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Why do so many Americans conflate communism, Marxism, socialism, liberalism, and social democracy?

QUORA: Why do so many Americans conflate communism, Marxism, socialism, liberalism, and social democracy?

I don’t know about “many” Americans, and I wouldn’t use the term conflate, but I would say that these labels, from my point of view, are all directly and strongly related.

As such, let me present these terms in their concentric (i.e., constructive) spheres of meaning.


Irrationality — the conceptual center (the vanishing point)

An irrational person believes they KNOW the truth, thus they cannot problem solve. This is the central and defining point. A problem is usually a problem because players did not previously understand the situation. In other words, the irrational person can’t really know the truth. Thus, problem-solving is out of their reach.

Problem-solvers, by contrast, reason. The rational person first seeks to understand the situation (b/c they explicitly do not KNOW). Then, they craft a responsive solution. Specifically, problem solvers are interested in solving the problem. In contrast, an irrational person begins with a solution first. They make no attempt to understand the problem. They simply believe they already know. If they take action, irrational people are interested in enacting an ideology, a utopian objective. This is the conflict we see in society today: utopian-revolution vs. problem-solving.

Marxists, leftists, the woke, and progressives are irrational. They have solutions. They know the truth. Notably, liberals (liberalism), ideally, do not ordinarily fit within this group. But, under the right circumstances, liberals might emotionally reject reason and thereby evolve to become progressives, leftists, or the woke—i.e., emotionally embracing truths or ideologies.


Marxism — exclusively, a revolutionary movement of irrational people.

Marxism divides the world into 2 groups: oppressor and oppressed. To Marxists, there is no other problem. The solution is revolution. That’s the goal. Invert the system.

Marxists think they know the truth, therefore they wish to become the oppressor to enforce it. This is how Marxism works. They are oppressed because, explicitly, they cannot reason; they cannot understand the views of another.

Communism — Irrational economic control of the population.

Communism deprives citizens of property and independence in order to keep the Marxists in charge (oppressing those that differ). Without the agreement of the individual, authoritarianism is ipso-facto oppression.

Socialism and social democracy — An evolutionary (not revolutionary like Marxism) movement to eventual authoritarian control.

Freedom is achieved when individuals act with self-reliance and self-governance. Self-reliance and self-governance are achieved through individual problem-solving (i.e., rationality). In comparison, socialism and social democracy are designed to create and grow dependence. Dependence eventually terminates individual freedom. Control, i.e., oppression, is the goal.

This is how irrationality is the vanishing point for all these terms.

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