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Why are people critical of democratic socialism? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 week ago by curious_beetle@lemmy.ml to c/socialism@lemmy.ml
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I am trying to understand as much as possible about socialism as well as other leftist ideologies, and looking around i’ve seen many being critical about democratic socialism, but i honestly struggle to understand why that is such a bad idea as some say. I get that it’s incompatible with ML, but it doesn’t sound so unrealistic and unreasonable to me, so… can you explain? Excuse the ignorance, but as i said socialism is a new topic for me, i mean no offense to anybody

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[-] Revolutionary_Apples@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Ew, no. There is a fundamental misunderstanding here. This is not merely an ideological nuance (although your opposition to that is weird and gross) Democratic Socialism vs MLs and Anarchists is primarily a discussion on the methods of leftist organization and action. MLs and Anarchists tend to believe that establishing socialism in the current system is impossible and so the only option is to violently remove the powers at be. Democratic Socialists, on the other hand, believe that socialism can be achieved through reform. A Democratic Socialist tells you to vote while a ML tells you to strike. That is the practical difference.

[-] chobeat@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 week ago

the decision of what's possible or impossible shoudln't be done through ideological discourse but through empirical practice. Ideologies are not tools for strategic development and they should stop being treated as such.

[-] RiverRock@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

the decision of what’s possible or impossible shoudln’t be done through ideological discourse but through empirical practice

I agree with this. However, It has now been almost two hundred years of empirical practice, and the data is in.

[-] chobeat@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago

yeah, we know that the conditions on which these practices developed don't exist anymore, the context keep shifting and anything that is conceptually stable for more than a decade probably is unfit to create the change we need.

[-] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 week ago

A Democratic Socialist tells you to vote while a ML tells you to strike.

Huh? Democratic socialists tell you to do both. My local DSA has a Labor Working Group which works closely with [EWOC](http://www..com/ https://workerorganizing.org/) to encourage unionizing and striking. Just last week I personally helped organize a workshop on unions, including discussions about historical and contemporary strikes.

What makes you think democratic socialists don't want to help you strike?

this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2026
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