Unlike anyone else in the political sphere who uses this term, I am going to do two things
with the word 'socialism'. I am going to properly define the term, then I am going to actually use the term within the context of that definition. As modern as our society is, and as frequently as this term has been applied to deride the social status of wage-earning individuals, this has never been done before. So you -- YES, YOU - are bearing witness to an historical event.
Socialism is the process by which a group of people come to a consensus.
Briefly demonstrating socialism in action: Townsfolk debating whether or not to employ a cop - consensus opinion is that yes, the town needs a cop. OK, now how do WE fund the cop's employment? In many cases, the town is incorporated and the town's officers make the necessary decisions on behalf of the town.
That is it, folks. That is socialism. Socialism is nothing more than a group of people coming to a consensus agreement. It doesn't take rocket science to understand socialism. There are no added assumptions about property ownership; no funky distribution theories; no banks (yet); and for God's sake, no Libertarians, Communists, Democrats or Republicans. Socialism is just people coming together to figure out how they are going to pay for a fucking cop for their stupid, crummy town.
So who cares about socialism? Sociologists care. Who the fuck else would give a shit about the real meaning of socialism? You think Dick Cheney cares about whether or not some dinky-assed town in the middle of nowhere finds a funding source for its cop? Hell, Dick Cheney has enough money to personally own an army of cops - for their entire lives, including retirement - not that Dick Cheney would want to dispose of that cop before he (or she) reached retirement age.
So, presuming I am a sociologist, (would I actually admit it if I were??? Being a sociologist could be worse than being gay ...) and I know what socialism is. Whats next?
Well, there's different ways groups of people come to consensus. Saddam gets up and says "We're going to do it MY way!" and everyone says, "OK." That, obviously, is a dictatorial form of socialism. Then there's what happened in the 1700's right here in the US of A - "Fuck the goddammed british. We'll rule ourselves!" And a republican form of government was instituted. For you idiot children of wealthy parents, let me spell it out for you: that's R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N S-O-C-I-A-L-I-S-M.
Now that I have properly defined socialism, I have something very important to say. And that is: Our current republican form of government is degenerating into a coalition between theocratic socialism and corporate socialism.
And that is all I have to say for now.