• DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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    29 days ago

    The next time they call you ‘Socialist’ ask them to explain how the Homestead Act wasn’t Socialism.

    • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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      28 days ago

      I’m not from the US and hadn’t heard of this. But are we arguing it WAS socialism?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts

      From my very cursory reading of the above, seems like imperialism handing out indigenous land to settlers, no?

      In conclusion, I’m saying this definitely does not look like socialism to me. Socialism is democratic control over society by the workers, and the Homestead Acts (from my cursoru understanding) don’t seem to be that. Just maybe the tiniest bit better than having massive slave operated holdings by oligarchs.

      • pedantichedgehog@sh.itjust.works
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        28 days ago

        I think that they’re implying that people likely to argue that state-controlled stores are socialist are also likely to conflate any service or good offered by the state is socialism.

        In the US, “socialism” is both demonized and the actual definition is obfuscated by right-wing (read: most) media in the same way other terms are, such as “woke”. This alienates the average person in the US from movements, policies, organizations, etc that would benefit them, from free school lunch programs to socialist representatives running on taxing the wealthy.