No.
Not all misunderstandings are propaganda, but all propaganda intends to create misunderstandings.
Comment on The Dangers of Socialism they warned us about...
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 6 hours agoThe reason why socialism gets stereotyped as authoritarian is
propaganda.
Keep the government out of my Medicare!
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
You’re not wrong exactly, but propaganda rsn’t about lies it’s about emphasis.
It would be like saying “people think Mexicans immigrants are violent criminals because they often come from poverty” instead of "people think Mexican iMmigrants are violent criminals because if there is one murder committed by a Mexican immigrant in a day of a thouand murders, Fox News will spend all day talking about that immigrant.” Sure, poverty might drive someone to crime, but the perception isn’t caused by the crime, it’s caused by warping reality to exclude context of all the other crimes–ie, propaganda.
Medicare is socialism. Social Security is socialism. Tri-care is socialism. Yet, when Americans hear “socialism” they think “Soviet totalatarianism”, not those things they rely on. That is the result of propaganda.
HCSOThrowaway@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Then we agree but you wanted to frame it as us disagreeing in order to fight?
Where the propaganda comes in is implying that it’s the only way socialism can work/happen at all. The stereotyping I referred to is the propaganda. But that propaganda would have zero fuel if it wasn’t for the authoritarian regimes I referred to.
mechoman444@lemmy.world 50 minutes ago
Historically, every self-described socialist state has been authoritarian to one degree or another. China is the closest modern exception, but much of its economic growth came after it embraced market reforms and allowed significant private enterprise—features associated with capitalism.
Also, healthcare has nothing to do with whether a country is socialist or capitalist. Universal or government-funded healthcare isn’t inherently socialist. It’s simply a public policy that can exist under democracies, monarchies, capitalist economies, mixed economies, and even authoritarian states. Conflating public healthcare with socialism is a basic category error.