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"Americans" is such a horrible, inaccurate generalization. I'm American and I (and many other people I know) actually are educated in social, political, and economic theory and understand what exactly socialism and communism are (and aren't). Lets stop assuming Americans are dumb.
I'm not personally assuming Americans are dumb or something similar. What I mean is that they haven't lived socialism or communism in the first person as we Europeans did and don't understand the core values of the movement. I think American society, as a whole, have put onto those word connotations that are not real because of that.
I doubt there are many (if any) 'dumb' americans on this forum. The FOSS crowd is generally above average in terms of intelligence.
I also doubt americans are any more or less stupid, on average, than europeans. However, as is said by someone else here, there is certainly a big gap between how Europeans and Americans perceive socialism and communism. Americans have been scared by news and government propaganda of socialism and communism - while the words itself already convey they are about being social and caring about community... The words simply convey a much more negative meaning in the US than in Europe. In itself that's not stupid, but I do think the view US citizens have of communism and socialsm is much further from the truth than the EU ideas about it. Moreover, they underestimate how the bad side of esp communism has already infiltrated their country and is actually being pushed by their own government (talking about the many restrictions on individual freedom).




Pretty please?
Member since:
2009-07-22
I think they are unaware of the historical context that lead to those social movements. In essence are unionist movements: workers movements asking for a fairer society.