forrest in straya etc) hate this cos they can't walk on poor people in gutter nor force starvation wages / slavery; Capitalism Kills Humanity & Gaia

8. My concern about this discussion has to do with the idea of American exceptionalism. And Western exceptionalism more broadly. Sunkara basically dismisses actually existing socialism in places like Cuba, China and the former USSR as being the product of "violent class societies", as if the United States, the dominant capitalist power on the planet founded through imperialism and slavery, somehow doesn't fall into that category and that you can somehow get to socialism through a series of non-violent reforms instead of hard revolutionary struggle. Hence his misguided use of Sweden as an example. He doesn't seem to understand that, when it comes to the crunch, the US capitalist state will turn its guns on the American working class, just as it has done many times in the past, and working class and oppressed people will have to fight back by any means necessary as Malcolm X once said. No revolution begins violently, it only becomes violent when confronted by the much greater violence of the capitalist state. And the American capitalist state is the most violent of all.

9. So sequential. Capitalism, socialism etc. Why not make the US a melting pot of the most beautiful (uplifting) concepts from the happiest countries?

10. Identifying the merits of social democracy including its limitations within capitalism, and the desirable progression towards democratic socialism, are steps in the correct direction. Nevertheless, do not misunderstand Homo sapiens state of nature identified by evolutionary biology through tribalism, and the authoritarian psychology representative of conservatives. The biological phenomenon, organization, and imperatives of tribalism; the conservative values in militarism, religion, politics, economics, and culture; and the tribal instincts represented by authoritarian psychology; are what social theorists are up against, and why leftist and progressive movements face persistent and deeply entrenched resistance. Modern progressive theorists face a very big problem establishing momentum and overcoming resistance, because the ruling class of human tribalism and half or more of the voting constituency demonstrate preference for those conservative tribal instincts, and authoritarian psychology, and conservative values in militarism, religion, politics, economics, and culture, which are antithetical to and violent towards leftist ideology.

11. We must abolish classes. Economic equality for all!

12. Every society has socialistic and capitalistic processes. Neither is a form of government…

13. You mean what does socialism look like in America… it looks like military careerists and entrenched civil servants… it's socialism as privilege.

14. No. The question should be: "What would MORE socialism in the US look like".

15. Very fine interview/discussion! The explanation provided definitely seems very appreciable, imo anyway.

16. Manufacturing Consent .

17. If all of the resource profits went to all of the people evenly,instead of just to the rich, we would even out the income dispersement and not need a welfare state. If we went back to the Declaration of Independence, and states take back their rights we would be better off.

18. Instead of the same old weak jargon about Socialism, how about giving us some comparisons to state systems that have gotten it right. If our system functioned properly it would be exactly the same as any other hybrid economy on earth. I know people in Sweden and Denmark, etc., and the numbers aren't always this utopian American idea of Socialism. It feels like we are missing a lot of data and reference points for scale of e onomies, etc.

19. Excellent discussion. If you do a Google search "the happiest people in the world" the capitalist countries do not rate very well. I'm 66 years old and as a worker with a long history I felt chained to my job by healthcare and vacation, for if you chang employers it was like starting over, so just those two things made equal for all would be an improvement. Many are not happy in their work and would like to change but are stuck. On race, most creation myths, like in the Bible, start out with a man and a woman, so I believe in one race, the human race, and we all live on this one habitable plant which we must stop abusing, it's like drilling holes in your lifeboat and wonder why you are sinking. This "us vs them" attitude works well for the powers at be to divide us, we need to come together. I'll be ordering your your book. Thank you!

20. Corporate Democrats are Republicans, nothing is going to get done because of our corrupt voting system, welcome to the United States of Israel sponsored by Saudi Arabia and made in China✌️❤️

21. Well, where to begin. American life is in a singularly, weirdly, uniquely bad place, a place that feels like the paralytic, crippling helplessness, hopelessness, and powerlessness. (Nor do we have to debate whether Americans are “really” more stressed than Venezuelans, that’s missing the point.) The evidence is everywhere  and it’s far more voluminous now. There’s the skyrocketing suicide rate. There’s plummeting happiness. There’s collapsing trust. There’s a loss of meaning and purpose. There’s a culture of bitter cynicism. There’s the expectation the future will only get worse. There are depression and anxiety, surging like a tsunami. American life has fallen apart, my friends. No other rich country feels like this, feels so bad inside, feels so anxious, depressed, stressed, defeated . nor do much middle income or poor ones.  but a bigger picture of society, taking suicide, depression, anxiety, rage, and grief  just  suggests to me a much grimmer truth here. us Americans are something truly unique, weird, novel: we are kept artificially poor in a rich country, artificially broke in a wealthy one, and artificially powerless in a powerful one. what the hell?! Why? What produces these weird contradictions? The answer is as obvious as the problem. Capitalism does. America is the world’s most capitalist country, by a very, very long way , 75% of its economy is capitalist, compared to just 50% in Europe. Capitalism has been given free rein in America to do whatever it wants. And it turns out that what capitalism wants is, just as thinkers have long suggested, is to prey on people. The more powerless they are, the poorer they are, the more vulnerable they are  and  the more they get preyed on. whose only point is to make a mega-rich person richer, while you face possible ruin every single day? (That’s a remnant of the social Darwinism that has always ruled America. Only the strong survive! Those subhumans !  they’re weaklings and  they were meant to be our slaves. This way of thinking, of master and slave, of superior and inferior, is itself evidence of an immature, split, broken-apart personality  of one that’s never learned to value life, itself or anybody else;’s in any mature or thoughtful way.) That truth is a difficult one. Perhaps the most difficult of all. “This should never have happened to you. You were failed, and failed badly, by just those people and systems whose job it was to look after you. To nourish and to nurture you. To protect and value you. Instead, you were preyed on and abused.” yes, Then come the tears. Of Shame. Of Guilt. Of anger. Of injustice, of time forever lost, of relationships sundered, and truths never told…That river of fear is the place where our primal fears of abandonment, annihilation, and engulfment reside. They always flow through us. don't they?  America’s a place pulsing, throbbing, aching with trauma. With the visceral, omnipresent anguish and torment of the three greatest fears, human beings can have  and  re-enacted, day after day, institutionally, at school, work, university, and play. And still nobody seems to notice, and nobody seems to care. how sad, sad indeed… ~peace to us all! (more like this on my YT channel. let us learn more, shall we?)

22. Totally ridiculous, humans are not capable of functioning in a truly socialist society.

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