What socialism means to me

Socialism is a political term that the right wing in America has disparaged for decades as a legacy of the Cold War and out of a love of the anarchy for the rich and entrapment of the rest that libertarian economics represents. The word has been pulled into vogue, especially on social media, this century as we have leapt into two ill-conceived and ill-executed wars, while our leaders continue to feel free to devote our wealth to the benefit of the few. To the right, at least according to their public statements, socialism is both whatever they believe was the Marxist-Leninist system of the Soviet Union and whatever is going on in this country that they do not like, be that anything grabbed out of the bag of topics that include abortion, public education, discussions about pronouns, or guaranteeing healthcare to all. This is the result of an incoherent blend of Ayn Rand and Billy Graham, but I have yet to be shown that politics generates consistency all that often.

I must admit that the left has its own share of the process of gathering together a curio shop of policies, taking among other things the same list that I gave above and standing in opposition to the right as a matter of a team sport. We get mocked as wanting the blessings of a wealthy society to be given to us for free. College students are cited as a prime illustration of this, since canceling educational debt supposedly competes in…