Do you consider yourself a Socialist?

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm genuinely not sure. I'm increasingly fond of socialist values and aesthetics, but when it comes to political strategy I'm still more of a social democrat (a real social democrat, not a fake, neoliberal impostor).

Didn't vote.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh, who am I kidding.

Yes, I'm a Socialist. Capitalism is a failed economic system premised on bankrupt moral premises, and sooner or later it will have to give way to a system that does a less utterly dreadful job at providing each and every member of society with the means to lead a fulfilling and prosperous life. Values like "competition" and "entrepreneurship" are barbaric relics of our basest animal instincts, and as long as they haven't been utterly crushed and destroyed humanity has no right to call itself civilized. Workers should be in control of their own destiny, and not at the mercy of a parasitic class of rent-seekers. Property is not a right, it's a privilege that the existing State structures grant far more liberally than they should. Being well-fed, well-clothed, healthy, housed in decent living conditions, and valued personally as a human being, meanwhile, are sacred, absolute and unconditional rights that said States keep making a mockery of. Owning more than a certain amount is a moral and social evil that should not be tolerated.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm genuinely not sure. I'm increasingly fond of socialist values and aesthetics, but when it comes to political strategy I'm still more of a social democrat (a real social democrat, not a fake, neoliberal impostor).

Didn't vote.

So you do not consider Social Democracy to be within the Socialist tradition? Both Attlee, Douglas and Palme considered themselves Socialists.

It's absolutely in the socialist tradition, I just wasn't sure to that respect the label applied to myself. But I've now decided it does.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Definitely NOT in the strict, Karl Marx definition of the word.

Socialism predates Marx and if anything he was fairly at odds with socialist tradition in his time.