I often see these words used interchangeably, though as I understand it there is a difference between the two ideologies, no?
I often see these words used interchangeably, though as I understand it there is a difference between the two ideologies, no?
There are many different defenitions of it, the one i go with is that in an socialist society the “means of production” (factorys and such) are run by the workers there in an democratic way. In communism the society woulf be run without states and with no money as well as there bring no classes (like workers, labdlords, politicans or bosses)
The various states that claim and claimed to be socialist or communists aren’t fulfilling these conditions as to why many people say that these aren’t examples of socialism/communism
People say that because it’s true. There is nowhere outside of a few scattered households that has ever been the platonic ideal of either communism or socialism.
Communism of a sort existed…in tribes.
I’d count those as the scattered households.
The basic idea is the same. No state needed. People function to help each other, etc.
Sorry, I’m a big David Graeber guy and he made a point to discuss this in some of his work. It exists throughout history.
I don’t know if you’re in software, but IMO communism is like agile. It works very well at small scale (which is why products from startups are good), but once a community loses autonomy and division of labor becomes a thing…it’s over.
Socialism is an attempt at SAFE (scaled agile framework for enterprise). IMO it doesn’t really work, but I do like the idea of having markets where it makes sense, and having social programs that are not profit motivated or maybe even run by the government…so basically Bernie’s position.