Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen
I don't watch any Fox News. But Sweden does have a higher degree of government control. My point was that since this seems to work well for Sweden, and since the people have democratically elected their leaders and chose to have this type of government, why do militant socialists not hold up Sweden as an example of socialism being both sustainable and compatible with democracy? Why is there always the want for dictatorship and oligarchy?
I am not exactly sure how you were able to read my comment as being pejorative. I was actually holding Sweden up as an example of functional socialism.
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I think you guys have a language problem which I would describe like this:
"Socialist" in Europe or at least in Germany is understood differently, more in the sense of someone being radical who want to overthrow any democratic form of government, like e.g. in "Socialist Republic of East-Germany", it has an almost insulting tone like "Communist pig".
Sweden, that would be "Social-Democrats" in Europe, moderate left from center, left but still mainstream, not undemocratic, more like that. To describe Sweden as a "socialist" country, that sounds just weird to Europeans because it gets misunderstood.
It is one of those little cultural gaps between the US and Europe imo.