We are going to have to agree to disagree on the modern common definitions of things then. If socialism means only be definition a transitionary stage to communism then there is no meaning in people saying they are a socialist vs a communist, but clearly many people identify as socialist but not communist.
All communists are at first socialists, after all. Marx only used the word “communist” in order to take on a more radical term, it was Lenin that used socialism as a descriptor for what Marx called the “lower stage of communism” just to help make things easier to understand. There really aren’t any significant numbers of people that want to “freeze development” at socialism, among the two largest umbrellas for socialists are Marxists and Anarchists, and neither sees socialism as the final stage.
Yep, that explains a lot of people’s thought process on the Left. Since there’s a lot of overlap in terms, there’s a lot of hats you can wear without being inconsistent, depending on the context.
We are going to have to agree to disagree on the modern common definitions of things then. If socialism means only be definition a transitionary stage to communism then there is no meaning in people saying they are a socialist vs a communist, but clearly many people identify as socialist but not communist.
That sounds like you being mindlessly stubborn.
Those people are usually welfare capitalists.
All communists are at first socialists, after all. Marx only used the word “communist” in order to take on a more radical term, it was Lenin that used socialism as a descriptor for what Marx called the “lower stage of communism” just to help make things easier to understand. There really aren’t any significant numbers of people that want to “freeze development” at socialism, among the two largest umbrellas for socialists are Marxists and Anarchists, and neither sees socialism as the final stage.
Picked up this phrase from a random comment a few years ago:
Yep, that explains a lot of people’s thought process on the Left. Since there’s a lot of overlap in terms, there’s a lot of hats you can wear without being inconsistent, depending on the context.