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Quote Of The Day

"In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be. "

--William Thomson, Lord Kelvin

Congress denounces "all forms" of socialism, which implies denouncing Social Security too

Fri, 02/03/2023 - 11:59

The House yesterday by an overwhelming vote, including all Republicans and a majority of Democrats (328 for, 86 against, and 14 present), approved a resolution which, taken literally and to a logical conclusion, requires eliminating Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public roads, libraries and everything else supported by taxpayers for the common good.

The resolution cited a dozen whereases to justify denouncing socialism. Six of the twelve whereases cite atrocities, among the worst examples of man's inhumanity to man. They deserve to be denounced too. No question. And it's also true the perpetrators of said atrocities may objectively be described as socialists, and those perpetrators deserve to be denounced for those atrocities. No question.

But the conclusion of the resolution denounces socialism "in all its forms" which is as stupid as blaming American atrocities (for example American slavery, American slaughter of native Americans, American inprisonment of US citizens of Japanese descent during WWII and so on) on democracy or capitalism. Americans too have committed atrocities. Not as bad as the mass murder of millions cited in the Resolution. I'm not equating atrocities, just pointing no ideology is a shield against inhumanity.

Humans do inhuman things to each other all the freaking time, at the drop of a hat. Every nation, every society, every culture, with maybe an extraordinarily few exceptions. At first even Quakers owned slaves. Jains and the Amish are probably exceptions, but basically all our hands are red.

Caring about the welfare of our fellows, simple kindness and compassion, pitching in somehow for the common good may not be the best definition of socialism, especially in a political context. But seems to me that's spirit of the thing. Beyond that, certainly public programs like libraries and parks and highways and Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid must count as "a form" of socialism. Those things are today denounced by the House, all the Republicans and most of the Democrats. Not directly perhaps, but it's an ugly nose under the tent.

This Resolution is not the worst thing ever approved by the American Congress. Not by a large margin. But it sure as ain't the best neither.

Here's the Resolution, sans the whereases:

118TH CONGRESS, 1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 9

Denouncing the horrors of socialism.

...

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.

Full text of the resolution, including the whereases, is here:

https://www.congress.gov/118/bills/hconres9/BILLS-118hconres9ih.pdf

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