[OFFTOPIC] Re: [svlug] Re: A little on Open Source Philosophy...

[Bevan Schroeder]

On Fri, 13 Nov 1998, Todd Martin wrote:

> They are nothing alike. Socialism is working for the good of the community
> because if you don't you go to jail and most likely die.

Ira Abramov intelligently countered:

> > excuse me for being slightly off topic, but socialism and comunism do not
> > have to end up carrying with them scare tactics and a totalitarian
> > government (which is actually the opposite from what comunism is trying to
> > achieve, a utopic ultra-democracy). please use "Soviet socialism" if you
> > are going to use the term like that.

> My opinion is they are all bad. That's my right to say so. Its also your right
> to say otherwise, but where do you get off saying I have to change my opinion on
> the matter?

No, you didn't give an opinion, you gave a definition, and it was wrong.
Go look up "socialism" or "Marx" or "Lenin" in an encyclopedia.  Communism
is not the same thing as totalitarianism, that's just what Americans have
been brainwashed to believe thanks to the McCarthy (sp?) witch-hunt era.
It's about rule by the people.  It's never been implemented correctly;  in
my opinion, it's the same thing as anarchy.  Rule by everybody == rule by
nobody, says I.
Fundamentally, any way you look at it, it's just another political
philosophy, and nothing worth getting uptight about.  Especially since
most of the beliefs held by Democrats have strong Socialist tendencies
(e.g. welfare, minimum wage...) and there are a lot of perfectly sane
Democrats in this country last I checked.  Don't badmouth Socialism unless
you're ready to badmouth them too.

Sorry to continue this offtopic thread, but seeing this kind of
witch-hunting in 1998 coming from someone other than Javilk (*duck*)
annoyed me...
And at least it's better than arguing over whether it's ok to argue over
lengths of .sigs. :)

-bevan
who
doesn't
even
use
.sigs
anyway


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