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Carolyn Kraft

@kraftythinking

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The “why” behind politics.
📖political theory, ethics & philosophy
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Most people use "socialist" as a catch-all term. But there are different types of socialism, and they have different views on ownership, capitalism, and how political change should happen. Here is Part 1 of a two-part series discussing a few different socialist ideologies.

State socialism calls for state ownership of the means of production and centralized economic planning. The most historically significant version is Marxist-Leninism, which adds the "vanguard party" — a revolutionary elite that guides society toward communism rather than waiting for organic revolt. The Soviet Union and Cuba are the defining examples.

Democratic socialism shares the goal of collective ownership but rejects revolution as the path to get there. It works through elections, legislation, and democratic participation, arguing that socialism and liberal democracy can coexist. Post-war Britain under Clement Attlee is the closest clean historical example.

Social democracy is pretty moderate and frequently mislabeled. It doesn't seek to replace capitalism, but instead accepts it as the economic foundation while using regulation and robust social programs to reduce inequality. The Nordic countries are the go-to examples, though how well they fit into the label is genuinely debated.

The fault line between these three isn't whether government should be involved in the economy. They all agree it should be. The real debate is how much, in what form, and whether capitalism needs to be dismantled or simply managed. by @kraftythinking

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6 months ago

The Gish Gallop is a debate tactic named after creationist Duane Gish, who would flood opponents with falsehoods and half-truths faster than they could be refuted. It works because of what's known as Brandolini's Law: the energy needed to refute a false claim is an order of magnitude greater than the energy needed to produce one.

Russia formalized this into a state-level propaganda strategy. RAND researchers identified it during the 2014 Crimea annexation and called it “firehosing.” It’s the use of a high volume of continuous falsehoods with no commitment to consistency. The goal isn't to convince, but rather to overwhelm, confuse, and destabilize.

P.S. The term "Gish Gallop" for a debate tactic cracks me up. by @kraftythinking

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5 months ago

What is the difference between a pure (or direct) democracy and a constitutional republic? Why did the Founding Fathers fear the tyranny of the majority so much?

Let's take a look at some of the thinking that went into the formation of the United States. by @kraftythinking

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8 months ago

An anarchist, libertarian, and classical liberal...what are their differences? Let's take a look.

Political theory, political philosophy, politics, ideologies, definitions. by @kraftythinking

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18 days ago

What's the difference between social anarchism and anarcho-capitalism?

Whereas both ideologies view the state as the enemy, social anarchists see capitalism as problematic as the state, and anarcho-capitalists see unfettered capitalism as the proper replacement for the problematic state. by @kraftythinking

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20 days ago

What's the difference between socialism, state corporatism, and state capitalism?

Under President Trump, the government now owns equity in around 30 different private companies. People are using a lot of different terms to label what he's doing, but what do these terms mean? This video was made in partnership with @catoinstitute. by @kraftythinking

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25 days ago

What did Ayn Rand believe, and why is she so controversial?

She developed Objectivism, a philosophical system that four main parts: (1) objective reality; (2) reason; (3) rational self-interest; (4) laissez-faire capitalism. by @kraftythinking

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a month ago

Does the United States have a duty to provide foreign aid for poorer countries? In generaly, do countries have a duty to help other countries?

Let's look at two opposing beliefs on these questions. by @kraftythinking

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a month ago

One of Karl Marx's biggest critics was a revolutionary anarchist and socialist named Mikhail Bakunin, who argued that Marx's and Engels's first phase of a communist society would lead towards authoritarian rule. He called for the complete destruction of the state in order to reach his end-goal of socialism.

This is an interesting criticism that many point to as foreshadowing for how Marxism was implemented across a variety of countries (the Soviet Union, China under Mao Zedong, etc.). While there are counters to this claim (ex. Marxism-Leninism is different than Marxism), it's worth pondering how theory becomes implemented in practice. by @kraftythinking

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Before Marx, many socialists believed capitalism could be reasoned away with persuasion and small proof-of-concept communities. They didn’t think it required a revolution. This ideology was called “utopian socialism.”
Marx and Engels thought that was naive, and coined a name for their own theory specifically to draw the contrast: "scientific socialism."

This video discusses the basics of utopian socialism, and here are some sources because this is a relatively niche topic.

Sources:
Friedrich, Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880)
Paden, Roger. “Marx’s Critique of Utopian Socialists.” Utopian Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, 2002
Encyclopedia.com, “Utopian Socialism”
Cambridge History of Science, “Utopian Socialism and Social Science” by @kraftythinking

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The Harm Principle says the state can only restrict your freedom to stop you from hurting others, which means that under this principle, laws that stop you from hurting yourself are not a legitimate basis for restriction.

This is a paid partnership with @catoinstitute , a libertarian think tank, where I discuss the various arguments around drug policy in America. While I include arguments for drug prohibition and decriminalization, I also discuss how two Cato Scholars, Doctor Jeffrey Singer and Jeffrey Miron, argue that harm reduction and legalization protect liberty and decrease harm.

Nonetheless, no matter which policy we choose, some form of harm still occurs. So, I ask you, how do you propose we weigh harm when deliberating different policy positions? by @kraftythinking

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a month ago

Peter Singer's drowning child argument claims you're morally required to save a kid in a pond if there is no comparable moral cost on your end.

He then scales that logic to global poverty: distance shouldn't change your obligation to those in other countries.

But critics push back on a question underneath the philosophy: what actually counts as a "comparable moral cost," and who decides when you've sacrificed enough? by @kraftythinking

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2 months ago