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2024-02-23 18:47:42
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Sami Juvonen on Nostr: npub19fcv2…aay3c It’s so weird to see Americans think there are “socialist” ...

It’s so weird to see Americans think there are “socialist” European countries.

Usually they mean the Nordic countries, who have a post-WW2 history of being often led by social-democratic parties. These parties haven’t much talked about “socialism” since the 70’s.

Let’s see.

Sweden: run by a right-wing government, largest party is far-right (not in govt, but supporting it).

Finland: run by a right-wing government of far-right and center-right parties, new president-elect is from center-right.

Denmark: govt led by social democrats with center-right and centrist parties. (Social democrats are anti-immigration here).

Norway: a petrostate run by labor and center parties.

If you think the Nordics are “socialist”, your mind has been colonized by American right-wing brain worms whose whole schtick is that government should not be accountable to people. Having a health care system that does not bankrupt citizens is not “socialism”. It’s just democracy, and a damn good investment.

Really, these countries (and the EU) take the fundamentals of the sacred marketplace much more seriously than the US. They generally try to put reins on markets to avoid them being co-opted by the most powerful actor in the arena. This is not socialism, this is a government of the people looking out for the people. America used to do this too, before laissez-faire the electric boogaloo.

Americans have been taught to think that anything a government does to regulate a marked an iota is Socialism. This is of course supposed to be automatically bad by association, but these days even the leftists have swallowed this definition.
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